The use of cell phones is a reality for 87% of the Brazilian population who prefer to shop online, according to asurveyreleased this year by the National Confederation of Shopkeepers (CNDL) and the Credit Protection Service (SPC Brazil), in partnership with Offer Wise Research. Making this process even more practical for users was one of the reasons for VaideBus, company for urban transport ticket recharges, to have adopted WhatsApp Payments. The new feature from Meta is already available in Brazil and Infobip, global cloud communication platform, it is the first company to carry out the technical integration and expansion of the novelty, including PIX as a payment method for companies. For the integrator, companies should sell above average with this new payment method and the automation of conversations
What changes, in practice, is that payments for contracted services can be 100% processed via credit card, debit or pix via WhatsApp, natively, reducing the barriers in the payment journey.
"As an example of the first service we have already integrated, VaideBus customers can purchase urban transport tickets securely through WhatsApp, practical and quick. It works as follows: the consumer types in a conversation with the company that they would like to make a recharge and what the amount is. In moments, he receives a confirmation request asking if he wants to pay with the credit or debit card previously registered in his WhatsApp account, or by pix. All of this is done very quickly and automatically, what makes the transaction more practical for the consumer and also for the companies, explain Caio Borges, country manager of Infobip. VaideBus is the first company in the world integrated with WhatsApp Payments by Infobip — and so far it has already noted excellent results in adherence. In just one month, more than 150,000 bus ticket sales were transacted in this mode in some of the cities where the startup operates.
Brazil is a great example of success when it comes to tools that work through WhatsApp due to its great popularity. Just like in national territory, with VaideBus being a pioneer, in India, another country where the app is popular, Payments has been in operation since the second half of 2023. "Brazil is a country where the population quickly embraces new technologies, and this makes it an interesting place for these innovations". Furthermore, Infobip's mission is to help companies improve their customers' experience. Make transactions more agile, safe and practical is in line with this goal and this makes the population buy more with greater satisfaction and that businesses grow and can achieve performance gains with their teams, once chatbots can interact 100% in this process of selling services via WhatsApp, details Borges
For the executive, small businesses will also benefit greatly from the news, once they will be able to transact via app without the costs of card machines, offering the possibility of PIX, transfer method without fee charges. "Furthermore, we will see the growth in sales of these small businesses, since the geographical barrier will no longer be an obstacle for something sold in a neighborhood or municipality to require the consumer to travel to another just to make the payment, when you want to use the debit or credit card, highlights. Another positive point is that with 100% automated interactions with the customer, is it possible to sell more without the need to invest in teams for that, what greatly helps smaller companies, that still do not have a budget for hiring personnel
The application works through APIs, that is, mechanisms that enable more than one software component to communicate using a set of definitions and protocols. In this way, a logic and interaction are created for a chatbot to automatically purchase a service, after a brief exchange of messages with the consumer
In the case of VaideBus sales, the credits on the transport card become available immediately after payment. The company reports that in 100% of all services, WhatsApp Payments has been used as the payment method, given that 92% of ticket recharge sales are completed with their users
Chatbots can provide great support for sales through WhatsApp Payments. Without the need to speak with a human attendant, customers make the purchase by answering simple questions. The goal is to expand this technology so that other companies and services can innovate and provide good shopping experiences for their customers. We are already in new negotiations to integrate this new payment format for several other sectors in Brazil, and in the coming months we will see a rapid expansion of this modality, finalizes Borges.
