Exclusive Partnership: WhatsApp Business API Integrated into ExpandCart Stores
We’re thrilled to announce the new exclusive partnership between ExpandCart, the leading eCommerce platform in the Middle East, and WhatsApp, the instant messaging channel giant in the whole world.
Now, you can build an online store using ExpandCart platform and get a WhatsApp Business API that enables you to get notified of all actions that take place on your online store, power your communications with customers, elevate their shopping experiences, boost your sales, and much more.
Need to make the case for the importance of WhatsApp Business API to your online store?!
Let’s delve deeper into the benefits you can get when you integrate your store on ExpandCart platform with your WhatsApp business account.
How WhatsApp Business API Integration Can Help Retailers? Top Features
This cannot be stressed enough — you can easily expand your potential customer base by tapping into countless customers in the Middle East region, using WhatsApp. That’s the bottom line. Not just that, take a look at what you can also get…
Tracking All Actions & Conversions
You can easily track all actions that take place on your online store. When you set up WhatsApp as the preferred way to receive notifications, you’ll receive programmatic notifications once a customer registers, makes a purchase, adds an item to the cart, etc.
You’ll also receive notifications about your customers’ order status — when the order has shipped and the payment has been done, when a customer has reviewed a product, and so on.
Effectively Engaging & Connecting with Customers
The real power of WhatsApp Business API lies in the programmatic and personalized notifications you can send to your customers through it. Once they make a purchase and give you permission to send them new updates/offers, you get a very powerful tool that enables you to provide a great post-purchase experience to your customers.
Instead of using traditional SMS and email to send order-related information and special offers, WhatsApp API has opened up a new, trendy channel for businesses and more convenient for customers to track orders live without switching between apps.
Collecting Instant Feedback
You can easily collect instant feedback through your customers’ replies to your messages sent via WhatsApp. You can leverage the data you collect to better understand your customers and their shopping behavior through more reliable reporting
Boosting Sales
It’s pretty clear that eCommerce brands that demonstrate a continuous pursuit of excellence in customer experience not only reap long-term customer loyalty but also positively impact sales growth.
Imagine now how easy, effective, and convenient it is to contact your customers using WhatsApp.
Getting WhatsApp Business API to your eCommerce store will definitely help you create a unique consumer experience that will attract more customers and increase your brand loyalty, which in turn leads to increased sales.
How to Integrate WhatsApp Business API to Your Store on ExpandCart?
Right, we’re getting to the good stuff now…
Just a few clicks are all you need to install and integrate your WhatsApp Business account with your online store on ExpandCart and start sending and receiving messages programmatically.
Here is how?
Phase 1: Build an Online Store on ExpandCart
If you don’t have an online store on the ExpandCart platform, don’t waste your time and start building your own today and get a free online store.
- Go to the registration page using this link https://www.expandcart.com/en/register/
- Fill in the required data — your store name, email address, password, name, and phone number. And then hit the blue button “Create Your Store.”
- Your store will be created after confirming your data. That’s it.
- Start your journey and discover the platform.
No credit card required and no hidden fees
Phase 2: Have a WhatsApp Business Account
As we previously mentioned that you should have a WhatsApp Business Account to integrate it with your online store and get benefits from all WhatsApp features. In case you don’t have it, follow the below steps:
- Visit Google Play Store or Apple App Store to install the WhatsApp Business app.
- Register and create a business account by filling out your business name, selecting a business category, choosing a profile picture, and so on.
- Build your business profile by tapping the “Explore” and then choosing “Business profile” where you can add your business information like a brief description of your business, address, hours, social media accounts, etc.
For more details, watch the below video?
Phase 3: Now, Integrate
- From your store control panel, tap “Apps & Services.”
- Browse all apps till you find WhatsApp or type the word “WhatsApp” in the search bar to easily find it, and then hit the “Install” blue button.
- Once installed, click on “Edit” to set up the application and complete the integration process between your online store and your WhatsApp Business account.
- This step is very important. You need to insert your business data — type your business name, your WhatsApp Business ID, and the mobile number that you use for WhatsApp. Fill the fields and hit “Next.”
Your data will take a little time to be reviewed and confirmed. Once you receive a confirmation code, type it, and verify your account.
By now, you have successfully integrated your online store on ExpandCart with your WhatsApp Business account.
If you don’t have an online store on ExpandCart yet, create it now and get FREE, exclusive WhatsApp Business API integration to your online
No credit card required and no hidden fees.
Phase 4: Customize the Application
Once you verify your account, you’ll notice that the editing page of the application has changed to suit the new setup requirements.
Let’s explain each feature in more detail…
1. Template Messages
You can create different templates for messages you may send to your customers. These templates are created on Facebook or WhatsApp applications.
Please note that you cannot create these templates on the ExpandCart control panel as they should be confirmed first by the WhatsApp system.
The below image shows examples of some templates for messages. Each message should have:
- A name to identify it.
- Language of the message. Make sure to write messages in both English and Arabic languages if your store uses both of them.
- Status that shows if your message has been approved or rejected by the WhatsApp system.
- Header: like the message subject-line.
- The body of the message that will be sent to you or to your customers.
- Footer: your signature.
2. Phone Country Keys & Number Rewriting
It’s a rule you set to send your messages to your consumers in specific countries. WhatsApp will only send messages to consumers that their phone numbers start with the digits you’ve chosen.
You have the ability to send messages to customers in a specific country or many countries. For example, if you want to choose Egypt, the UAE, and KSA, type their calling codes separated by a comma (002,00971,00966).
You can keep this area empty if you want to send messages to all customers wherever they are.
Regarding the “Number Rewriting,” it enables you to replace the + sign that some users type before their number with double zeros to match the WhatsApp system.
3. Customer Notifications
Here WhatsApp will send a notification to the customer once he/she completes their registration. You can also send a verification message to ask your customers to verify their WhatsApp account created on your store.
The below image shows that you can enable or disable sending a confirmation message of the first order and set a message for it. You can set the length of this activation code and if you want it to be numbers only or alphanumeric.
You can also send a confirmation code to your customers for every new order they made in your store. And you can set the maximum trials count which the customer can request to resend the confirmation code to him/her.
4. New Order Notifications
This option enables you to send customers messages once they confirm new orders. You can hit the “Add New Message” green button to add whatever message you want to send your customers to enable them to track their orders.
5. Store Owner Notifications
It’s the same idea as sending messages for customers to track their orders, but here you, as a store owner, will receive messages to notify you of any action that takes place on your online store; for example, a customer has registered or asked for a cashback, or if the order has been delivered, canceled, expired, etc.
In Conclusion
We hope that we have succeeded in the previous paragraphs in clarifying the advantages and benefits of integrating WhatsApp Business API with your online store on the ExpandCart platform.
In this brief article, we talked about the possibility of tracking actions taking place on your online store, communicating effectively with customers, collecting immediate feedback from customers, increasing sales through integrating your online store with WhatsApp Business API, and so much more. And we explained the four stages of integration in detail and in pictures, whenever possible.
From our practical point of view, we see this new integration as an excellent opportunity to expand your customer base and raise the quality level of service provided to them in your store, which in turn will increase your store sales.
Therefore, we recommend hunting this opportunity and these new advantages available to you from ExpandCart — the largest e-commerce platform in the Arab world, and WhatsApp — the most famous application of messages and communication in the world.
No credit card required and no hidden fees.
