25 Nov WhatsApp Commerce for Brands: All you need to know

Talk organized by Renous Consulting on July 4th, 2020 between Aakrit Vaish, CEO Haptik and Varun Dhingra, CEO Renous Consulting.

WhatsApp commerce launched in February 2018 allows new means to sell and offer products and services to customers directly. As a brand/business using WhatsApp API or business interface, one can build technology, services, catalogue such that end value proposition is one phone number, which can be distributed amongst customers. After website and mobile app, the third major platform is business WhatsApp number.

Let’s understand the whole analogy of platform and ecosystem. Just like App Store is the platform for mobile apps, WhatsApp is the platform and ecosystem is something that needs to be built on top of that, by investing in technology and resources. Out of 10 websites a consumer uses, 4 are easy to use, 3 are difficult and 3 are not user friendly. WhatsApp platform is a new platform, so businesses have to think about the best way to build their set up. They have to decide upon AI capabilities to be plugged in, what payment methods to provide, ways to make it more user friendly, etc.

Being a messaging app, customer care is the most naturally added business on WhatsApp. Adoption of same we noticed last year. In the next phase, we will see a lot of e-commerce and hyperlocal offerings. After that, another phase will be nonhyperlocal offerings like apparel and later on gradually all types of services like CA or lawyer services will be adopted.

If this WhatsApp platform and whole ecosystem is successful, then mom-and-pop stores and small & medium business will not need a website or mobile app to run their business. They will need a WhatsApp channel to facilitate the transaction and also to build and enable that channel will become as easy as setting up a templatized website.
The first step to start with WhatsApp platform is set up the account and get a number. Second, to circulate WhatsApp number marketing activities needs to be carried out. The best and the easiest way is to put the number in various WhatsApp groups. Also, businesses can mention the WhatsApp number during regular communication, like messaging or one to one conversation, with their customers. WhatsApp groups and WhatsApp communication are the best way to market the number to attract business.

Businesses can publicize number to customers by carrying out marketing activities like putting on the packaging or putting it at different places such that customers can read. Customers can place the order over chat and their order can then be delivered by the business. Any person can transact in WhatsApp commerce even if the number is not saved.

If a seller has to follow some government or RBI guidelines, it needs to be followed on the WhatsApp platform also like the signing of payment gateway, etc.

Small business with revenue of INR 20K-30K per month like designers, bakeries are already operating in an unorganized way. In future, as the businesses will scale, this sector will also become organized.

You can have WhatsApp personal and business on the same phone but practically it will be difficult to manage. It is recommended to have 2 devices. To manage WhatsApp on PC there are third-party applications available in the market such as Haptik.

Haptik started in 2013, as a direct to consumer mobile assistant. To scale their business, they later pivoted B2B, and used their technology to enable the existing ecosystem rather than creating a parallel ecosystem. In 2019, Reliance acquired majority stakeholding in the company, and Haptik is now a part of Jio Platforms Ltd.

Customer acquisition to WhatsApp channel will be easier for many obvious products and services. For non-obvious but better, it will be harder and merchants or brands will have to invest in other channels to acquire users. The brand and companies have to analyse which channel or platform will suit them better – website, mobile app, and/or WhatsApp. They have to analyse where to invest their marketing dollars.

WhatsApp status, which is not used by many, is a great marketing tool. In WhatsApp status, the business or brand can start putting current offers, current promotions and aspects about business. As the platform matures, there will be ways wherein customers can buy what he sees in the status of the business.

Marketing push or Organic Growth: To scale the WhatsApp platform, it is required sellers to be active and have transactions and conversations. WhatsApp as a platform will start providing discovery mechanism very soon and Haptik as an ecosystem partner will also start providing. In the next 6-9 months, there will be lots of updates regarding the same.

WhatsApp Suitability: WhatsApp is not suited for complex purchases or the things that require a lot of decision making like television, car. These businesses can use WhatsApp platform for lead generation or as a marketing tool. This platform will suit more for daily frequent purchases.

E-Commerce Scams: WhatsApp provides a new front-end application; however, e-commerce scams and quality of the product depends on the quality of merchant and quality of delivery service.

Data Security: WhatsApp data is always encrypted which means nobody, including WhatsApp, can see the conversation. They have applied the same philosophy to businesses and brands. As a brand when setting up an account with WhatsApp, one needs to go through different setup modality to ensure conversations are encrypted.

Analytics: Companies like Haptik and others may provide you access to data analytics of what is selling, etc. Analytics of conversation is not possible because of the encryption but analytics about orders, customers, phone number, location, etc. can be provided.

WhatsApp features: WhatsApp by design is going very slow with this entire commerce roll out. After two years of WhatsApp commerce launch, there are not many businesses, because they are very carefully trying to measure how this works and they’re being very careful about the bloating of the features, spam notification, etc. Eventually, the app will have a lot more features. It will look bloated from where it is today. But the gradual development will be in a way where one will hardly notice and secondly customers will find it extremely valuable.

WhatsApp currently wants to stay away from ads and close to commerce. That is the reason there are no ads on this platform.

Rate and Review feature: WhatsApp currently do not have the feature to rate and review the product, however eventually there will be an option to rate and review products.

When you are buying from WhatsApp seller, you are buying from a brand, hence personalized recommendation is slightly less important. It will be just shifting through specifications and price. Eventually, there will be ways to get comparison and recommendation like provision of consumers buying data, etc.

Escalation: As the WhatsApp platform medium is interaction, customer support can be done instantly. While facing an issue message can be instantly sent which further can be handled by a live agent or customer service chatbot.

WhatsApp Charges: WhatsApp will be a marketplace where there will be sellers and buyers, and seller needs to promote their number to their customers. In platforms like Amazon and Flipkart sellers pay significant cut so promotion is not required. At present WhatsApp does not charge but in future, they may charge commission. It may not be high as 20-25% as it is not an ecommerce site. They may create an A-la-Carte package of all their features selected by the business like currently, they are charging 30 paise for sending outbound notifications.

Haptik aims to be WordPress of the WhatsApp platform. They do not want a percentage in a transaction rather a monthly fee for providing the software layer to create WhatsApp shop.

WhatsApp Pay: WhatsApp has a bigger distribution channel than others. Once the WhatsApp Pay becomes mass, everybody will use it because it is like using any other UPI and available on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is going to be the next big channel because it will allow users to create a community. It will allow businesses to build a direct to Consumer experience.