WhatsApp has become the preferred platform for Singaporeans to communicate with their brands, as well as participants from Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia and Mexico. Some 72% of Singaporeans say they will shop on WhatsApp, followed by Facebook Messenger (40%), followed by Instagram (30%).
New data from Twilio shows that messaging has gone from a "nice to have" feature to a "must have" feature for brands looking to expand their presence in Singapore. About 6 in 10 (62%) Singaporean consumers want to make purchases directly from a chat messaging app. Additionally, nearly 4 in 10 (38%) Singaporeans said they would spend at least 20% more on a brand that offers conversational messaging.
"As trust becomes the primary currency driving the new era of sharing, companies that prioritize building trust over transactional interactions will gain a competitive advantage. Our recent research highlights the role of dialogic messaging in building a solution architecture," said David Cougill, CEO of Solutions Engineering, APJ at Twilio A relationship that fosters both loyalty and maximum growth.
In addition, the online shopping landscape in Singapore has evolved from a one-way interaction to a more dynamic digital experience with distributed storefronts. While the initial growth of digital businesses made life more convenient for consumers, the eventual proliferation of e-commerce applications has fragmented the platform. Many consumers are increasingly distracted by promotional emails and non-urgent app notifications.
In Singapore, almost half (46%) of consumers receive notifications from at least five different brands. 6 in 10 (58%) are overwhelmed by the constant stream of notifications and say they "sometimes" turn off push notifications.
Richard Blasdale, CEO of Construct Digital, said that because WhatsApp dominates the Singapore market as a personal channel and is traditionally considered secure and encrypted, the opportunity for brands to use it as a business channel is huge.
Also, for small and medium businesses as well as large companies, there is an opportunity for WhatsApp to thrive due to its very simple interface and seemingly expensive to use. However, the challenge for both SMEs and large corporations is the purely personal nature of WhatsApp usage by Singaporeans.
"If they can keep that character and focus on how to use it, the chances are high," he said.
Should WhatsApp be used for marketing or just for transactions?
Bleasdale added that brands using WhatsApp should ideally see it as a personal customer service and support channel, not a bot. In fact, Twilio's research also found that the majority of respondents (71%) would rather speak to a human operator than a robot. The effectiveness of bots has also been questioned, with only 41% of respondents in Singapore saying they could solve their problems with a chatbot alone.
"Simple queries, simple troubleshooting and basic advice can make sense for brands to start working with their most valuable customers as a premium or VIP service/support option," explained Bleasdale. Over time, as customers become more satisfied with the service and support channel, opportunities for personalized and targeted outbound marketing messages will increase. This expansion means the introduction of customer service professionals who are more focused on ensuring that existing customers get better or more value from their existing brand relationships.
If brands are smart and persistent, WhatsApp offers them enormous potential.
He added that as a marketing channel, there is a lot to learn about how WhatsApp works and what doesn't. "In many ways, these will be smart and successful brands that will let their customer base set the agenda and pace for the most effective implementation of WhatsApp in the marketing mix," he added.
Sanchit Menderatha, managing director of Merkle Singapore, echoed Bleasdale's sentiment, saying that conversational commerce will help all businesses, but it is critical that all businesses consider using the channel to facilitate transactions, provide services, or both.
When it comes to marketing the platform, Menderata says brands should use the platform sparingly and continue marketing with highly personalized offers.
The customer is the queen and the queen's approval is everything.
Marketing teams should also remember that while it's easy for brands to connect with customers on WhatsApp, it's also easy for customers to block brands. When asked about the appropriate number of push messages a brand should send a marketer, Menderato said there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Therefore, Merkle advises customers in these situations to set the number of push notifications and limit them to the number of organic interactions your customer has with your app and web channels.
So if a customer opens your app twice a day, the brand might consider sending two notifications per day. And they open the app twice a month, which is their maximum, and making those two notifications contextually and personally relevant in one month is a nice boost for a marketer.
Consider broader integration
While brands can use WhatsApp to connect with existing or potential customers, it's important not to be intrusive, says Gosija Rakowska, commercial director at Publicis Media. Moreover, WhatsApp cannot be seen as a business tool in isolation: brands must integrate and coordinate their interactions on WhatsApp with other interaction points, be it D2C or sales platforms.
Impression and notification capping should be fully analyzed to help ensure the overall brand experience, and analytics play an important role in setting frequency caps and personalization levels.
Unfortunately, WhatsApp's analytics are still in their infancy compared to other platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which give brands better insight into their interactions with their users, Rakowska explains.
Rakowska added that family businesses are relatively successful in using the platform to trade, as in most cases it is the start of a conversation/purchase. Brands can learn from this and use the platform effectively by offering customers to chat via WhatsApp, which is a standard practice of healthy marketing; and use WhatsApp to communicate directly with customers, provide services and recommend additional products.
"Permission-based relationships are a powerful tool to help create personalized connections and reduce frustration or irritation with frequent notifications. By gaining approval, brands empower customers to personalize their experience, which in turn increases engagement."
Understand your consumer
Serm Teck Chun, co-founder and CEO of Antsomi, said that outside of Singapore, markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia have great potential when it comes to using WhatsApp for business. However, he added that, unlike corner stores, big brands need to not only create a dialogue channel to drive sales, but also see it from a higher-level perspective with a long-term data strategy.
"While using tools like WhatsApp to engage with their customers, big brands must also collect conversational data, analyze customer behavior and even use the data to predict customer intent and next purchase," he added. In addition, brands should A/B test their push campaigns, test responses, and improve campaigns to better understand user behavior.
In addition, Twilio's report states that brands need to invest in zero-to-real-time data collection to realize the full potential of distributed storefronts. This information, provided by the buyers themselves, helps the brand understand what matters most to its customers: their pain points, their interests and their communication habits.
"In an environment where almost every brand has a digital storefront, companies that offer an interactive, original and intuitive platform will stand out from the crowd," said Coghill.
Notably, consumers also prefer to interact with a human rather than a robot. A Twilio study found that while three-quarters of respondents in Singapore had spoken to a chatbot at least once in the past month, the majority (71%) would prefer to communicate with human agents over bots. The effectiveness of bots was also questioned, with only 41% of respondents in Singapore saying they could solve their problems with a single chatbot.
He added that inflationary pressures and ultimately recession fears have made today's shoppers more aware of their choices and seeking to learn more about what they are buying. "It is therefore the responsibility of brands to ensure the level of engagement to meet the needs of curious customers," he added.
The global rise of Gen Z members in their early professional roles and consequent increase in disposable income will also bring new challenges and opportunities for brands. As a generation of digital natives, Gen Z is more resistant to traditional advertising than ever. According to the report, to connect with this demographic, brands should invest in the channels these customers prefer.