Latest / The DTC Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Direct-to-Consumer Brands, Shopify, and E-Commerce Growth / How DTC Brands Are Using WhatsApp for Customer Service and Sales
Transcript
- Lucas: WhatsApp is now the most popular messaging app globally with over two billion users, and an increasing number of direct to consumer brands are treating it not just as a customer service channel but as a sales channel. We're seeing open rates above 90 percent — which blows email out of the water. Luna: That's wild. But isn't WhatsApp primarily for personal chats? How do brands actually use it without being intrusive? Lucas: Great question. The key is opt-in. Customers have to agree to receive messages, usually after a purchase or when they sign up for order updates. Once they're in, brands can send shipping confirmations, delivery reminders, and even personalized product recommendations. The WhatsApp Business API costs about a hundred dollars a month for the platform, plus fees per conversation — roughly a few cents each. So it's affordable, especially compared to SMS marketing. Luna: I heard that Warby Parker started using WhatsApp for virtual try-on follow-ups. Is that true? Lucas: Yes. Warby Parker uses WhatsApp to send customers a quick message after they've used the at-home try-on kit, asking if they need help choosing frames. It's low-pressure but timely. Glossier, on the other hand, uses it for customer support — customers can send photos of their skin concerns and get product recommendations within minutes. That kind of real-time interaction builds trust. Luna: But what about the 24-hour rule? I read that businesses can only initiate conversations within a 24-hour window after the customer's last message, otherwise they have to use pre-approved templates. Lucas: Exactly. That's the biggest structural constraint. After 24 hours of silence, you can't just send a random promotional message — you need a template approved by WhatsApp. That forces brands to be strategic. You can't spam. But honestly, that's a feature, not a bug. It keeps the channel clean and customer-friendly. Luna: Right. And then there's the chatbot layer. A lot of brands use AI chatbots on WhatsApp to handle FAQs first, and only escalate to a human agent if needed. Lucas: That hybrid model works well. The chatbot can answer 'Where's my order?' in seconds, and if the customer types 'I want a refund,' it hands off to a human. One skincare brand I spoke with said they recover about 15 percent of abandoned carts by sending a WhatsApp message with a link to the cart — and a 10 percent discount code — within an hour of abandonment. Luna: Fifteen percent is huge. Especially when you consider that WhatsApp doesn't have the deliverability issues that email has. Emails land in spam, but WhatsApp messages land right in the notification bar. Lucas: If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used — maybe a new email flow or a referral strategy — that's exactly why we do these shows. We deliberately don't run ads on them. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep this completely independent and focused on what works, not what an advertiser wants us to talk about. Lucas: Exactly. So back to WhatsApp — there's also a commerce angle. WhatsApp now allows in-chat payments in some countries, turning the app into a mini storefront. In Brazil and India, customers can browse products, ask questions, and complete the purchase all inside the chat. Luna: That's the endgame, right? No more clicking out to a website. The entire funnel is in one app. Lucas: Exactly. But for most DTC brands in the US, that's still a few steps away. Right now, the biggest wins come from customer service and post-purchase engagement. I've seen brands reduce their email support volume by 40 percent just by shifting order-related queries to WhatsApp. Luna: And what about privacy? Customers are sharing their phone numbers, which is a pretty intimate data point. How do brands handle that responsibly? Lucas: Transparency is key. Brands need to clearly state that the number will only be used for order updates or support, and never sold. Some even let customers choose their notification preferences — shipping only, or also promotions. The ones that do well treat WhatsApp as a relationship channel, not a blast channel. Luna: So what would you recommend to a DTC brand that's thinking about getting started with WhatsApp today? Lucas: Start small. Pick one use case — like abandoned cart recovery or order tracking — and A/B test it against email or SMS for a month. Measure not just conversion rates but also customer satisfaction scores. And make sure you have a way to handle messages quickly, because once you turn on WhatsApp, customers expect a response within minutes. Luna: That speed expectation is a real operational challenge. It's not a set-it-and-forget-it channel. Lucas: No, it's not. But the brands that nail it build incredible loyalty. I think over the next two years, we'll see WhatsApp become as standard for DTC as email is today. Luna: I could see that. Especially with younger consumers who basically live in messaging apps.