While technology is bringing the world closer and opening endless possibilities for business owners big or small, Whatsapp just launched its new feature for business owners to help them reach customers via smartphones.
A new feature, by the name – ‘catalogs’ will now allow businesses to showcase their products to potential customers. This visual aid will help customers browse photos, read descriptions about the products, compare for themselves by viewing prices. This will greatly help consumers make an informed choice and will help enable a faster system where consumers can directly place an order via WhatsApp in an instant.
This move is set to help small scale business owners who readily have access to Whatsapp but not so much to marketing tools, or even a website for that matter. New and evolving young business owners can also thrive using the tool.
What’s great is that these catalogs will serve as a mobile storefront on the app. There isn’t a need to have a webpage. How this will work is – The business owner can visit their catalog option in the application settings and upload an image of the product they are selling, inputting the details, etc. The owner can also input the product code or a service code if needed so that the viewer/buyer can place an order without hassle.
The WhatsApp Business app is already a hit in the market. Earlier this year, the company said the app had reached around 5 million business customers. The new catalogs feature is designed with the needs of businesses in mind, including business profiles, quick replies for messages, chat labels and automated messages.
The catalog items can be further sent to customers using a Whatsapp message, just like we usually do. Let’s understand this with an example – If I were to buy a piece of clothing, say a palazzo set from a business that uses this new feature. I can ask them about a particular product on display or send them the product code and inquire about the same. The business owner can send all the information they have for the product – the price, fabric, availability, size, etc. And thus I can buy the product directly from the seller, instead of having to go through the hassle of a webpage loading.
This will largely benefit business owners now is because the browsing culture has majorly shifted to smartphones. A lot of user activity is now happening inside apps instead of the web. A reason for that is also the fact that apps are more precise, filters are easy, and apps offer more coupons and discounts for users to lure them into downloading these. The PCs are slowing taking a backseat and are more and more restricted to online and offline working at offices.
The new feature is now available on Android as well as iPhone for Whatsapp business owners in India, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, the U.K., and the U.S., for the time being. The feature will soon see making its way worldwide.
How will the new Feature Work?
If you have a Whatsapp business account, you can access the Catalog feature directly from the “Business settings” section of the app.
Once you create a catalog using the new feature, you can share it as a part of the business profile or in a chat while conversing with a customer through the app.
WhatsApp Business app > Business settings > Catalog.
You can add multiple images, product name, price, description, link, and product or service code. All of these options are visible on the Catalog page.
You can showcase different types of products and services on a single page.
If you are a business online, this new feature can aid your sales. All the best!
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