WhatsApp is now the most popular messaging platform in the world. It now has 1.5 billion users across 180 countries with 1 billion actively using it daily. These make WhatsApp a potential marketing medium. Today, WhatsApp rolls out new business features.
In the past few months, WhatsApp has been introducing new tools for brands and businesses. These include Facebook Pay, Messenger Rooms, QR Codes, and Stickers. The new business features on WhatsApp are as follows:
- Business Sales. WhatsApp brands and businesses can now integrate eCommerce websites on their account. The platform also offers paid business services to help them monetize content.
- Hosting Services. In partnership with business solution providers, WhatsApp will be allowing hosting services to brands and businesses. Such services can help them connect to their customers, keep shop inventories up-to-date, and sell products.
- Shopping. Users can now see store catalogs in chats. Through integrated Shops, they can add items to a cart, place an order, and checkout. They’ll also receive a faster response to any inquiry.
WhatsApp rolls out these new business features as of 22 October 2020.
Implications for Marketers:
The new business features on WhatsApp is a significant move to bring eCommerce on the messaging platform. Marketers should take note of such changes as WhatsApp is a dominant platform for developing a market. It will be easy to build campaigns on the platform as they are patterned with Facebook’s standards.
Reference: https://blog.whatsapp.com/shopping-payments-and-customer-service-on-whatsapp
