Latest / The DTC Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Direct-to-Consumer Brands, Shopify, and E-Commerce Growth / How DTC Brands Use WhatsApp for Conversational Commerce
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I was talking to the founder of a DTC skincare brand last week — he told me that 70 percent of their repeat orders now come through WhatsApp. Not email, not SMS. WhatsApp. Luna: Seventy percent? That's huge. How did they get there? Lucas: They started with a simple broadcast list for back-in-stock alerts, but customers started replying with questions. So they turned it into a two-way channel. Now they have an AI chatbot handling the basics and a human team for complex queries. Luna: So it's basically a CRM and a customer service desk rolled into one chat app. Lucas: Exactly. And the numbers are hard to ignore. WhatsApp messages have a 98 percent delivery rate and a 90 percent open rate within three minutes. Compare that to email, where the average open rate is around 20 percent. Luna: But isn't WhatsApp more intrusive? People use it for family and friends. Lucas: That's the key — you have to be invited. The brand I mentioned uses an opt-in process at checkout: customers check a box saying they want to receive order updates and offers via WhatsApp. They're not spamming random numbers. Luna: Okay, so opt-in is essential. What about the WhatsApp Business API? I know it's not free beyond the basic app. Lucas: Right. The free WhatsApp Business app works for small brands with a few hundred conversations a day. But once you scale, you need the Business API, which charges per conversation — typically a few cents per message, depending on the region. It's still cheaper than SMS in many markets. Luna: And I imagine the ROI is higher because the conversations are more personal. Lucas: Absolutely. Let's take an example you might know: Bombay Shaving Company in India. They shifted a big chunk of their customer support to WhatsApp, and they saw a 40 percent increase in repeat purchases within six months. They send personalized product recommendations based on past orders, and customers can reply to ask for a different variant. Luna: That's smart — it turns a broadcast channel into a dialogue. But what about brands that don't have a huge support team? Can they automate? Lucas: Definitely. Many DTC brands start with a simple chatbot that answers FAQs — order status, return policy, product size advice. Allbirds, for example, uses a WhatsApp chatbot for order tracking and sizing help. The bot can show images of products and even process returns without human intervention. Luna: So the bot handles the easy stuff, and humans step in for the messy stuff. That lowers cost and keeps customers happy. Lucas: Exactly. And the data from those conversations is gold. You learn what questions customers actually ask, what objections they have, and you can feed that back into your product pages and email flows. Luna: That reminds me — I read that some DTC brands are using WhatsApp for abandoned cart recovery. Instead of a plain email, they send a WhatsApp message with a picture of the product and a 'still interested?' prompt. Lucas: And that works because it's immediate. Email can sit in the inbox for hours. WhatsApp is in your pocket, and the notification is hard to ignore. I've seen recovery rates double compared to email alone. Luna: But there's a risk: if you overuse it, customers will block you. How do brands avoid that? Lucas: Frequency is everything. Good brands limit broadcasts to one or two per week. They also segment — a VIP customer who buys every month gets different messages than a new customer. And they always include an easy opt-out. If someone says 'stop', you have to respect that immediately. Luna: Speaking of respecting the customer, privacy is a big topic. WhatsApp is owned by Meta, and some consumers are wary. Lucas: It's a valid concern. But the DTC brands I've talked to say their customers are fine with it as long as they get value — like exclusive discounts or early access. And end to end encryption means even Meta can't read the messages, though metadata still exists. Brands need to be transparent about how they use the data. Luna: That's a good note. Lucas, I'm curious — what's the easiest way for a brand to start with WhatsApp? Should they jump into the API or start small? Lucas: Start small. Download the WhatsApp Business app, set up a profile with your store's photo, catalog, and business hours. Send a broadcast to 20 loyal customers asking for feedback. See how they respond. You'll learn more from ten real conversations than from a hundred theory articles. Luna: And then once you see traction, you can invest in the API and chatbot tools. That makes sense. Lucas: Exactly. And there are platforms like Twilio, WATI, and Intercom that integrate with Shopify and make it easy to manage at scale. You can even trigger automated messages based on customer behavior — like a push after a customer hasn't ordered in 30 days. Luna: This is where it ties back to something we've talked about before — personalization at scale. WhatsApp just happens to be the most personal channel right now. Lucas: Right. And it's not just for support or sales. Some DTC brands are using WhatsApp for community building. They have a group where early customers get sneak peeks and can give direct feedback. That turns customers into collaborators. Luna: I love that. It's like a private VIP club in your phone. Lucas: If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own brand, that's what we love to hear. And if you find value in the show, we do have a little listener-supported page where people can buy us a coffee — it's how we keep the pod ad-free and independent. You can find it at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a simple way to say thanks if the episodes are helping you. No pressure at all, but we appreciate every single one. Lucas: So back to WhatsApp — one more example I want to share. A mattress-in-a-box brand used WhatsApp to send a 'sleep quiz' after purchase, and then followed up with personalized mattress care tips. Their repeat purchase rate for pillows and toppers went up by 25 percent. Luna: Because they kept the conversation going after the sale. That's the key — it's not just about closing the deal, it's about the relationship. Lucas: Exactly. And a lot of brands forget that. They pour money into acquisition but ignore the channel that's already in their customer's pocket. WhatsApp costs pennies per message compared to Facebook ads. Luna: What's the one thing you'd tell a DTC marketer who's on the fence about WhatsApp? Lucas: Try it with your top 50 customers for one month. Track how many reply, how many buy again, and how many unsubscribe. The data will tell you whether it's worth scaling. I bet you'll be surprised. Luna: I'm going to do that with my own side project. I've been relying on email, but this makes me want to test WhatsApp. Lucas: Let me know how it goes. I think we're going to see more and more DTC brands build their own WhatsApp-first loyalty programs. It's the closest thing to a direct line that doesn't get filtered by an algorithm. Luna: And with AI getting better, those conversations will only get smarter. It's an exciting space. Lucas: It really is. Alright, that's our episode for today. Next time, we'll look at how DTC brands are using augmented reality for virtual try-ons — but that's a whole other conversation. Luna: Can't wait. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna.