WhatsApp introduces a new shopping cart feature that allows you to order multiple items with a single message from the businesses on the service. It works in conjunction with the service’s existing catalogs feature. Now, while browsing a company’s products, you can add multiple items to your shopping cart and send the entire order in a single message, replacing the back-and-forth communication that had to happen previously. The feature will be available globally starting today.
Shopping may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Facebook-owned messaging service, but it has become an increasingly popular place for small businesses around the world to sell their products. More than 175 million people used the service to message a WhatsApp Business account every day in late October, the company said. Businesses manage their presence on WhatsApp through the WhatsApp Business app, which had more than 50 million users worldwide as of July this year.
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WhatsApp’s popularity as a shopping service means that the company recently announced that it is investing in new business functions. These include offering hosting services for businesses to manage their WhatsApp messages and expanding the ways for customers to make purchases directly from a chat.
Despite its popularity as a shopping destination, WhatsApp support for in-app payments is still in its early stages globally. TechCrunch notes. Although it recently launched its payments function in India, its implementation in Brazil accelerated when the country’s central bank suspended the service shortly after its launch. But nevertheless, Reuters reports that the president of the country’s central bank, Roberto Campos Neto, recently indicated that he expected peer-to-peer payments to be relaunched “soon”, following the launch of Brazil’s new state-run instant payments system.
