E-commerce is the fastest-growing market space worldwide. E-commerce has led businesses to discover markets beyond geographical boundaries grow their business globally. As the world is fast moving towards a digital transformation, e-commerce too has changed the way they communicate with their customers. E-mails, push notifications, SMS, and in-app notifications have taken over as the new means of advertising. With e-commerce businesses finding new and better ways to serve their customers, WhatsApp Business seems to be the face of future e-commerce communications.
WhatsApp Business is a messaging platform designed specifically for businesses but has proved to be a disruptive channel for modern-day e-commerce. Businesses big and small are depending heavily on WhatsApp Business for marketing, customer services, payments, advertisements, etc., and has become an indispensable part of it.
4 Widely Used Communication Channels for E-commerce
When it comes to e-commerce, good communication becomes the core of the business. On an average day, a person comes across at least 5000 advertisements on the digital as well as the physical world. With such tough competition in the e-commerce space, businesses have to find effective ways to communicate their messages to their target audience. Here are a few e-commerce communications channel used in businesses:
1. Social media marketing
A strong digital presence through SNS(social networking services) can be an excellent way for a business to get noticed and get customers to their website or shopping apps. Social Media Marketing helps businesses find their niche audience easily and target all their communications specifically to them.
This technique is fast and allows customers to engage in personal conversations with businesses through social media handles. However, all communications through such channels are public and do not guarantee individual responses, it can’t be considered a viable option for communication.
2. Company Website
Once you have a user on your company website, you can be sure that the person is interested in your product or service. As a business, you can share all important messages on your website that you think may be useful for your future customer. But a website doesn’t give much scope for two way communication.
Some websites do use AI-enabled chatbots, which facilitates two-way communication with visitors. Chatbots help visitors with simple queries and suggests solutions. But since these chatbots are preprogrammed to answer only a specific set of queries, it might not be useful if the visitor has a particular question.
3. Content Marketing
Content marketing through blogs, audio, and video content has proved to be quite effective in creating a strong brand presence. They are the fastest and the most informative communication channels. But these platforms have their limitations when it comes to playing the role of a good communication channel for customers.
Not every customer might be interested in reading blogs or can spare a lot of time going through video content. Also, it leaves little scope for customers to share their concerns with businesses.
4. Email Marketing
Businesses send out cold emails to thousands of people promoting their products and services. Many a time these emails get converted into a successful sale. Email marketing can also be done to send out newsletters, company or product updates, notify about new product launches, and more.
Email marketing can be considered as a two-way communication channel, as some recipients revert to these emails with their queries. But most of the time, they just end up in the spam folder along with hundreds of other similar emails.
All the above communication techniques have proved to be useful to some extent, but cannot be seen as a mainstream e-commerce communications channel. Today’s fast-paced world needs a channel where they can communicate with businesses on a personal level and get instant responses. WhatsApp Business fits the bill perfectly in these scenarios.
WhatsApp Business As a Communication Channel for Ecommerce
As much as 67.45% of online shopping carts are abandoned and never make it to checkout. While the reasons may vary from person to person, for the majority of the people, it’s the lack of communication.
The buyer may be interested in the product, but they may be having some queries regarding it, or the information about the product may not be very informative. In such cases, businesses communicating with such buyers through WhatsApp can assist them with instant query handling.
WhatsApp Businesses can be seen as a one-stop solution for businesses. While it allows businesses to reach out to their customers on a personal level through messaging, it also doubles up as an e-commerce site and allows businesses to sell directly through the platform. WhatsApp Business also facilitates instant payments using WhatsApp pay, which is another reason customers prefer WhatsApp Business.
10 Reasons WhatsApp Business is better Communication Channel
Here are 10 reasons why WhatsApp Business is better than any other communication channels:
1 . WhatsApp has more than 1 bn users worldwide, With WhatsApp Business, e-commerce businesses can approach large users globally.
2. Using WhatsAppBusiness, businesses do not need to call customers to their app or site. They can find customers and sell through the app that they are already using.
3. WhatsApp has a read-rate of 98%, the highest of any social media. Communicating to its audience through WhatsApp can help them better attention and grow their customer base faster.
4. With WhatsApp business, businesses can promote their business and communicate with their customers using a professional account.
5. WhatsApp allows instant two-way communication with real humans and not chatbots
6. Customers can view products, make payments, and communicate with the business in the same place.
7. It’s easier for businesses to promote and advertise their products. They can also send updates or any business updates to their customers personally
8. One-to-one communication helps businesses in providing personalized customer service and helps build a positive brand image.
9. WhatsApp Business provides high security to its users and is completely ads and spam-free.
10. WhatsApp Business provides the fastest and the cheapest medium for business communication.
Communication is the core of any business, be it off-line or e-commerce. Businesses need to reach out to their target customers and create awareness about their products and services. These communications also extend to answering customer queries, understanding their requirements, suggesting customized options, and giving out offers and discounts. WhatsApp Business has provided a subtle means to reach out to their customers within their comfort zone. It provides businesses with essential marketing tools and features and has proved to be the future channel of e-commerce communications.
