How to enhance customer experience in retail with WhatsApp

Changing customer tastes, global demographic shifts, and globalization are only some of the challenges retailers have faced in the last couple of years. As millennials take over with increased purchasing power, expectations have shifted from one-time in-store transactions to always-on online experiences.

In fact, 35% of consumers claim they are happier to engage with brands on digital channels since the pandemic hit and 49% of millennials say they prefer to use WhatsApp and chat apps to communicate with businesses.

Here we highlight how you can enhance your retail customer experience using the world’s most popular chat app, WhatsApp, on one of the most secure cloud networks, Microsoft Azure.

The average WhatsApp user spends approximately 20 hours per month on the app – making it an ideal channel for businesses that want to reach customers. Here’s how you can use WhatsApp and its various features to keep retail customers informed and engaged – from onboarding to retention.

WhatsApp makes it easy for brands to turn mundane everyday conversations into interactive experiences. Choose from a variety of rich media options and message types to craft enticing welcome messages for new customers.

Interactive buttons enable you to provide next-step options to customers who just signed up for your service, newsletter, or loyalty program. This message type lets you provide link options to guide customers further along their purchasing journey – bringing them one step closer to checkout.

>>Learn more about how to use interactive buttons

Example of using WhatsApp interactive 
buttons in a welcome message 

Videos are another way to upgrade your onboarding experience. Create short teaser videos of your new collection, seasonal promotional items, or new loyalty rewards to keep your customers informed and engaged.

Whether a customer abandoned their cart or is waiting for an item to be restocked – WhatsApp buttons are an easy way to bring them back to your website or store.

Send back-in-stock notifications that prompt customers to visit your website or contact your associates to purchase the item they’ve been waiting for.

Example of using WhatsApp call-to-action buttons
for back-in-stock notifications

If a customer abandoned their cart, send them a reminder letting them know their item is still available and that they can complete their purchase using the link provided in your message.

WhatsApp’s rich media features are what make the chat app a channel of choice for most businesses and their customers. With the option to send different file formats including documents, videos, images, and locations, businesses can share all the information customers need instantly and in one place.

For retailers, WhatsApp makes it easy to send e-receipts, process payments and refunds, and inform customers about loyalty points and membership statuses.

Example of sending an e-receipt in
combination with quick reply buttons on WhatsApp

Upgrade your delivery experience by keeping customers up to date in real-time – from when they made the purchase to when the package is delivered. Enable them to change their delivery address or other key information for a personalized experience.

Example of a customer changing
their delivery address via a WhatsApp chatbot

Customers today are always looking for new ways to get in touch with their favorite brands. Whether to ask a question, get information on current promotions, or to request a refund, it’s important for every retailer to be reachable and available on the channels customers use most.

With WhatsApp, you can respond to customer-initiated conversations for free within 24 hours of the first message being sent. This makes it easy to provide quick, conversational support, get instant feedback, and resolve issues in an economical way.

Here are the most popular ways you can use WhatsApp to improve your customer care in retail:

Long gone are the days of on-site call centers where agents had to sit at a desk and wait for the phone to ring. Now, most businesses opt for a cloud contact center that enables them to work from anywhere at any time – across all channels.

Equipping your agents with a single interface to manage cross-channel communication is a surefire way to improve your retail customer experience. Adding WhatsApp to your cloud contact center can help:

Today’s tap and receive world has led to higher expectations for lower wait times. Building a WhatsApp chatbot is a key attribute to customer experience success for many organizations. An easy way to do this is to connect your WhatsApp Sender to the Microsoft Bot Framework to deploy your own keyword or AI chatbot within minutes.

Then, you can use your chatbot to:

And if you’re worried a chatbot won’t be able to handle some of your customers’ queries, don’t worry, you can still set up seamless transfers to live agents without losing conversation history or context.

Example of transferring a customer to a live agent for a more complex query

Using WhatsApp Business powered by Infobip on Azure will enable you to deliver the customer experience your customers demand with the scale, security, and cost-effectiveness your business requires.

Microsoft Azure is created to adapt to constantly changing market and communication trends – and is present in over 60 regions globally with 90+ compliance offerings.

Coupled with Infobip’s 650+ direct-to-carrier connections worldwide and best-in-class delivery rates, you’ll be able to use WhatsApp on the Azure cloud to:

Over the years, we’ve had the chance to help some of the world’s greatest retail brands improve their customer experience with automated omnichannel solutions.

Customers crave fast, personalized interactions with the brands they love. Meet them where they are with in-house developed omnichannel solutions and a comprehensive platform that enables you to engage them across the entire customer journey.