How In-App Shopping is Shaping eCommerce

As I’ve talked about in many of my other blogs, so much of our shopping nowadays is done digitally. Whether it be shopping on websites, on store applications, or now on social channels as well, it is truly the new way of shopping. In 2020 specifically, due to the pandemic, people were no longer comfortable going into stores for their normal shopping and resorted to shopping online. Many brands have taken advantage of this and created experiences for their consumers from home. I’ve talked about the shopping section on Instagram in a prior post, but most recently, WhatsApp has now decided to create in-app shopping as well.

Let’s take a step back…what is WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is a free messaging application that is compatible with iPhones as well as Androids. It allows consumers to message friends and family all over the world, free of charge. They can share regular text messages, voice-notes, photos and videos, and they can even call and video call now. WhatsApp is a convenient resource for people who have friends or family in different parts of the world because they are able to avoid the fees for international phone calls or messaging.

What did they do?

WhatsApp announced that they will be launching a service which will allow for in-app purchases. They will allow their consumers to explore products from shops on Facebook and then they can buy the products directly through a chat in WhatsApp. This goes in conjunction with how Facebook is focusing their efforts on their eCommerce as well. This service is mostly focused on midsized and small business in terms of selling since it will require directly chatting. They will also be allowing the businesses to manage their messages and marketing through the application. They will be furthering their partnerships with third party vendors for various softwares and services as well.

How does this affect eCommerce?

I think that creating a connection with consumers while making shopping a much easier and seamless experience is what will put brands towards success in this day and age. In-app shopping does this by allowing the consumer to purchase products without having to navigate to numerous websites and can do this simply with the click of a button.