WhatsApp has a new shopping button which is now globally live and includes India as well and it will help people check the available products and make purchases directly from the chat. The tool would make it easier for people to discover business’ catalog so they know about the goods and services it offers.
Normally, people had to click in the business profile to see if the business had a catalog. Now the company now says that when a person sees a shopping button that looks like a storefront icon, they will immediately know the business has a catalog so that they can browse products and start a conversation about an item they get to see with just one tap.
This will also make it easy for businesses to get their products discovered that can help to increase sales. Around 175 million people message a WhatsApp Business account everyday and around 40 million people see a business catalog every month which includes more than 3 million in India.
A recent survey showed that 76% of adults in India said that they are more likely to do business with or purchase from a company that they can contact via messaging than one they cannot.
The new shopping button is now available across the world and would replace the voice call button. In order to find the voice call button, users can simply tap the call button to select a voice or video call. The company said last month that in the future, they would make it possible to add items to a cart and check out within WhatsApp.
Facebook stated that they will now start charging companies using WhatsApp for Business because it expanded ways for its users to check out available products and make purchases directly from the chat. Around 50 million businesses message a WhatsApp Business account everyday and this would help WhatsApp to continue building a business of their own while providing and expanding free end-to-end encrypted text, video and voice calling for more than 2 billion people.