Many of the innovations seen in recent weeks in the beta apps are about to become reality: and it's something much bigger than you might have thought
The world's most used instant messaging app, WhatsApp, is about to change radically thanks to a new feature: the ability to make purchases and pay directly within the app. These are not rumors but an official announcement by Facebook that confirms many of the features glimpsed in the latest betas of the app and of which we have told you in recent days.
This means that merchants will be able to sell products on WhatsApp through Facebook and Instagram Shops, a service launched in May this year to provide a unified shopping experience between the applications of the Facebook group. This will all be manageable through WhatsApp Business, but customers will be able to buy and pay from the regular WhatsApp app. In addition, Facebook confirms that business users will be able to request technical support directly from the WhatsApp app if some feature isn't performing as it should. The latter possibility, at the moment, would seem to be reserved precisely for business users.
How to shop on WhatsApp
During the harshest months of the Covid-19 pandemic Facebook has greatly enhanced its sales platform on the main social, launching Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops. That is, real virtual stores, with a catalog browsable by users, through which to sell and buy items and services.
A short, then, you can finalize the purchase and make the payment through the WhatsApp app. Contacting a seller through a normal chat on WhatsApp, the seller will be able to send us a product card or the entire catalog that can be browsed without leaving the app.
Without moving from WhatsApp the user can choose to buy a product and pay for it, receiving confirmation of the order and payment. To be able to sell through WhatsApp as well, Zuckerberg's group will ask for the payment of a sum to those who have stores on Facebook or Instagram and will be able to ask for technical assistance.
WhatsApp Pay is coming?
The possibility of using WhatsApp as a payment method has been talked about for years: renamed "WhatsApp Pay", this service has never really arrived, except for some tests in India. But, at this point, it seems clear that it will have to become reality in one way or another.
As it seems now clear that the three apps of the group (Facebook/Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp), are converging towards a single app and, consequently, unique will also be the payment system. In the not-so-distant future, then, Facebook's various properties will become an online marketplace where, perhaps, later it will also be possible to buy and sell between individuals by finalizing transactions within one of the three apps.