Last Updated: April 2025
WhatsApp is a widely used messaging platform globally. Let us find out how to use this platform effectively to scale your eCommerce business.
Since February 2016, the number of active monthly users on WhatsApp increased from 1 Billion to 2 Billion and growing.
In 2021, WhatsApp for business generated $8.7 Billion in revenue.
By 2025, the number of people using messaging platforms is expected to be increased to 3.5 Billion – a Statista survey.
This is exactly why selling on WhatsApp should be included in your business strategy. Here, we are discussing some important tips on how to effectively use WhatsApp for sales. Let’s kickstart.
Table of contents:
- Must Haves
- WhatsApp web version
- Customer onboarding
- Easy and effective business promotions
- Keeping your customer informed
- Embrace automation
- Collect reviews
- WhatsApp Business Analytics
Must Haves
The basic and most important requisite for WhatsApp selling is to register an exclusive official WhatsApp Business mobile number.
Why did we call it an exclusive number? Because it is important that you maintain a separate number for business purposes. So that you can share all your products/services-related information with only your target and interested customers or contacts.
Next is to register and acquire a WhatsApp Business API. While small businesses can survive on the free version of the WhatsApp Business app, you may need this to scale your business to enterprise size. Using WhatsApp Business API, you can enjoy various Whatsapp Business premium features without any restrictions.
We recommend you get a WhatsApp Business API in order to reap maximum benefits like unlimited bulk messaging, messaging automation, increase in sales, cart recovery, and running promotions.
WhatsApp Web version
Use the web version for more flexibility in usage. All your team members can gain access to it. Import and share creatives and other required data easily using the desktop version. Navigate easily and faster through the WhatsApp web UI using keyboard shortcuts.
Connect to the WhatsApp web version by scanning a QR code from your mobile app screen. It is available for both Android and iOS users. After connecting to the web version, you can still use the mobile version too. Messages are synced between the two devices simultaneously.
Likewise, you can connect up to 4 desktop Whatsapp applications at a time. Work using a wifi connection for improved speed on all the devices.
Customer onboarding
Acquire new customers to your WhatsApp Business account through your brand/product promotions. You can do it in multiple ways.
- By sharing your official WhatsApp Business number on websites, social promotions, print promotions, etc.
- Or by sharing your WhatsApp Business account link on all digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. This is your store link on Whatsapp. Helps you greatly in acquiring target audiences easily. Find this link under your app profile settings.
- Third and the least advisable option is to manually add your bulk contacts using an excel sheet. Probably, this method would be useful in case you have earlier collected and saved your customers’ contacts manually.
It is recommended to exercise the second option as it directly lands on your application page with just a click. Whereas, in the first option, the customer should first save your number in order to message you. He may tend to lose patience to do so and you may lose your potential customers.
Easy and effective business promotions
So, learn how to keep them hooked. Here it is. Whatsapp Business app provides you with multiple ways to promote within the app interface.
- Using ‘Status’ – sharing your regular product updates and promotional content on the ‘status’ will gain visibility among the regular status checkers.
- Broadcast – as the name says, send broadcast messages to either all of your contacts or selected ones. Very useful to share your store’s common updates and offers. Unlike ‘status’, this broadcast message is sure to be visible on every single customer’s chat window.
- Group messaging – if you have multiple product categories, then ‘group messaging’ is very effective for you. Create specific groups and share the link on the respective product promotions on other social platforms. People joining your group by clicking this link are your direct target audience. Share and promote group-specified products, thereby not disturbing other uninterested customers. Respecting your customers’ privacy takes utmost precedence.
- Cross-platform sharing – this is a very efficient promotional tool by WhatsApp. Now, you can share all your WhatsApp status content on Facebook and Instagram with just a click. Requires you to initially link the accounts, and that’s it.
Keeping your customer informed
Right, so, you have successfully launched your promotions using all the methods mentioned above. Now, orders must be pouring in. What’s next? Don’t stop there.
- You need to keep your customers informed about their order status, shipping status, refund/exchange status, etc until the product is delivered to them.
- And ofcourse, keep sharing future offers and discounts, store/product updates, festive greetings, etc to be in constant engagement with them.
All these actions assure your customers a sense of reliability and trust in your brand. Give them this great customer experience which naturally leads to brand loyalty.
Embrace automation
Enable automated welcome messages in your Whatsapp Business app easily by going to your profile settings. By doing so, you are cordially inviting your customers through a personalized welcome experience. This will create a promising first impression of your brand.
Using the same settings page you can also set ‘away messages’ and ‘quick replies’ too to promptly respond to your customer queries.
Additionally, you can automate the earlier mentioned types of messages (like order-related info, shipping updates, etc. Refer to the previous para) too using Whatsapp Business API.
Automation will save loads of your time to use for other salient measures for scaling your business. Your agents can concentrate on other aspects of customer support where their direct interference is required.
Collect reviews
Promoting customer reviews or User Generated Content (UGC) is the most effective marketing technique in recent times.
A user-generated content survey conducted by webinarcare found that 79% of consumers agree that UGC impacts their purchase decisions greatly.
So, it is definitely a smarter way to include user-generated content or customer reviews in your brand’s WhatsApp promotions. As 60% of customers strongly believe the UGC to be true and authentic.
Request your customers to leave feedback on your product or brand after their experience. In addition, offer some attractive discounts for submitting a review to multiply your sales.
Manually requesting and collecting your customer feedback and reviews is definitely time taking. Try and include an effective helpdesk tool to automatically collect and organize the user reviews for you.
WhatsApp Business Analytics and reports
Whatsapp Analytics shows you your customer engagement data. The Analytics data reports on the number of messages sent, received, delivered, and viewed along with conversations and cost information. Use your Whatsapp Business Management API to retrieve this report.
Adding to that, monitor your Whatsapp Business quality signals to provide a consistent customer experience. God forbid, if any user did not like or was unhappy about his user experience, he can block or even report your business account. If this continues, then it would affect your business reach very badly.
Keep checking your Whatsapp Business Analytics and Quality signals on a regular basis to provide a consistent customer experience and improve selling on WhatsApp.
Final Words
With that, we have covered the 8 necessary tips to scale your WhatsApp sales effectively. In addition to it, we suggest you maintain consistency in sharing only quality content with your customers. So as to avoid being blocked by any user.
However, we also discussed automation and reviews (UGC) management up above. If you are looking for a helpdesk that provides efficient automation tools for these and more, Saufter is the one. With it, you can enhance your overall customer support on WhatsApp and all other channels including Shopify.
