WhatsApp is enhancing its shopping experience for both merchants and users through its new feature called “Flows,” this feature allows users to complete tasks, such as selecting a seat on a flight or booking an appointment, without leaving the app.
Flows provides merchants with essential options, such as text boxes, calendars, and seat selectors, to build these experiences, these tools will be made available to companies in the coming months.
The support page for the Flows feature lists use cases such as appointment booking, product customization, account login, form filling, and event subscription.
WhatsApp tested the Flows feature with companies such as the Brazilian bank Banco Pan, retailers like MagaLu, the Indian travel service Redbus, the Indian bank SBI, and the car resale platform Spinny.
Nikila Srinivasan, Vice President of Business Messaging Services at Meta, stated, “Shopping and e-commerce are major sectors we want to focus on, we aim to provide business messaging in a way that allows companies and individuals to do more directly within the chat, and that’s where Flows comes in.”
She also added, “Currently, e-commerce companies are using Flows, but WhatsApp wants to build rich experiences for other types of businesses as well.”
Meta does not charge merchants for Flows, but WhatsApp charges businesses for conversations, specifically interactions within a 24-hour window, categorized by type, such as marketing, support, authentication, and service.
The company has introduced new payment partners for customers in India, where WhatsApp has over 500 million users, last year, WhatsApp partnered with Reliance Jio to provide an encrypted shopping experience, allowing customers to make payments through WhatsApp Pay without leaving the app.
The platform has now collaborated with payment gateway providers Razorpay and PayU, enabling users to make payments through other unified payment interface apps and credit/debit cards.
WhatsApp introduced commercial payments for users earlier this year in Brazil and Singapore, WhatsApp Business revenue relies on businesses engaging in additional conversations and executing transactions, earlier this year, WhatsApp stated that its Business app had surpassed 200 million monthly active users.
The company also mentioned that it has started testing the Personal Messages feature for businesses, allowing them to send customized messages, such as discounts or offers, to specific customers.
