Arthur Goldstuck | CEO | World Wide Worx | Editor-in-chief | Gadget.co.za | mail me |
Most South Africans already run their businesses on WhatsApp. A hair salon takes bookings through voice notes. A courier firm shares delivery updates using photo messages. A restaurant sends out its weekly menu via broadcast.
What began as an informal backchannel for orders and service has now become the country’s most entrenched digital business tool. In fact, for many, WhatsApp serves as the foundation of their daily business operations.
WhatsApp commerce is coming for your wallet
The next leap forward will transform WhatsApp into the point-of-sale itself. For Flowcart, a company founded as Sukhiba in 2022, this leap has already occurred. Active in 15 countries across Africa, the Middle East and India, the platform enables full transactions to happen entirely within WhatsApp. WhatsApp, as a business tool, now extends beyond communication to complete commerce.
WhatsApp is the default operating system. Most customers prefer to talk on WhatsApp to the shop, whether buying a product or enquiring about deliveries. Flowcart never aimed to change consumer behaviour. Instead, it brought the entire e-commerce infrastructure, from ordering to payment to fulfilment, into the app where customers already spend their time.
– Ananth Gudipati, Co-Founder and CEO at Flowcart
Keeping everything in one platform
WhatsApp as a business tool simplifies operations for merchants by keeping everything on one platform. If customers are on WhatsApp, why try to bring them to mobile apps and websites?
When Flowcart ran e-commerce previously, they learned that WhatsApp is actually a major trust builder. But there’s a lot of friction. Why not bring all the infrastructure into WhatsApp itself?
Flowcart’s platform allows orders to be placed, addresses captured, and payments made within the chat. Order data then syncs back into e-commerce systems like Shopify, WooCommerce and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The platform also integrates over 30 payment gateways, including Peach Payments, Stitch, Stripe, Flutterwave and Paystack. This allows merchants to offer flexible and localised options.
Flowcart is not necessarily a payment company. They are more of a payment integrator. This strategy fills a significant gap in the local ecosystem. We’re far ahead in making sure our technology suits the local market with options and versatility to tailor further.
– Andrew Pillay, Country Manager at Flowcart in South Africa
However, South Africa has been slow to adapt. South Africans are very much a copycat culture, often related to the trust factor. We’re still dealing with people asking, ‘Is this safe?’ when a website asks for card details. I was with a merchant yesterday, a prominent chain with over 300 branches. They were using a system built 20 years ago.
Regulatory differences also play a role
In India, the payment link is a pop-up inside WhatsApp. It’s a far more seamless experience. In South Africa, that has not yet rolled out.
Meta is implementing WhatsApp Pay country by country. The company runs pilots to ensure fraud prevention before rolling out deeper commerce layers. The result is an uneven playing field. Emerging markets like India, Singapore and Brazil lead in adoption, while others trail behind.
That adoption gap is beginning to close. Merchants in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are now catching up. They are opening up to the fact that they can do a lot more on WhatsApp than pure communication or customer service. WhatsApp as a business tool is no longer just for messaging; it’s becoming a full commercial platform.
The future, he adds, lies in layering artificial intelligence into the channel. All a merchant needs is a single number. Customers can type ‘I need 10 units of sugar’, and AI turns it into a cart. Flowcart is already deploying such systems. Returning customers are identified and offered discounts, credit, or tailored promotions based on their behaviour.
The challenge lies in perception
Most retailers still think of WhatsApp as an extension of SMS. They spam broadcasts. Customers treat WhatsApp as a private space. You cannot use it as a spam channel.
Flowcart insists on opt-in mechanisms. Users choose the services they want. That same trust layer, ironically, has made WhatsApp a business tool attractive for commerce. WhatsApp has an open rate of 85%. Merchants want to preserve that.
The challenge is also personal. I’m a Famous Brands fan. But I’m super annoyed at having the Steers app, the Fishaways app and the Debonairs app. One out of five transactions will use WhatsApp tech within two years. One out of seven will be AI-backed.
As consumers grow fatigued by app overload and merchants wrestle with digital complexity, WhatsApp offers a paradox: a simple front end backed by sophisticated infrastructure. That combination is sure to earn a heart emoji.
