WhatsApp for eCommerce: 22 use cases and examples

Chatting with customers has quickly become the norm for many eCommerce brands. Whether it’s through a chatbot on your app or website, or with a customer service representative over a chat app, customers expect to have 24/7 access to conversational support when they need it.  

Enter WhatsApp Business Platform. 

WhatsApp for eCommerce allows brands to interact with customers at every point in their shopping journey:

For modern consumers, convenient communication, reliable customer service and personalized connections are essential for them to remain loyal to a brand. Users prefer to communicate with brands over their favorite chat apps, and with WhatsApp being the world’s most popular channel, its sure to help boost your interactions with shoppers: 

With global reach and a high open rate, your eCommerce campaigns, transactional messages and other interactions get the best visibility over WhatsApp.  

Here are 22 examples of how to use WhatsApp for eCommerce interactions, and engaging features to help take your messages further. 

Give customers the option to opt-in for notifications from your business on WhatsApp. Once you’ve collected their opt-in (or consent) your brand and freely start to use WhatsApp to initiate conversations with targeted ads or special offers. Instead of sending newsletters that get a low open rate, use a channel that customers are active on and make sure your offers and promotions get the most visibility.

Now that your potential customer has subscribed to notifications or opened a conversation with you, you have a channel where you can send relevant offers for them to consider. Send engaging promotions to drive sales and stay in their line of sight while they consider other options.  

Collect data on their browsing behavior on your app or website to send relevant offers and products through WhatsApp. Start strong and create a conversational experience where customers are inclined to respond to the messages you send.   

Let your customers browse new and improved products over WhatsApp. Send messages that entices them to check out new arrivals all within the same conversation. You can set up an “eCommerce store” of sorts by featuring new items with product descriptions and prices, and allow customer to add items to their cart without ever leaving the WhatsApp platform. This offers a smoother experience, removing the need to switch between screens or apps.

Send back-in-stock messages to customers for items on their wish list. When the items hit your warehouse, you can let customers know instantly, allowing them to reserve or purchase items by conversing with you over WhatsApp. Use call-to-action buttons to elicit quick responses and boost engagement.

Cart abandonment is a pet-peeve of all eCommerce retailers. Reduce the chances of customers not completing a purchase by sending messages over WhatsApp. Remind your customers of what’s in their cart and make it easy for them to complete the purchase within the chat app. You can even send discount codes or promotional offers for those items to entice them into making the purchase faster. 

Make repeat purchases simple with WhatsApp list messages. This feature is ideal for eCommerce retailers that sell products that need to be repurchased regularly such as printer toners, vitamins or cosmetics. Customers simply choose from a list of their previous orders, add items to their cart, and complete the purchase without ever leaving the conversation.

Use product catalogs to allow customers to shop right in the chat app. Offer then simpler journeys by sending multi-product messages crafted to their interests and needs and allow them to explore your WhatsApp eCommerce shop. You can tailor the messages to include products related to their past purchases or browsing history on your web or app.   

To add more value to the conversation, customers can simply click on an item from the list to get more details on the product. Drive conversational commerce by having all these features available in the app. Customers save time and pain points are reduced, as there is no need to switch devices, apps or sites.

Give customers access to their loyalty status and the ability to use their loyalty points during a purchase on WhatsApp. With your automated chatbot, customers can simply ask for the status of their points and you can offer them the option to use those points during the checkout process.  

You can even send personalized and automated messages for discounts and promotions based on their loyalty status. Keep your customers feeling valued and make your loyalty program stand out from the rest.  

Allow customers to book appointments with personal shoppers over WhatsApp with list messages. Customers can book the time that works for them without having to make a phone call; ideal for bridal salons, auto dealerships, and luxury stores.  

They can even converse with their shopping assistant over WhatsApp. Using rich media, the personal shopper can send images and videos of new collections or options that might suit the customer. It’s a great way to build a personal relationship through conversational experiences. 

Reduce no-show rates and the overall experience for customers by reminding them of their appointments over WhatsApp. With its high open rates, WhatsApp is the ideal channel to ensure your messages have the best visibility and ensure your customers won’t forget about their booked appointments with your brand. 

Use your WhatsApp channel for eCommerce subscriptions. Whether you offer weekly grocery subscriptions, book subscriptions, or any other type, use WhatsApp to promote and manage your customers subscription plans. Customers can opt-in and out of their subscriptions, ask relevant questions, and manage their plans over a single channel that they use daily.  

With a WhatsApp chatbot, you can offer customers 24/7 support during their purchasing journey. By offering this support, you can reduce the risk of your customers abandoning their purchases with instant support for the questions and queries they might have.  

Offer a full customer journey with WhatsApp payments. This feature allows customers to complete purchases in the WhatsApp conversation, removing the need to switch windows and apps. WhatsApp payment is currently only available in India and Brazil, but Meta is gearing up to offer the feature in other countries soon.

Your eCommerce brand can also collect payments with third-party payment integrations and by sending payment links over WhatsApp. Your customers can now browse products, ask burning questions, add items to their cart, and finalize their payments all within one chat app.  

