Do you want to know how you can leverage social messaging apps in the age of social commerce? Follow along as we bring you a step-by-step guide on how you can sell jewelry on WhatsApp.
Welcome to the era of social commerce!
The convergence of media and retail has now become more pronounced than ever. Brands are starting to see growth opportunities by tapping into different social commerce platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, and social messaging apps such as WeChat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
The COVID-19 outbreak has further accelerated the booming social commerce scene. Industry experts predict that social commerce sales in the USA alone will increase by over 34% in 2021. Moreover, the social commerce compound annual growth rate is expected to expand by 28% globally from 2021 to 2028.
These figures along with the concept of a new normal and post-pandemic way of life have driven jewelers to pivot from traditional retail approaches.
You’re probably wondering what makes social commerce different from e-commerce.
In simple terms, e-commerce is the process of selling products or services directly from a brand website or brand-related apps, whereas, social commerce allows buyers and sellers to transact within a social media platform. Basically, it’s the combination of powers from both approaches.
It’s time to be a savvy digital jeweler, let’s take a look at one of the popular social commerce platforms—WhatsApp!
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What is WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is a free-to-download, multiplatform messaging app that lets you make video and voice calls and send text and voice messages, images, videos, and more, with just a Wi-Fi connection.
You may encounter different versions of WhatsApp depending on usage. The three common versions are the following.
The standard WhatsApp version primarily caters to regular users for personal use. As such, you may find features that are available on other versions but not on the standard one.
- WhatsApp Business
With small business owners in mind, WhatsApp Business offers features that are intended to make your business efficient and effective, particularly in communicating with clients. A few of the features include a business profile, labels, a quick reply feature, messaging tools, and more.
Additionally, small business owners can also set up greeting messages and away messages. These features ensure that you can interact with your clients easily by automating, sorting, and quickly responding to their messages.
Do note that WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business have different logos. The former features a phone receiver inside a text bubble while for the latter, the letter “B” replaces the phone receiver inside the text bubble, see below.
- WhatsApp Business API
Designed for medium and large businesses, WhatsApp Business API is best for companies that receive a large volume of messages. It’s best for running call centers and support system; however, there are charges per message template or session that applies.
Unlike the previous two versions, getting a WhatsApp Business API account is not as straightforward. It’s currently in a limited public preview. To apply, you must complete a form and wait for the WhatsApp team to get in touch with you.
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How to Sell Jewelry on WhatsApp Business?
To start selling jewelry on WhatsApp, ensure you have the following.
- Internet/Wi-Fi
- A mobile phone installed with WhatsApp Business
- A computer
After successfully installing the app, set up your work and conversation flow for sales and marketing. Consider the following tips below.
Language
- Avoid long texts as much as possible. Consider that not all your customers have the time to stay online for the chat; thus, be effective in communicating by being straightforward but friendly in tone. The key here is to get important information to your buyers as soon as possible.
- Set up message templates including welcome messages, away messages, especially outside of business hours, and closing messages. Automate as efficiently as possible, but be careful not to annoy customers with repetitive welcome messages, especially if you already have an open, ongoing conversation with them.
- Be professional. Use appropriate emoticons and check your spelling before sending messages.
- Don’t be spammy; be informative. When sending messages to buyers, only send information that is useful and relevant.
Conversation Process
- Create a conversation flow. Gather all the common questions you get from buyers and map the conversation flow for every point of sale. This conversation flow must provide pre-made responses to make the whole process less time-consuming.
- Introduce conversation protocols to your team to keep things in order at all times. This ensures that they know the appropriate action to take in cases of non-replies on the customer’s end, follow-up timeframes, sales rebuttals, and ways to deal with irate customers, among many others.
- Set up metrics to measure the effectiveness of your social commerce sales process, particularly in customer relationships.
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Now that you have an idea of the basics, let’s see how WhatsApp can help you showcase your jewelry products to increase your sales.
1. Showcase your jewelry products using photos and videos
Visual content is king!
