Whatsapp has announced plans to offer payments, shopping, and customer service to its 175 million daily users that interact with Whatsapp business accounts. In a blog post, Whatsapp says that in the last two years it has provided WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp business API to help businesses manage chats with their consumers. Their research shows that people prefer to message a business to get help and they are more likely to make a purchase if their messages are received.
WhatsApp says that it will gradually roll out new features that will enable businesses and consumers to make purchases.
Shopping: WhatsApp will enable users to check out available products and make purchases right from a chat. In addition, businesses will integrate these features into their existing commerce and customer solutions. This service will rely on Facebook Shops which was launched in May this year.
Facebook Hosting Services: In this case, WhatsApp will enable businesses to manage their WhatsApp messages via hosting services that Facebook will roll out. Businesses will host and manage customer communications thus enabling them to sell products, keep their inventory up to date. WhatsApp says that the growth in remote working will enable the business to quickly respond to messages wherever their employees are.
Business Sales: the social media platform says they will charge business customers for some of these services.
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