WhatsApp is trying hard to offer a seamless shopping experience from inside its app itself. In a step in the right direction, WhatsApp has introduced ‘carts’ to replicate the experience of shopping from e-commerce platforms. Carts can be simply understood as the “Add to cart” button. This feature will allow users to order multiple items at one go.
“With carts, people can browse a catalog, select multiple products and send the order as one message to the business. This will make it simpler for businesses to keep track of order inquiries, manage requests from customers and close sales,” said WhatsApp.
With these features, WhatsApp is trying to help small business owners across India to sell products directly to their customers. Note that a business needs to offer a catalogue of products by being a WhatsApp Business user first to access the Carts feature.
Here’s how to use WhatsApp to order online:
-Open WhatsApp.
-Go to your chat or business profile of the business you’d like to order from.
-Tap on the shopping button icon listed next to their name to access their catalog.
-Once the catalog opens, browse through the products you’d like to order.
-Tap on the product you like.
-Tap ADD TO CART on product if you’d like to order.Alternatively, you can also tap MESSAGE BUSINESS if you’d like to ask a specific question about the product.
To change orders, here’s what to do:
-Tap VIEW CART to see all the products added to your cart.
-Tap ADD MORE if you wish to navigate back to the catalog to continue adding more products.
-You can also edit the quantity for each product added to your cart.
After adding items to your cart, you can send it to the seller as a WhatsApp message. Once sent, you will be able to see the details of your order by tapping on the VIEW CART button in your chat window with the seller.
