Selling on messaging is massive in China but perhaps less so in the UK but it’s growing and growing fast. It’s tedious to exchange multiple messages and photos to get product information so WhatsApp streamlined the ability to sell products and services businesses with the of catalogues in the WhatsApp Business app. Now today, they’ve released two new features to make it even easier.
Why might you want to sell on WhatsApp? Well if you have a customer contact you through messaging, which is becoming increasingly more common, it surely makes sense that you can immediately show them a product or range of products and that your customer can make an instant purchase right there in the messaging platform. Send them a link to your website and you lose the attention and risk losing a sale that you could have closed then and there.
A recent survey discovered that 68% of adults globally are more likely to do business with or purchase from a company that they can contact via messaging than one that they cannot, these updates make it even easier for people and businesses to buy and sell right on WhatsApp
New WhatsApp Business selling features
So what’s new with WhatsApp Business today – you’ll find the WhatsApp catalogue is now available to you and a new feature to hide products which have gone out of stock:
- Managing a catalogue from WhatsApp web/desktop
WhatsApp catalogues are a great way to discover products and services. Today, you can browse more than 8 million business catalogues on WhatsApp, with the feature enabling businesses to easily showcase and share what they offer. To make the experience even simpler, WhatsApp Business now provides businesses the ability to create and manage their catalogue from WhatsApp web/desktop rather than just their mobile phone. Details on how to create and manage a catalogue from WhatsApp web/desktop can be found here and this feature is now available for all WhatsApp Business app users.
- Hiding unavailable items
Carts on WhatsApp were introduced during the Christmas shopping season last year so people could browse a catalogue, select multiple products and send the order as one message a business. But businesses have told WhatsApp Business that they needed an easy way to let customers know what’s currently available, so they don’t get orders for items that are out of stock. That’s why WhatsApp are now giving them you option to “hide” specific items from your catalogue and easily show them again when they’re available again.
You can learn how to hide items in your catalogue here and this feature is beginning to roll out to businesses around the world starting today.
