How WhatsApp Business is transforming e-commerce in Latin America
The app is helping to boost e-commerce revenue and transform traditional business models in the process.
In Latin America, WhatsApp isn’t just a useful messaging app to keep in touch with friends and family. It’s part of the fabric of every life.
Here, WhatsApp Business is used to take care of everything from scheduling appointments and ordering food to booking flights or renting an apartment and is the de-facto way for companies to reach their users.
The reliance on WhatsApp has been accelerated by broader digital behavior trends in Latin America. For one, a large percentage of the population rely on smartphones to get online which means that web native tools are less effective at reaching users here. In addition, WhatsApp has extremely high penetration rates across region, giving the platform unprecedented reach with users. For example, it’s the most heavily used app in Brazil, installed in 99% of smartphones, while in Mexico, the app has 77 million users.
This means that, culturally, we find high rates of trust and familiarity among users, while the deep penetration rates make it the fastest and most direct way for businesses to engage with customers.
Yet one industry in particular is experiencing phenomenal success thanks to WhatsApp Business. The app has become an integral part of the direct sales process, helping to boost e-commerce revenue and transform traditional business models in the process.
Riding the E-Commerce Boom with WhatsApp Business
The pandemic permanently changed buyer behaviour, causing huge segments of consumers to shift their allegiance from brick-and-mortar stores to the convenience of online shopping.
In Latin America, the growth of the e-commerce segment is accelerating at an especially rapid pace, growing by 20% in 2024, reaching a total value of US$39.3 billion. WhatsApp Business has been a key growth mechanism due to its immediacy, personalization, and accessibility.
For example, data shows that WhatsApp Business generated $5.28 billion USD of revenue for Brazil and $1.9 billion USD of revenue in Mexico in the month of December 2022 alone.
Companies in the region have been quick to seize on the opportunity.
"From an entrepreneurship standpoint, in Mexico and more broadly across Latin America, we have seen startup founders increasingly incorporating WhatsApp Business tools into their broader e-commerce strategy," said Odille Sanchez, Leader of Tech and Science-based Entrepreneurship Center of Excellence, Tecnológico de Monterrey. "Startup founders are very conscious of where their potential customers are, and WhatsApp, for some time now, has been the most convenient way to reach them."
However, reaching users on their platform of choice is just the start of the story.
Turning WhatsApp into a one-stop shop for e-commerce sales
The dominance of WhatsApp in Latin America means that the app isn’t just being used as a customer support interface, but a tool to support the entire sales pipeline.
Interactive catalogs fused with AI agents, for example, can help to guide customers through purchase decisions without ever having to navigate to other apps or platforms.
This not only offers a much more streamlined form of communication but also helps to drive sales by removing barriers to purchase and reducing potential friction points between the brand and the consumer through automated and highly personalized interactions. This is a prime example of the importance of social commerce in the broader e-commerce ecosystem.
“What we’re seeing with WhatsApp Business is not just a disruption, it’s a blueprint for the next era of commerce in Latin America. This isn’t only e-commerce evolving, it’s the rise of c-commerce: a model where conversations are the transaction. Built on immediacy, personalization, and accessibility, this approach will outpace any platform that doesn’t place the customer dialogue at the core of its strategy,” explained Roberto Peñacastro CEO of Leadsales, a CRM platform named as the WhatsApp Solution Partner of Meta for SMEs in Latin America.
However, it’s important to recognize that WhatsApp was initially designed to provide simple, secure, reliable messaging and calls. Latin American startups have been responsible for producing a wave of digital solutions and integrations that have transformed the capabilities of the app for e-commerce purposes. These innovations not only make it easier for brands to engage with customers thanks to personalized automations but also finding ways to ensure companies can scale their sales sustainably.
According to Javier Domínguez Ferrer, CEO of Padeco Global, a marketplaces-focused agency based in Spain and Paraguay, said, "the challenge of WhatsApp Business is not selling; it's actually scaling. While this platform doesn't evolve into an ecosystem with logistics and data, it will still complement the business, but it won't have the capabilities of an e-commerce or marketplace."
Nicolás Camhi, Co-founder of conversational AI tool Vambe, raises a similar point. “Here in LatAm, we really like to talk. People don’t just engage and buy something directly from a web page. They try to reach out. They want someone to help them. They want to understand pricing. They want to understand delivery. And all of that kind of communication is something super hard to scale.”
Custom integrations and APIs designed for WhatsApp business users in Latin America are, therefore, another key piece of the puzzle. For instance, B2B software solution Mercately has built the infrastructure to integrate direct sales on WhatsApp with platforms like Stripe and HubSpot and leverages AI agents to help brands communicate with customers, check inventory, take payments, and create purchase orders without leaving the app.
Still, the purpose of engaging with customers and providing a seamless customer experience on WhatsApp is to move customers to the final stage of the pipeline and, ultimately, result in a sale or purchase. This means reducing friction during the payment process, which is the final hurdle for brands.
“Social media payments such as WhatsApp’s new business payments service are a great example of natively baking payments into a conversation that is already going on between businesses and consumers,” explained Steven Madow, vice president of product at paytech, Stax Payments, in relation to the launch of WhatsApp Pay in Brazil.
Unfortunately, the availability of digital payment solutions like the example above aren’t consistently available across the region. Further, Latin America is notorious for having a largely underbanked population. A third of adults here still lack access to a traditional bank account.
These two factors suggest that commerce companies and digital providers in the region will need to find workarounds to ensure consumers can pay for goods and services in a convenient and hassle-free manner.
WhatsApp Business showcases LatAm Innovation
WhatsApp Business is at the heart of the e-commerce revolution in Latin America, helping companies meet their customers in their preferred location. Meanwhile, an ongoing wave of tech innovations has made it easier for brands to create personalized solutions that drive sales and automate process delivery in a scalable manner.
As a result, the e-commerce revolution has helped to showcase the creative innovations being born in the region, offering key insights into how emerging tech like Agentic AI can be used to deliver real-world solutions that support business growth.
Katie Konyn is a UK-based fellow at ESPACIO Media Incubator. She is an experienced writer who has contributed to TechCrunch, Inc., Forbes, and Entrepreneur Magazine.
