How to increase sales in retail using WhatsApp Business Platform

Not only is the first impression everything, but even getting consumers to notice you is becoming increasingly difficult. Retailers are constantly vying for attention, trying to create emails with the most eyecatching subject lines. Even SMS is becoming saturated as more businesses realise its potential, thanks to metrics such as an open rate of up to 98%, which far succeeds email’s 21%.

With an open rate of up to 99% and a conversion rate of between 45-60%, WhatsApp Business Platform can be the ideal channel to use alongside your existing ones when it comes to boosting brand awareness, sales and more.

Does marketing with WhatsApp in the retail sector actually work?

Let’s take a look at how WhatsApp Business Platform compares against the more traditional email and SMS.

	Email	SMS only	Rich messaging (including WhatsApp)
Message open rate	20.9%	95%	95%
Average customer response time	2.5 days	90 seconds	90 seconds
Link click-through rate	4.2%	19%	27%
Conversions	3.26%	32%	42%
Proportion of messages that are spam	90%	1%	0%

Data sources: Oracle | Remarkety | Adobe | Esendex | Digital Doughnut | Ofcom | Jibe by Google

Want to five deeper into how WhatsApp Business Platform compares with SMS? We explain the key differences and similarities in our comparison sheet.

How can WhatsApp Business Platform help retailers increase sales?

Send rich messages to boost marketing promotions

As well as simple text-based messages, you can also take advantage of WhatsApp Business Platform’s rich features to enhance your marketing messages. This includes:

• Images
• Video
• Audio
• GIFs
• Call-to-action buttons
• Quick replies
• Location

Features like the above allow your recipients to interact with your messages, boosting engagement. 

So, for events like sales and promotions, you can connect with customers in a much more visual way before following up with links to personalised recommendations based on their preferences.

Create bot-driven interactions

In WhatsApp Business Platform, you can create chatbots that send automated responses. This allows your customers to get instant responses to their queries, regardless of the day or time, and frees your customer support or sales team up to focus on other tasks.

A particularly interesting way that we’ve seen them used by retailers is during the cross/upsell stage of an interaction. 

Once an initial action has been completed (e.g. the customer has chosen to “learn more” about a certain product), the bot can then jump in and suggest complementary products that might enhance their purchasing experience.

Send personalised offers and promo codes

Sending QR and promotional codes for exclusive discounts is a great way to persuade customers to buy your products and drive footfall into stores when needed. 

One advantage of sending these through WhatsApp Business Platform is that every message you send can be personalised for that customer. This, in turn, will help build a closer and longer-lasting relationship with your individual customers.

Take your first steps to better marketing with WhatsApp Business Platform

The way retailers market their products to customers has changed drastically over the last decade, but particularly so over the last few years. Consumers are increasingly preferring to shop online instead of in-store, largely thanks to the convenience of this approach.

As brands realise this, they’re also turning to digital means of marketing and communicating with their customers. With WhatsApp Business Platform and all of its rich features, you can deliver more engaging, higher converting marketing campaigns. 

Want to try WhatsApp Business Platform out? We’re offering a free trial so you have the chance to try out the world’s favourite messaging channel, no obligation, and see how it could fit into your communication strategy. Learn more about the free trial below.