It’s not a secret for anyone that WhatsApp doesn’t want to leave any free space for its competitors. Updates to Meta’s instant messaging service are constant.
While most of these new features or improvements are aimed at home users, enterprises and businesses are not left alone. Recent launches in Mexico and other markets demonstrate this.
through a pers conferenceWhatsApp announced the official launch of its business directory in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Indonesia and the UK.
This launch comes after the platform rolled out the function in a test run in São Paulo, Brazil in September last year since last September.
In Brazil, the new WhatsApp business directory will only be available, for now, for iOS devices, while for the rest of the country the phased rollout takes iOS and Android into consideration.
The intention of this new tool is clear. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “the end goal here is to make it so you can find, message, and buy from a business, all in the same WhatsApp chat.”
Live Business on WhatsApp, How Does it Work?
The operation of the new WhatsApp is simple. All you have to do is click on the button to start a new chat from where the familiar menu will be displayed with all your saved contacts and options like “New group”, “New contact” or “New community”.
For this alternative, one is now added under the “Nearby business” legend. Selecting it will display a list of businesses or companies close to the user who has a business account on WhatsApp. From there you can select a special interest.
Additionally, these results can be filtered by category (for example, banking, restaurant, convenience store, or pharmacy) or by entering a specific business name.
By opening a chat, users will be able to start a conversation with a business to resolve doubts, participate in dynamics, or request information in general.
The company contact will display specific data such as business operating hours, business, direction and distance between the user and the location.
shop in plain sight
In addition to this discovery tool, WhatsApp announced that it is testing a function in Brazil to make payments within the app thanks to association “with several payment partners”.
This means that we may be close to making in-app purchases on WhatsApp, although for now the functionality is only available in the testing phase.
This move makes a lot of sense considering that in October 2020, Meta claimed that more than 175 million people around the world use WhatsApp to send messages to business accounts every day.
Now we just have to wait to recognize the success of this launch and the adoption it can bring among consumers with increasing digital buying habits.
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