“Payment is the missing link in the conversational store,” says the head of WhatsApp in Brazil

“Does a Zap?”. popularity what’s up is so big in Brazil that phrases like the one that opens the text are quite common. According to a survey recently published by the website mobile Team in cooperation with a research company opinion box99% of smartphones in the country have a messaging app installed from Goalwhere 95% use the application daily or almost every day, and 81% of users communicate with companies through this channel.

“WhatsApp is the dominant messaging app in over 80 countries. But none of them are used as much as we use them here in Brazil. We use it for work, personal life, for absolutely everything,” comments Guilherme Horn, head of operations at what’s up in Brazil, during Payment Revolution Day 2022 — the author’s event Let’s start who has Finsiders as one of the supporters.

The use of the tool by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is symbolic. During the pandemic, which led to the closure of brick-and-mortar stores, companies had to resort to e-commerce and new service and sales channels in order not to lose customers, and the messaging app played a central role in this regard.

“WhatsApp was the digital transformation of small and medium-sized companies in Brazil. It was their bridge to the digital world,” says Guilherme.

The so-called “business messaging” has gained momentum, and companies from different segments are communicating with their audience through a messaging application. Use cases include: customer service, marketing campaigns from CRM and, of course, the transactional part itself. “And that’s natural because we all have it what’s up open all day,” he says. “These are use cases he didn’t create Goalbut the users themselves.”

According to the CEO – who took the helm of the app in Brazil about five months ago – business messaging is the next “age of commerce”, and payment is the link that completes this journey. According to him, payment is strategic for what’s up in terms of enabling “conversational commerce” (also known as “c-commerce”).

“We don’t intend to make payment a very significant business area or revenue stream. It’s simply the missing link in the conversational commerce journey that is absolutely essential to the customer experience.”

According to Guilherme, conversational commerce already has a high level of maturity in Asia and is just starting in Latin America, but it has developed in three dimensions: the size and types of sellers (from SMEs to large companies); transactional (bots and intelligent assistants, for example); and communication format (types of media). “Conversational commerce is complementary to traditional businesses, physical sales and e-commerce). It’s the third channel.”

A recent example of how commerce is starting to take a place in the messaging app was the launch of a grocery shopping feature in the what’s upinitially in India, he announced Goal at the end of August.

The initiative is the result of a partnership between ‘big tech’ and JioMart, the Indian e-commerce giant. “It’s already working in India, it’s a great success, and it’s expected to expand globally as soon as possible,” says Guilherme.

An experienced executive in the financial sector, Guilherme was one of the founders drama investmentsdirected the area of ​​innovation of large institutions such as Bank BV and Bank of Brazil (BB) and has also invested in more than 50 startups (many of them fintech) as an angel investor.

Financial services

In the case of financial services, including payments, there is a path to follow what’s up, given Pix’s rapid popularity. Research shows a low rate of acceptance of WhatsApp payments. According to a survey conducted by the website Mobile Time with Opinion Box, only 11% of WhatsApp users have already sent money through the app – the same proportion confirmed by a survey six months ago.

Payment service between individuals via what’s up it started being available to Brazilians last May, after Meta (then Facebook) received approval from Central Bank (BC) operate as a payment initiator.

In the country, the solution goes through facebook paymenttogether with Facebook paymentsregulated institution for payment transactions (IP), and transactions are processed the sky. WhatsApp currently works with more than 10 financial institutions, including major banks such as Bank of Brazil (BB), Bradesco, Itau and Santanderin addition to digital banks such as Nubank, Between, Neon, Following and others [veja aqui a lista completa].

At the beginning of the month, the sky he also announced the relevant fact to inform that he had concluded an agreement with Goal to record and process transactions between individuals and commercial establishments via what’s up.

“The effective availability to the public of making payment transactions via WhatsApp in this modality is a decision that depends on Meta and is subject to testing with users and commercial institutions, with regulatory approvals,” the acquirer said.

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