With over 2 billion users globally, WhatsApp has become the most prominent application for communication.
For businesses, this presents a lucrative opportunity to promote their products and services at scale for potentially a fraction of traditional marketing costs.
If you own an e-commerce business, WhatsApp Marketing could help you reach a much larger audience. Better yet, there is a fairly good chance that your competition may already be leveraging the platform to drive their sales and grow market share.
So, why should you use WhatsApp for eCommerce? What cambodia mobile phone number list are the benefits of WhatsApp marketing for eCommerce? Do you need WhatsApp Business or WhatsApp Business API eCommerce? This article answers all your questions.
Table of Contents
How WhatsApp for eCommerce Works
Benefits of Using WhatsApp for eCommerce
WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business, or WhatsApp API?
Setting Up WhatsApp for eCommerce
Adding WhatsApp Chat Widget & WhatsApp Chat Button to Your ECommerce Store
How WhatsApp for eCommerce Works
You can integrate WhatsApp into your eCommerce business through the WhatsApp Business API. You need to submit your business details to a WhatsApp Business Solutions Partner, such as DelightChat, and we shall do the rest. You can check out our WhatsApp Business API pricing here.
WhatsApp for eCommerce works by enhancing the customer experiences for your buyers. It does so by streamlining their communication with their favourite brands via the WhatsApp communication platform and personalising their interaction with the company.
Leveraging the Power of Conversational Commerce
Conversational commerce is an upcoming trend in e-commerce where businesses sell products and/or interact with their customers through instant messaging and related technology.
Simply put, it combines messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger with online shopping (e-commerce).
With WhatsApp Business API, your customers can reach out to you with their queries in real-time. This is more convenient for them as opposed to sending an e-mail or dialling a phone number only to wait on IVR.
While you as a business can simplify customer support by tracking your customers’ messages in one place, assigning them to customer support agents, broadcasting promotions to an unlimited number of users, automating abandoned cart recovery, and more.
In case your eCommerce business uses multiple channels for customer support such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, E-mail, Live Chat, etc., you may benefit from leveraging DelightChat’s omnichannel customer support.
Personalised Customer Support
Through WhatsApp Business API, you can provide personalised customer support to your buyers.
Customers are more likely to appreciate one-to-one interactions with their brands as opposed to automated responses. A study by McKinsey claims that 71% of customers demand personalised interactions, and 76% feel frustrated if they don’t receive it with regards to their purchases.
WhatsApp API enables you to answer your customers’ queries personally in real-time which may inspire brand loyalty and help in customer retention for your business in the long term.
Automated Notifications and Responses
With WhatsApp Business API, you can automate sending outbound alerts (automated notifications). This may prove useful on occasions such as when a sale is announced, or when a specific product requested by the customer is now available in stock.
However, you can also send automated notifications for other issues such as account updates, payment updates, shipping updates, issue resolution etc., as well.
DelightChat simplifies the process of automated messaging and notifications for your eCommerce business by compiling 25 Best WhatsApp Business Message templates across various categories.
Benefits of Using WhatsApp for eCommerce
In 2019, WhatsApp crossed 400 million (40 crores) users in India. So, regardless of your nature of business, there is a good chance that your customers may use WhatsApp too, and perhaps frequently so. As such, there are several advantages of using WhatsApp for eCommerce for business owners.
Stronger Customer Relationships
WhatsApp has changed the way people communicate, and as a business, you must identify your customers’ preferred communication channels.
In 2022, people are more accustomed to messaging each other over WhatsApp as opposed to emailing or calling them.
So, they may prefer the same when communicating about their purchases and/or orders.
According to a Meta survey, 67% of buyers said that they plan to spend more on brands reaching out to them via conversational channels like WhatsApp, while 53% said they are more likely to purchase from brands they can communicate directly with.
Using WhatsApp for eCommerce lets your customers directly message your business and receive personalised responses. This may make them feel valued and hence could result in stronger customer relationships and higher customer retention for your brand.
Protect Customers’ Privacy
WhatsApp provides end-to-end encryption, meaning that your customers’ information is safe from unauthorised parties.
This is particularly important when payment or transaction-related details are shared over the channel.
Additionally, your customers too may prefer communicating over a secure channel that prevents their data from being compromised.
Increased Convenience and Accessibility
Communicating with your seller/brand should not feel tedious.
Given that the majority of people use WhatsApp for their day-to-day communications, using WhatsApp for eCommerce makes it easier for your customers to contact you about their purchases.
Instead of sending an e-mail or calling an IVR number, it is more convenient for buyers to send a WhatsApp message inquiring about their shipment.
Hence, switching to WhatsApp for eCommerce makes your company’s customer support more accessible to customers.
Streamlined Customer Experience
With WhatsApp marketing for eCommerce, you can streamline your customer experience.
WhatsApp Business API (provided by DelightChat) offers several features such as abandoned cart recovery which increases recovery rates by automatically sending persuasive message copy to customers, automatic updates regarding their purchase, shipping, payment, delivery, etc. sent to their WhatsApp accounts directly, etc.
Simply put, using WhatsApp Business API eCommerce makes the customer experience for your buyers easier, more convenient, and more interactive.
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