With its whopping 2.5 billion users, WhatsApp Business API has emerged as the go-to platform for millions of e-commerce brands when it comes to interacting with their customers. The fact that people now prefer to message businesses to ask questions about a product before deciding on a purchase, and invariably prefer brands that have a messaging option available, has worked in WhatsApp’s favour. The WhatsApp Business platform works not only because the app is deeply embedded in people’s daily habits but because of its many business-friendly features that parent company Meta keeps adding to it from time to time. These features have improved the shopping flow and made the channel more efficient for customer outreach. Some of WhatsApp’s great features that make it an indispensable tool for e-commerce are:
This feature enables brands to display their range of products to customers on WhatsApp. Customers can easily view the product catalogue when they click on a brand’s WhatsApp Business profile. They can press the shopping button next to the business name to access their catalogue. Also, the business can drop a selected item link or share the entire catalogue link with customers in the middle of an ongoing WhatsApp chat. They can share detailed product descriptions – along with high-quality images, prices, product descriptions, product codes, and website links. Catalogue sharing leads to greater inquiries and sales. Customers can tap MESSAGE BUSINESS to ask about the product. They can add products to cart and place orders, all within WhatsApp.
Currently, add up to 500 products can be added to a catalogue. Brands should regularly update their catalogues with visually appealing pictures and interesting products to convert their impressions into profit.
Businesses typically have many incoming queries of the same nature. Agents need to answer the same questions again and again, wasting precious time that could be better spend resolving more complex queries. Also, customers often get in touch outside of business hours and expect responses from business. Quick replies are a great feature that solve these problems. They are automated responses a brand can create to respond to frequently asked questions. They can also be in the form of welcome messages, away messages, shop opening hours, locations, thank you notes, etc. Up to 50 quick responses can be created and stored at a time.
Quick replies help brands save time and resources while providing a great customer service.
List messages are a great way for a brand to share up to 10 menu options customers can choose from based on their needs (be it store addresses, delivery options, and so on). This reduces the need for them to have long chats with a brand in order to be able to express what they want. They can simply reply with their chosen option. Lists are highly versatile and can be used for a variety of purposes.
It must be noted that list messages cannot be used as notifications and can be shared only within the 24-hour window of the last messaged shared by a customer. Also, customers can only pick one option from among those provided.
This feature was introduced by WhatsApp back in 2020. These buttons nudge customers to take a desired action (place order, contact support, etc.) with a single click. A business can use up to two interactive CTA buttons, or up to three Quick Reply buttons so customers don’t need to type in their responses and only need to click on the option they want to select, speeding up things. Some examples of CTAs are – CALL NOW, VISIT WEBSITE, TRACK ORDER, etc. These buttons can be text only, or can be accompanied by an image, documents, videos, and so on. These one-touch interactive systems are great for feedback collection as well, as customers are more likely to respond when all they need to do is to click once. These messages are template messages that need to be preapproved by WhatsApp. Brands can share appropriate interactive messages based on the stage of journey their customers are at.
By automating WhatsApp conversations via use of chatbots, a brand can achieve three goals – respond to customers instantly, minimize call volumes, and optimize operations at their contact center by enabling a much lower number of agents to provide a much better service, effectively reducing costs. A bot can be trained to answer routine queries about a brand’s product, payment options, return & refund policies, etc. It can also be trained to independently process requests for routine tasks like updating addresses, answering order status-related queries, requesting changes to orders, etc. By integrating their chatbot with a chat center like edna’s, brands can automatically route queries to the most suitable agent and ensure seamless chat transfers from bots to humans when the queries get trickier.
Broadcasts are business-initiated, templatized messages that a business can send to hundreds of thousands of their customers simultaneously. They can be only text based or contain images, videos, dynamic links, and CTAs. They are usually used for marketing purposes but can also be used to share important updates and announcements. Broadcasts can be used to share product launch invites, product recommendations, recover abandoned carts, share restock alerts, cross-sell and up-sell, and reactivate customers. Learn more about them here
This feature helps brands organize their chats under different heads. Customers keep sending in a variety of messages – return requests, complaints, post-sales service requests, and more. To speed up customer service, WhatsApp allows brands to label them under different heads so that the agents can pick them up in an orderly way. Labels can also be added to customers, for example, new customers, existing customers, customers interested in particular items, etc. and they can be targeted with relevant messaging depending on where they are in their customer journeys. Both the WhatsApp Business API as well as the WhatsApp API have the provision of labels.
Meta is also gradually taking steps to enable customers to make payments via netbanking, credit/debit cards, UPI and third-party payment apps, all within WhatsApp. Its also testing to see how businesses can get themselves listed in a directory, unlocking greater opportunities for e-commerce brands.
