Meta has been making some big bets recently. The Metaverse grabbed all the headlines a few months ago and Threads is the PR darling today, but besides the glitz and the glamour of these apps, is a workmanlike application that is simply going about the business of doing business almost unnoticed; WhatsApp.
As of January 2023, two billion users were accessing WhatsApp Messenger on a monthly basis. (according to Statistica). While all the media focus is on traditional social media platforms or the Threads newbie, way more folks are picking up their phone to respond to that little green icon. It’s a safe bet that includes your customers and potential customers.
True, there are a few that have a Meta privacy aversion, I have a chum that insists on using Signal, and he’s the only contact I have on there, WhatsApp is almost ubiquitous.
As a business, you may feel like this is just chattering between chums and not something you should intrude on. Are these stats really relevant in the business of doing business? Well, yes.
A survey commissioned by Facebook (quoted in Business Insider) found that more than half (53%) of customers said they’re more likely to shop with a business that they can contact via a chat app.
And suppose we narrow this down to mobile commerce, where most of our WhatsApp conversations happen. In that case, Statistica believes that in 2025, more than ten percent of all retail sales in the US are expected to be generated through our devices.
Narrow this further to Conversational Commerce, where consumers are not just getting support or help from webchat but actually purchasing through messaging apps (like WhatsApp), texts and chatbots, Juniper Research has found that the total spend over conversational commerce channels will reach $290 billion by 2025.
It’s compelling and while we may not see rich shopping experiences in WhatsApp from retailers in Europe and North America quite yet, if success across Asia is anything to go by, a “buy now” button will soon be part of our WhatsApp experience.
Once pinged with a juicy offer, a coupon or a reminder that it’s time to reorder the toilet paper, we may never need to leave the app.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today, the low-hanging fruit of WhatsApp in commerce is in customer service and marketing.
Despite the stats demonstrating the huge adoption of WhatsApp, that your customers are there and prefer this channel to phone or email, it’s often tough for organisations to add another channel to their already tightly run customer service. Go on, give it a go – wander into your contact centre and suggest more channels; you’ll risk witnessing an eye roll so violent it could lead to blindness.
Yet, the results coming from case studies from organisations that are adopting WhatsApp, (especially if hooked up to an intelligent chatbot that can handle standard enquiries) are making a strong case that rather than an additional headache, there are efficiency savings to be made that could have you being greeted with open arms by your customer service teams.
Our client, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, which is the highest circulation daily newspaper in the Netherlands, improved their customer service and reduced the number of enquiries handled by agents by 23% when they implemented WhatsApp, supported by an intelligent chatbot. But it’s not just our clients; according to a WhatsApp case study, Saudi Arabian postal firm SPL claims a customer service efficiency saving of 54% by implementing a WhatsApp digital assistant.
In marketing, the measures of success are based on engagement, open rates and click-thru and again, the numbers don’t lie; open rates for email range from 25% to 40% (on a good day) and WhatsApp claims an average open rate of 98%.
In eCommerce, French supermarket chain Carrefour seems to be the poster child here. According to Meta, nearly 45 percent of people who receive Carrefour’s digital catalogue through WhatsApp open it each week and engage with it for an average of three minutes—compared to only ten per cent who engage through email.
But that’s enough of the numbers for a moment; for marketing and customer service, especially in B2C eCommerce, it’s clear WhatsApp should be part of the marketing and customer experience channel mix. The people are there, indeed it’s their preferred way to chat rather than speak to you and your campaigns will cut through the noise.
Unlike a blast of email or a shot in the dark retargeting social ad, a WhatsApp message is personal and good marketers can make them personalised, building that true 1:1 marketing experience that marketers have striven for since Don Peppers and Martha Rogers predicted as our future in the early 90’s.
WhatsApp is ready for commerce, but are you ready for WhatsApp?
Ian Truscott, Chief Marketing Officer, Spotler Group