Turning WhatsApp into a real sales channel for your business

Your customers already spend hours on WhatsApp every day. They ask about prices there, send screenshots there and pay you by mobile money after chatting there. Yet many businesses still run WhatsApp like a personal phone: a mix of family chats and orders, slow replies and no record of who bought what. The free WhatsApp Business app is built to fix that and turn those chats into sales.

Used properly, WhatsApp can work like a shop, a customer list and a marketing channel in one free app. Here is how to set it up.

1. Use WhatsApp Business on a separate number

Download the free WhatsApp Business app and register it on a number used only for the business. Keeping business and personal chats apart makes everything else in this guide easier, and it means the business number can be handed to a staff member if you grow.

2. Complete your business profile

Fill in every field: business name, category, a short description, address or area, opening hours, email and website or Facebook page. Use your logo as the profile picture. A complete profile tells new customers you are a real, settled business.

3. Build your catalogue

The catalogue lets customers browse your products or services with photos, prices and short descriptions without leaving the chat. Add your best sellers first, with clear photos on a plain background and honest prices. When someone asks, “What do you have?”, you send the catalogue instead of 30 separate pictures.

4. Set greeting and away messages

A greeting message goes automatically to people who message you for the first time. Use it to welcome them and say how to order. An away message goes out when you are closed, so customers know when to expect a reply instead of thinking you have ignored them.

5. Save quick replies

You probably type the same answers many times a day: prices, delivery areas, payment details, opening hours. Save them as quick replies, then type “/” in a chat to pick one. You reply faster, and every customer gets the same correct information.

6. Organise chats with labels

Labels work like a simple customer tracking system. Create labels such as New enquiry, Awaiting payment, Paid, Delivered and Follow up. At the end of each day, open Awaiting payment and Follow up and make sure no sale has been forgotten.

7. Treat your Status as a shop window

Your Status is seen by people who have saved your number. Post new stock, behind-the-scenes photos, customer reviews (with permission) and limited offers. Aim for a few useful posts a day rather than twenty. Mix selling posts with helpful ones, such as how to use or care for a product.

8. Use broadcast lists, not spam

A broadcast list sends one message to many customers at once, but each person receives it as a private chat, and replies come only to you. Each list can hold up to 256 contacts, and only people who have saved your number will receive your broadcasts.

That last rule is useful: it means broadcasts reach people who chose to hear from you. So make saving your number part of every sale (“Save this number to get our new stock first”). Then:

• split lists by interest, for example Wholesale buyers and Retail customers;
• send only when you have something worth saying, such as new stock, a real offer or a useful reminder;
• keep messages short with one clear next step; and
• remove anyone who asks to stop, straight away.

Adding people to groups without asking, or sending several broadcasts a day, quickly gets you muted, blocked or reported.

9. Take orders and payments properly

• Confirm every order in writing: item, quantity, price, delivery fee, address and delivery day.
• Check that mobile money has actually arrived in your wallet before releasing goods. Do not rely on a screenshot, which can be faked.
• Send a simple receipt or thank-you message after payment. It is good service and gives you a record.

10. Reply fast

A customer who messages three shops will often buy from the first one that answers clearly. Set times during the day to clear your chats, and use quick replies so speed does not cost you accuracy.

A simple example

Example (for illustration): Akosua sells children’s clothes from home in Accra. She used to post photos on her personal WhatsApp and lose track of orders between family messages. She moved the business to WhatsApp Business on a new number, put 40 best-selling items in her catalogue, saved quick replies for prices and delivery zones, and labelled every chat by order stage.

Every Friday she sends one broadcast with new arrivals to customers who saved her number. Because she can now see her Follow up label, she messages parents a week after delivery to ask if the sizes fit. Many reorder in the next size up.

Start this week

1. Install WhatsApp Business on a dedicated number and complete every part of the profile.
2. Add your ten best-selling products to the catalogue.
3. Write a greeting message, an away message and five quick replies.
4. Create five labels and label your current open chats.
5. Ask every customer this week to save your number, then build your first broadcast list.

Once the orders come in, use these simple ways to turn buyers into repeat customers, and make sure your profile matches your brand. Want to learn alongside other business owners? Join the EDOKAN business community on WhatsApp.