How to Create a Shop on Whatsapp ?
In 2018, WhatsApp launched the WhatsApp Business App, allowing businesses to leverage the platform to communicate with their potential customers and share messages with a wide audience.
The platform has 2+ billion active users and is used in over 100 countries, and India alone has an estimated 390 million Whatsapp users.
WhatsApp for business has been used widely by B2C companies, with ecommerce brands gaining the most positively, leveraging the platform for overall business operations.
WhatsApp can be used for the entire operational lifecycle, from targeted marketing to order placement and transactions, providing a single channel for communication and performing operations.
Of late, WhatsApp is becoming an even more powerful channel for businesses for its marketing, sales, and customer support operations.
It has added features over the years, like verified business accounts, shopping buttons, catalogs, business APIs, and payment options, making it a powerful tool for any ecommerce business looking to improve its customer experience.
In a day and age where customer experience and support can make or break businesses, a whatsApp ecommerce Store can be just the game changer that your business needs.
To help you make this transition, here is a look at what you can do by creating a WhatsApp ecommerce store and gaining insights to know how to create a shop on WhatsApp.
What is a WhatsApp Store?
Before understanding what a WhatsApp ecommerce store is all about, let’s first touch upon the basics.
A WhatsApp store is part of a brand’s conversation commerce offering.
Conversational commerce is a new way for online retailers to grow their business and can be further automated using voice assistants, chatbots, and other automated messaging solutions. It ensures that the communication to the customer is helpful, relevant, and quick, creating a faster conversion through the sales funnel.
A WhatsApp store is nothing but a business that supports end-to-end operations using WhatsApp as the medium of communication. It is ideal for medium and small-sized businesses to create a direct connection with the customer and leverage conversational shopping techniques to their fullest.
It ensures that businesses create a 1-1 relationship with the customer, providing highly personalized and relevant communication, which most customers are looking for today.
WhatsApp shopping offers some great opportunities for ecommerce brands to capitalize on, such as:
- 100 billion messages on WhatsApp are shared daily (2020)
- The average time spent on WhatsApp averages 18.6 hours per month (2020)
- A total of 50 million businesses use the WhatsApp Business application, with 15 million of these being Indian businesses (2020)
- WhatsApp Business has a 99% open rate, better than any API messenger, and users replied to 40% of the messages sent by businesses (2021)
So, if you’re thinking of leveraging digital mediums to improve your customer retention and overall digital experiences, WhatsApp for Business is a surefire way to gain success. It is also widely used by most ecommerce brands already.
If you are not making use of this channel or do not have a WhatsApp store in 2022, you are losing out on several key opportunities.
How to create a whatsapp ecommerce store & start selling ?
Now that we’ve touched upon all there is to know about chat commerce, here’s the process to create a WhatsApp shop in a few simple steps.
Step 1: Download the whatsapp business app
To create a WhatsApp shop, you need to first download the WhatsApp Business app. This is different from the normal WhatsApp chat messenger, as it allows you access to its business-specific features.
You can easily download it from the Play Store or App Store, depending on the device you are using.
Note: Although the Business app is different from Messenger, your customers won’t need to download the Business app to communicate with you. In fact, for the customer, the entire user interface and experience will be just like talking to any other contact on WhatsApp.
Step 2: Create a whatsapp business profile
Once you have downloaded the app, you can create your unique business profile on the platform. For the business profile, you will have to do the following:
- Open WhatsApp Business > Click on the Menu button > Go to Settings > Company Settings > Profile
- In Profile, select the edit option
- Edit the fields like our business name, business description, profile picture, business contact number, business email, and the business website (if available)
- Save Changes and exit.
Your WhatsApp Business Profile is now ready, and you can even get your profile verified. The verified badge is a green checkmark at the end of your Business Name.
This ensures your brand name is visible to the customer even if they haven’t stored your number. Plus, it creates a sense of trust and ease for the shopper, as they will be more likely to shop from you.
Step 3: Set the open time and create a welcome message
Once your profile is set up, make sure you also add your business details, such as:
- The timings of your business - when customers can message you. Having fixed opening hours provides clarity to your customers about when they can reach out to you.
- A welcome message for your customers - which will be the first message that is shared with any customer when they contact you.
- A message of absence - for when customers message you outside business hours.
- Also, set up templates for quick answers so you can handle multiple customer queries and don’t have to type each message.
Step 4: Integrate your whatsapp business profile with the aasaan app
This is one small step that you should take to ensure that all your WhatsApp chats and operations are integrated with your ecommerce store.
You can expect a low volume of messages if you’re just starting out. However, as your business grows, you will also have to deal with a massive barrage of messages and customer queries, which need to be handled via a proper user interface.