Easily send receipts, warranties and payment confirmations over WhatsApp. Use the channel that customers are familiar with and trust to make sure their documents are safely sent and seen. It makes for a user-friendly experience, eliminating the need to dig through mountains of emails in order to find receipts.

Continue the conversation once the order has been placed. 93% of customers say that they want to receive proactive updates from retailers about their shipments. Keep your customers happy by keeping them in the loop over the channel they love. Proactively send delivery updates via WhatsApp and let them know about status updates before they reach out to you.

Mistakes happen. Sometimes the wrong order is sent to a customer, and it can be a massive pain point that may lead them to not returning. You can avoid this by utilizing WhatsApp to resolve issues. Your customer can send you an image of the item they received and ask for instructions on what to do next to quickly resolve this issue, resulting in a positive customer experience.

Returns may be disappointing, but it can be an opportunity for eCommerce retailers to further enhance the customer experience. Send your customers shipping labels over WhatsApp to make for a smooth return experience. Follow up with updates to make sure they know their return has been received and the reimbursement has been paid out.

Keep the conversation open by re-engaging customers and sending recommendations on products they might like over WhatsApp. It’s a great way to upsell and ensure customers see your products without having to open your web shop or app. 

Collecting customer feedback can go a long way in deciding how eCommerce retailers approach their processes and tackle pain points. Make this touch point as simple as possible for customers to ensure you get the highest reply rate. Use WhatsApp Flows or list messages to create a seamless feedback experience. Customers can rate their experience by choosing a ranking right in the chat – with no need to switch apps.  

Be available to answer your customers burning questions and remove the need for them to browse your website looking for the answers with a rule-based FAQ chatbot. These chatbots can help speed up time to resolution, improving satisfaction with your brand and ensuring your customers get the support they need when they need it.

So you’re interested in using WhatsApp for your eCommerce brand. Let’s check out how to set up an eCommerce store on your WhatsApp channel so customers can get a single unified shopping experience every time.

Sound simple enough? 

Well, it takes a lot of strategic planning and development for your WhatsApp store to become a successful medium for sales and marketing. With a well-designed WhatsApp store, eCommerce retailers can increase their visibility and reach more customers, while providing a convenient and personalized shopping experience. 

Let’s breakdown the benefits and best practices that go into making these nine simple steps profitable for your brand and beneficial for your customers with an end-to-end customer journey on WhatsApp.  

WhatsApp offers a wide range of use cases for marketing so that eCommerce retailers can improve engagement and make the most of every interaction. From attracting new leads with unique entry points to sending promotional messages based on past behavior, WhatsApp can help you maximize your marketing investments.  

Boosting customer satisfaction will help reduce churn and improve overall loyalty to your brand. With rich media messaging options and automated conversational support, the entire customer journey can be improved so that customers are inclined to purchase from you again.  

With increased satisfaction comes fewer pain points and reasons for your customers to raise complaints. WhatsApp over the Infobip platform allows you to be present with prompt responses and become faster at resolving issues. Since most WhatsApp users are on the app daily, it gives retailers the visibility they need to grow deeper connections with their customers, leading to better reviews and happier shoppers. 

The Infobip platform will give you the power to post targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram that lead to WhatsApp conversations. When a potential customer opens a conversation, you can lead them through the entire customer journey in a single conversation. This convenience leads to better conversion rates and easier eCommerce shopping experiences.  

Agents are often overloaded with FAQ inquiries and repetitive questions from customers. By adding automation to your interactions, you can save your agents time and lighten their workload so they can focus on more complex inquiries. You can set up message flows with predefined responses or build a WhatsApp chatbot to improve agent efficiency.  

Using WhatsApp for eCommerce interactions improves the overall user experience. You can create varying customer journeys dependent on the customers’ needs and behaviors and determine which use cases are right for certain customers. Boost your customers’ overall experience by offering convenient interactions on WhatsApp.

Infobip offers an all-encompassing platform that, together with WhatsApp will help retailers scale their communications, reduce pain points and boost engagement.  

Quickly integrate WhatsApp Business Platform API into your existing communication stack and start building customer templates over a flexible and comprehensive API. With clear and concise documentations and always-on integration support, you can instantly start building the right customer journeys for your eCommerce customers.

If you aren’t a developer, then our code-free interface will allow you to integrate and start using WhatsApp without any complications. Our platform allows retailers to maximize their usage of WhatsApp and apply any use case across the entire journey with: 

Infobip has over 40 data centers worldwide and with over 2 billion active users on WhatsApp eCommerce companies get the reach and visibility they are looking for to grow their business. From pre to post purchase, retailers can add value to every interaction by crafting conversational experiences using Infobip solutions over WhatsApp.

Customers expect fast responses, personalization, and relevant campaigns from retailers. Easily offer them conversational experiences that leave an impact with WhatsApp over the Infobip platform. Take advantage of CX consulting to determine which use cases will help optimize the customer journey for your business and reduce pain points for your customers. Boost sales, engagement, and customer satisfaction by applying WhatsApp and Infobip solutions throughout the entire customer journey.