We all know WhatsApp to be one of the most used communication tools globally. WhatsApp has over 2.5 billion monthly active users globally across 180 countries, with roughly 100 billion daily messages. WhatsApp is close to monthly active users of other popular platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
With its vast success, WhatsApp is no longer confined to being a personal communication tool. It’s being harnessed to revolutionize how we shop by leveraging its enormous user base and trust.
Here are some of my thoughts on how WhatsApp is being changed and how it has the potential to transform itself as a decisive end-to-end conversational eCommerce platform.
- From conversations to conversions – WhatsApp is slowly becoming a marketplace for small and medium businesses to work directly with potential leads and make them customers.
- From simple text to rich product catalogs – Business owners can build catalogs and items with targeted promotions from within the chat.
- From channels to personalization – WhatsApp helps turn faceless transactions into meaningful interactions by engaging in direct, one-on-one conversations with potential customers.
- From traditional e-commerce to conversational e-commerce – Capitalizing on the inherent personal touch, WhatsApp provides a conversational e-commerce experience compared to conventional e-commerce websites.
- From inquiries to sales – In-built order management systems provide real-time updates to customers on the status of their orders throughout the various stages.
- From discussions to support chats – The rise of AI is taking over mundane tasks such as answering FAQs, handling simple transactions, and providing post-product support, etc.
To gain a better understanding, it is essential to comprehend the current usage of WhatsApp by its users. This can be categorized into two major sectors –
Regular users – Chat with individuals or groups of friends and family.
Business users – Manage customer interactions through individual and group chats.
Businesses of all sizes can use WhatsApp business offerings to stay connected with their customers. This can be classified into two significant offerings.
WhatsApp Business App – Small businesses that need to communicate one-on-one with their customers typically use the WhatsApp Business app. This is free for businesses to use.
WhatsApp Business Platform – It’s not an application but rather an interface for a programming language that allows you to communicate with a large number of people. This comes with a pricing. Pricing is based on the conversation window.
Users can easily download the WhatsApp Business app from the Play Store or App Store to set up their business directly within the app.
Large enterprises should integrate with bots in addition to agents to scale operations, hence the importance of the WhatsApp Business platform.
We can get started on the WhatsApp business platform with the following high-level steps –
Once the initial setup is over, securing the access token to interact with the WhatsApp business APIs is important. WhatsApp Business APIs are commonly referred to as ‘Cloud API.’ There are three different ways to obtain the access tokens –
- Access tokens from the developer portal; However, this expires in 23 hours. Also, this process is very manual and suitable during the initial setup of the APIs and testing.
- System user access tokens are generated programmatically and can be generated in 2 ways – Expiring and non-expiring access tokens. This is suitable for direct developers or tech providers.
- Business Integration System user access tokens – To generate a Business Integration System User access tokens, we must implement Embedded Signup (configured with Facebook Login for Businesses) and exchange the code returned when a customer completes the flow. This is suitable for Solution partners.
Let’s see System User access tokens in more detail since they are used in the majority of the cases.
Types of System User Access Tokens
| Types | Non-expiring Access Tokens | Suggested Expiring Access Tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Lifetime | Never expires | Valid for 60 days |
| Need to refresh? | No | Yes |
| Recommendation based on use cases | You can tolerate the risk of leaked access tokens and want your third-party applications to have offline access to data. | You want to limit the risk of leaked access tokens. |
The very first time, the system access tokens can be generated by logging to the ‘Business settings’ in the meta developer portal. The expiring system access tokens can be refreshed using the GET oauth/access_token endpoint by passing in the current non-expired access token.
Other major items to set before starting to use to the WhatsApp business platform include the below items –
- Phone number – A WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) needs a valid, dedicated business phone number to send customer messages.
- Account information – All profile information, such as display name, profile photo, category, description, and other details, can be added to the profile section.
- Catalog – It allows the business to organize and showcase the items as a catalog, enabling an eCommerce experience.
- Flows – This feature of the WhatsApp Business Platform allows swift development and deployment of native, task-centric workflows on WhatsApp. This results in enhanced interactions between customers and businesses.
- Message Templates – Template messages are pre-designed messages that are used to initiate marketing, utility, and authentication conversations with customers. These messages are different from free-form messages, as they are the only type of message that can be sent to customers who have not previously contacted you, or who have not sent you a message within the last 24 hours.
- Webhooks – Get notifications about messages and customer profile updates by subscribing to Webhooks. Provide Webhooks with a callback URL and a verify token for validation.
- Partner Solutions – Account sharing enables Solution Partners and Tech Providers to collaborate in managing customer WhatsApp accounts in order to offer businesses WhatsApp messaging services.
The entire WhatsApp Business platform can be integrated with cloud solutions for better performance and functionality. Below is an example of this integration with AWS cloud –
Conversation-Based Pricing on WhatsApp Business Platform: Key Points
- Charged per conversation, not per message: Conversations last 24 hours (except free-entry point: 72 hours) and categories determine pricing.
- Conversation Categories:
- Marketing: Announcements, promotions, retargeting (template messages only).
- Utility: Confirmations, delivery updates, reminders (template messages only).
- Authentication: One-time passcodes for login (template messages only).
- Service: Customer inquiries (free-form messages during customer service window).
- Opening Conversations:
- Marketing, Utility, & Authentication: Template message starts conversation for that category (if no existing open conversation).
- Service: Free-form message within customer service window (no existing open conversation).
- Customer Service Window: 24 hours after receiving customer message. Allows free-form and template messages.
- Free Tier: 1,000 free service conversations per month; marketing, utility, and authentication not included.
- Free-entry Point Conversation:
- Opened by responding within 24 hours to Click to WhatsApp Ad or Facebook CTA message.
- Lasts 72 hours, closes all other conversations, allows all message types during window.
- Multiple Conversations Possible: Different categories within 24 hours create separate conversations.
Share your feedback, learning and use cases for WABA.
Happy Learning!
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