To ensure that your messages can be easily tracked with your aasaan ecommerce store, integrate and connect the application using the WhatsApp Cloud API.
You can use the Cloud API to implement WhatsApp Business and manage all your operations with the single ASAAN app interface. To do this, you can either visit the ASAAN integrations page or watch the tutorial here
Step 5: Start Selling and Manage Incoming Chats
Once these steps are completed, you can start chatting with your potential customers and selling your products or services using WhatsApp.
You can use the same chat for your marketing messages, personalized selling, and managing communications with customers on their orders. .
Related: How to Create WhatsApp Channels: A step-by-step guide
What are the Benefits of Using WhatsApp Business for Your ecommerce store?
The main purpose of a WhatsApp store is to help you communicate efficiently with your target audience and build a loyal community using targeted and specific customer outreach. This can help your brand in several ways, such as:
1. Speed Up Customer Lifecycle Conversion Rate
Messaging your customer on WhatsApp creates a fast-track sales process, as you can use the same channel for your acquisition, engagement, and conversion.
With a personalized and accessible approach, your customer interactions will be effective and quick, making the journey from generating a lead to closing the deal equally fast.
Customers can not just get valuable information to make a purchase but also get timely notifications once they have made a purchase, such as order dispatch, time to delivery, and other details.
Overall, a WhatsApp store improves the quality of customer interactions, and this quickness can help ecommerce stores avert negative feedback or delay, which can otherwise damage their online reputation.
2. Reduce Cart Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges faced by any ecommerce store and mainly stems from indecisiveness on the buyer’s side. As per data, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.99% as of 2022, and it can be one of the biggest issues since it brings an abrupt halt in the buyer journey.
A gentle nudge or feedback can help reduce the rate of cart abandonment, and WhatsApp ecommerce is a great way to reach out to this customer. You can send our reminders or exciting offers to the customer, gently pushing them to make the purchase.
3. Quick Customer Support and Issue Resolution
The convenience of WhatsApp also has its benefits, especially when there are challenges or issues that the customer is facing.
Within the same chat window, the customer can quickly raise an issue regarding their purchase. This helps your support team make quick decisions since they can get the customer’s entire history, such as purchase details and other relevant information, in seconds.
This information reduces the usual back-and-forth conversation that most customers find irritating and help the support staff provide relevant and actionable responses.
Customers love WhatsApp ecommerce stores because of personalized and highly convenient issue resolution methods. Plus, data shows that 75% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand with messaging or chat support rather than just a calling option.
4. Create Upselling and Cross-Selling Opportunities
A WhatsApp ecommerce store is a great channel for upselling and cross-selling opportunities, as there is a higher chance a customer will purchase from you if they have already had a positive experience with your brand.
Cross-selling allows you to make your existing customer a potential target for another product or service you are offering.
For example, say you have a clothing brand that has a WhatsApp shop. If your customer has already purchased a t-shirt from you, you can provide suggestions for jackets or jeans that will complement the purchased product.
These specific suggestions ensure that the chances of making a sale are higher, and the customer will also appreciate the after-sale service that they are receiving.
Using the chat feature, you can proactively connect with your customers about deals, discounts, and personalized recommendations that you may have, creating a highly efficient distribution channel.
5. Build Customer Loyalty
Chat commerce ensures you can get personal and provide accurate recommendations to your customers, getting to know them on a 1-1 level. This helps create a positive experience for the customer, as they can get the relevant information without getting out of their comfort zone.
Thus, conversational commerce or a WhatsApp store is the ideal platform to build a loyal customer base. By taking special care of your customers, you don’t just get loyal customers who will want to buy from you frequently but also make them your brand advocates.
Conclusion:
If you are serious about exploring the world of conversational shopping and making it easy for your customers to buy from you, the WhatsApp ecommerce store is the best way to get started.
These tips will help you get started with your WhatsApp shop and help you communicate effectively with your existing and potential customers.
While WhatsApp For Businesses helps you create your business profile and reach out to your customers, there is much more to managing an ecommerce store.
Growing an ecommerce business requires a lot of patience and organization, which is tough, especially when you start getting multiple orders.
To help you navigate this path easily and manage all your logistics and other operations, the aasaan app is the perfect place to get started.
Our app is built for first-time entrepreneurs to sell products on WhatsApp and other distribution channels effortlessly. It allows you to develop a brand and grow your business in a cost-effective manner while including several APIs to ensure that you can manage all the operations through a single dashboard.
Download the aasaan app today for free and set up your own online conversational commerce business using WhatsApp as the primary communication channel.