Visuals remain to be one of the most powerful tools online when it comes to persuading buyers. To leverage the social commerce boom, you must pay attention to jewelry photography because a good quality product or video gives potential buyers the confidence to add your product to the cart.
In fact, 75% of online shoppers rely on product photos when making a purchase. Additionally, aesthetics matters online, and when you meet their aesthetic standards, you increase your chances of being shared online. The statistics showed that good visual content is 40% more likely to get shared on different social media platforms.
WhatsApp is also an excellent platform for sending jewelry videos and images. Within WhatsApp, your customers can easily inspect your product by zooming in on the details of your design, its texture, or any product element that may interest them. When sending images or videos to customers, ensure that your files are optimized for mobile screens and try not to send a large file size without compromising quality. Large file sizes may annoy them as they consume a lot of download time and storage.
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2. Take advantage of the WhatsApp Catalog tool
If you find yourself and your team talking to too many customers at a time, then the WhatsApp Catalog tool can simplify the process for you.
The WhatsApp Catalog tool eliminates the tedious process of exchanging multiple product photos and messages with customers just to get the product information out. This tool acts as your mobile storefront where buyers can go to browse all your jewelry products or discover something they might want to buy.
The tool is also a champion in keeping customers engaged as it keeps them within the app—exchanging messages with you compared to alternating between WhatsApp to talk to you and your website to check on your products while on a chat.
Like all other product catalogs, the WhatsApp Catalog tool allows you to add relevant product information such as product codes, product descriptions, and prices.
3. Confirm orders in real-time or as soon as possible
WhatsApp introduced the shopping cart tool last year to make in-app shopping easier and more convenient. This tool is automatically activated and available to sellers with catalogs in WhatsApp Business.
The WhatsApp cart simplifies buying and selling for both buyers and sellers. The former can browse the seller’s product catalogs and select and group multiple products in a simple message. This process reduces the amount of time involved when in-app shopping as it now eliminates the back-and-forth transaction that the buyer and the seller had dealt with previously.
Remember, however, that the cart doesn’t work like regular online shopping carts. Here, buyers cannot check out the products they added to the cart themselves. What they can only do is browse the jewelry product catalog, add the products they want to buy to the cart and send the cart to you as a message. This order is not final without your confirmation so attend to them as soon as you can to keep the stocks going.
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4. Don’t forget to link your WhatsApp Business account to your Facebook Shop
When available to your location, don’t forget to link your WhatsApp Business account to your Facebook Shop. This integration does not only diversify your sales channels but also strengthens your omnichannel network.
WhatsApp’s Facebook integration capability gives your prospective buyers the option to visit your Facebook Shop and send you messages like product inquiries through the WhatsApp Business app.
To link them together, start with the steps below.
- Create a shop in the Facebook Commerce Manager.
- Add your WhatsApp Business contact number to your shop.
- Select WhatsApp as your primary contact method.
Take note that you can also set up WhatsApp as your sales channel. Doing so will add your Facebook Shop to your profile on your WhatsApp Business account. Additionally, this will replace your WhatsApp Catalog with your Facebook Shop, but you can always revert to the former by following the necessary steps.
5. Transition smoothly
As soon as you are ready, your next step is to transition your audience to your new platform.
To introduce your new channel of communication to your audience, create a WhatsApp invite link and send it to your audience including your existing customers. Let them know that you have added a new avenue to reach you.
In addition, you can set up a group for all your repeat customers on WhatsApp. From here, you can send them regular updates, new product releases, product images, and videos, and sales and discount codes, to name a few.
Keep a pulse on what your customers want and build meaningful connections.
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Ready to Dive into Social Commerce?
Social commerce is changing the online shopping experience. There are many potentials here that are there for the taking if you will adapt to the demands of time, embrace new trends, and adopt new technologies.
Like other platforms that you are probably already familiar with like Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp is not complicated. It’s easy to master; it eliminates friction and minimizes hiccups in building customer relationships.
Have you tried selling jewelry on WhatsApp?
Let us know in the comment section below!
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