WhatsApp recently launched its ‘WhatsApp business’ app for all small businesses globally. The newly launched app is designed for free use on android smartphones. The purpose behind launching this app is to make it easy for WhatsApp’s 1.3. billion users to reach out to these businesses. We believe that WhatsApp is one such communications app which penetrated into the market like no one did and it cares for its users like no one else does!
People all around the world use WhatsApp to stay connected with their loved ones, friends and family. Launched in 2009, WhatsApp, became a platform to not only knit billions of global relationships but also to grow businesses. Over years, small businesses with strong presence on social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram, started creating one single touch point – WhatsApp, for all business related queries, enquiries and so on.
Stroll through some vital milestones WhatsApp achieved in its lifetime so far to look back upon:
Some really impressive whatsApp statistics to consider that might impact your business:
What is WhatsApp Business App?
‘WhatsApp’ provides phone-number based messaging and people asked, ‘Isn’t that what SMS is?’ Yes but SMS is expensive, antiquated and what WhatsApp did was modernize and level that playing field – Brian Acton
Since the very beginning, WhatsApp religiously followed its profound ideal of – NO ADS! NO GAMES! NO GIMMICKS! WhatsApp business app is no indifferent. It allows any small business to customize their business profile using various tools, send customized messages and so on.
As per WhatsApp and further derived from Morning Consult Study, over 80% small businesses in India and Brazil bank heavily on WhatsApp to run their business. It helps them with two things efficiently:
- Communicate with their customers
- Scale up their business
We don’t want to build a hook up app so you can find someone weird to talk to. It’s not what we’re about. We’re about intimate relationships – Brian Acton
What WhatsApp Business Does?
Let’s have a quick look at what WhatsApp business app has in store for your business?
- Business Profile: Give a professional touch to your business by creating a business profile. Enter your business name, logo, contact information, description and more in your profile to attract loyal customers.
- Customer Labels: Have too many Poojas, Rahuls and Rajs in your contact list and finding it difficult to differentiate between the existing one and the new one? With WhatsApp business app, you can easily mark or label your customers, order status,etc., on chats. Now no more confusions, only boost business!
Image Courtesy: WhatsApp
- Automated Messages: Sending warm greetings, welcome or away messages to your customers is a healthy habit to maintain good relations with them. Your custom messages will alert them about your availability.
- Quick Replies: No need to send same responses to multiple individuals repeatedly. Instead, choose your response from a list of existing templates and customize your response.
- WhatsApp Insights: Access important statistics of the number of messages sent, delivered and read successfully. This will guide you identify your active and inactive customers easily.
I want to do one thing, and do it well! – Jan Kuom
What WhatsApp Business Doesn’t Do?
WhatsApp business is a great tool for small businesses, but there are a few limitations you should know, as a business owner:
- No Payment Diversity: WhatsApp enables only one payment option i.e. UPI payments. UPI is the modern way to send and receive payments. Nonetheless, it is always better to provide more than the usual. This “more” is what WhatsApp payments disables for its users.
- Only Contacts Can Pay: Sadly, only people in your contact list can pay you. Which means, you need to keep on adding people to your contact list so that they can use WhatsApp payments to pay you.
- Updated App Required: Your customers need to update their WhatsApp to enable making payments. If they skip updating the app, then they won’t be able to view the “Payment” icon in attachments and hence delay is bound to happen.
- Lacks Business Reports: Which customer has paid and how much? What is your sales turnover this week? How many new customers shopped with you this month? All these questions continue to remain questions, as there is no automated tracking of this important regard available on WhatsApp business app as yet.
- Limited Reach: As the customer payment options are limited, so is your reach. To expand your business overseas, you will still have to share your bank account details with your customers.
- No Refunds: There is no tab to process refunds. Products once sold via WhatsApp cannot be monetarily returned via WhatsApp. This proves inefficient as lots of time and resources get drained here.
WhatsApp Business app is freely available on Google Play for all small businesses in India and worldwide.
We won’t stop every single person on the planet has an affordable and reliable way to communicate with their friends and loved ones – Jan Kuom
Whatsapp is good for peer to peer transactions. But when it comes to businesses, it needs many upgrades. Ideally, businesses need a one stop payment solution which offers – all payment options (credit/debit card, netbanking, wallets along with UPI), tracking payments, sending payment reminders to customers and more business centric functionalities.
If you are a business looking for a payment solution that offers everything a business needs, then signup on PayUmoney (for websites). If you don’t have a website, then you can simply accept payments from your customers by sending payment links via PayUnow.
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