Throughout these times of COVID-19 pandemic, we have consistently seen one thing happening in the world of business and that is the effective use of digital channels. While all the online platforms have existed for years now, it was just after the coronavirus that the world accepted to go online if businesses want to survive in times to come.
Hence, as the situation has come of great advantage for the digital platforms that are helping businesses to grow online, one case is Whatsapp that is yet again revealing a new set of tools, exclusively for businesses.
Owned by Facebook, the messaging platform is now expanding the use of QR codes to make customers connect with their favorite businesses more easily on the platform. Customers will now be notified with series of stickers (as you can see below) for important details like “we’re open for business” and furthermore, businesses will also get the opportunity to share Whatsapp based catalogs which users will eventually soon be able to link it to ads outside of the Whatsapp platform itself.
The Whatsapp Business app - mostly used by merchants to contact customers and promote their products - has experienced exponential growth over the past few months. As per stats given by the parent company Facebook, the app now has 50 million monthly active users, with the biggest market being India (with 15 million MAUs) and Brazil (5 million MAUs). The catalogs alone have 40 million views to date.
But with all the success, Whatsapp also had to face a lot of backlash for introducing various features in an attempt to help businesses during the pandemic.
A more recent example of such loss has been the launch of payments option in Brazil last month which was introduced to not only let users send money to each other but merchants could also use the service for selling online. However, just nine days after its launch the Brazilian regulators blocked the service because of competition concerns.
The idea of QR codes has received a positive response last week from consumers as they are really enjoying swapping details for the first time with the help of codes rather than entering a phone number manually every time. The feature is not like Snap codes or other social media apps that use similar shortcuts to make any user skip adding the contact details.
So basically, if you want to reach out to a business for customer support or orders, then you can simply scan a QR code from a receipt, their business display at the storefront, or even one of their products posted on the internet to connect with them.
Businesses that already have adopted the feature can also set up welcome messages as soon as a user adds them.
The catalog sharing feature on the other hand feels like an expansion of the similar thing that the company first introduced back in November 2019. The only addition now is that businesses will be able to create and share links of their catalogs to post on multiple channels as well including Facebook and Instagram etc.
All of the services in Whatsapp Business is free for use as of now. But one can also expect Facebook doing the groundwork to capitalize on these features in the near future - if not through payments then by of course pushing businesses to advertise more on Facebook. After all, linking Whatsapp profiles to those ads seem to be a great cross-market strategy for any business.
Read next: Finally Good News For PC Users, Facebook Has Rolled Out The Dark Mode For Web Version Of WhatsApp Messaging App
Hence, as the situation has come of great advantage for the digital platforms that are helping businesses to grow online, one case is Whatsapp that is yet again revealing a new set of tools, exclusively for businesses.
Owned by Facebook, the messaging platform is now expanding the use of QR codes to make customers connect with their favorite businesses more easily on the platform. Customers will now be notified with series of stickers (as you can see below) for important details like “we’re open for business” and furthermore, businesses will also get the opportunity to share Whatsapp based catalogs which users will eventually soon be able to link it to ads outside of the Whatsapp platform itself.
The Whatsapp Business app - mostly used by merchants to contact customers and promote their products - has experienced exponential growth over the past few months. As per stats given by the parent company Facebook, the app now has 50 million monthly active users, with the biggest market being India (with 15 million MAUs) and Brazil (5 million MAUs). The catalogs alone have 40 million views to date.
But with all the success, Whatsapp also had to face a lot of backlash for introducing various features in an attempt to help businesses during the pandemic.
A more recent example of such loss has been the launch of payments option in Brazil last month which was introduced to not only let users send money to each other but merchants could also use the service for selling online. However, just nine days after its launch the Brazilian regulators blocked the service because of competition concerns.
The idea of QR codes has received a positive response last week from consumers as they are really enjoying swapping details for the first time with the help of codes rather than entering a phone number manually every time. The feature is not like Snap codes or other social media apps that use similar shortcuts to make any user skip adding the contact details.
So basically, if you want to reach out to a business for customer support or orders, then you can simply scan a QR code from a receipt, their business display at the storefront, or even one of their products posted on the internet to connect with them.
Businesses that already have adopted the feature can also set up welcome messages as soon as a user adds them.
The catalog sharing feature on the other hand feels like an expansion of the similar thing that the company first introduced back in November 2019. The only addition now is that businesses will be able to create and share links of their catalogs to post on multiple channels as well including Facebook and Instagram etc.
All of the services in Whatsapp Business is free for use as of now. But one can also expect Facebook doing the groundwork to capitalize on these features in the near future - if not through payments then by of course pushing businesses to advertise more on Facebook. After all, linking Whatsapp profiles to those ads seem to be a great cross-market strategy for any business.
Read next: Finally Good News For PC Users, Facebook Has Rolled Out The Dark Mode For Web Version Of WhatsApp Messaging App
