India, July 5th, 2022: In the last couple of years, small and medium organizations have experienced a transformation in the way they conduct their business. From abandoning the offline landscape to exploring and conquering the online domain, SMBs are growing at an unprecedented rate today. They started by establishing themselves on different marketplaces but soon realized the hefty commissions charged by the marketplaces and merchant-unfriendly return policies severely impacted their revenues. The paradigm has shifted though and now businesses are more focused on strengthening their websites, online sales, and support system using platforms like Shopify & WhatsApp Business Platform.
To further facilitate the Indian businesses selling on Shopify, Interakt – a Jio Haptik product built on the official WhatsApp Business Platform, launched an exclusive WhatsApp Sales Channel app on the Shopify App Store. The partnership will work towards getting rid of the sales silo and making the entire customer journey a seamless experience with zero friction. D2C brands like Okhai, Bunaai, Blissclub, House of Mangalam, The State Plate, KIRO Beauty, and more are already using this integration to increase their store sales and boost revenue like never before.
WhatsApp’s recent feature launch for its Business API users, automated product catalog messages, has become the talk of the town with every business, big or small, trying to leverage it to expedite sales. It enables businesses to showcase their products by including up to 30 products along with images, descriptions, prices, and more in a single message and lets customers easily discover, select and purchase goods.
This new integration has taken the conversational commerce journey one step forward by enabling merchants to auto-sync their Shopify store with WhatsApp in a few clicks & helps them share their product catalogs with customers automatically via WhatsApp. Moreover, they can send their catalog at scale on the platform.
The post-pandemic world understands the need for online shopping and businesses now need to be present where their target customers are most active. Even categories one wouldn’t have imagined could be sold online, like hydroponic plants and ready-to-eat sweets, have a strong online presence today. With unlimited product options and hundreds of businesses vying for the attention of potential customers, selling on Shopify is not an easy task. Merchants and store owners may have an enticing presentation, high-quality products, and a very slick and seamless purchase funnel. However, they still find customers not completing the purchase at the checkout page.
Many Shopify merchants have an omnichannel presence and are still facing similar pain points. Although some have already come up with a combination of new product alerts, promotional offers, emails, and SMS campaigns, and yet they are stumped with issues like lower open/read rates, cart abandonment, limited shopper engagement, below-average online sales, poor brand loyalty, etc.
According to Octane Research, the cart abandonment rate across some industries in India is a whopping 70-75%. The trust factor for customers with these online stores is also a contributing factor. With automated notifications going via the green tick – verified WhatsApp accounts, businesses can minimize these barriers and build trust & loyalty with their customers.
The recent shift to the online landscape has resulted in higher marketing expenditures, supply chain issues, cost of acquisition, and much more for these new-age D2C brands.
Discussing these pain points, Ahshad Jussawal, VP & Business Head, Interakt, said,” The launch of our WhatsApp-based sales channel app on Shopify is going to work towards getting rid of these issues for the merchants. Many of the brands already using Interakt have witnessed a 65% increase in the cart recoveries and an 80% reduction in marketing & CRM expenditures since deploying WhatsApp as their de-facto communication and sales channel.” He concluded by saying that, “the Shopify-Interakt integration has helped merchants leverage the simplicity and reach of WhatsApp to build strong relations with their buyers and also tap into previously untapped audiences to set up, promote, and grow their online stores.”
Indian consumers are increasingly engaging in deep conversations with brands on WhatsApp and other messenger apps before committing to a purchase. They could be looking to know more about the size or color of a new Kurti, or want to know which washing machine has the latest features and long warranty,” said Bharati Balakrishnan, Country Head, and Director, Shopify India. “Shopify aims to help Indian merchants succeed in meeting these needs by working with partners like WhatsApp and Interakt to deliver innovative new products that help Indian brands build real, long-term connections with their customers”
Interakt has already helped 1000+ D2C brands which use WhatsApp as a cognitive sales channel platform for their Shopify store drive consistent growth through a multi-pronged approach. Businesses are fast-tracking their sales by converting the WhatsApp cart into a Shopify cart with just a click of a button. The WhatsApp Sales Channel app is available on the Shopify App Store, you can download the app and take a 14-day free trial before making any commitments.
