How will you be communicating in a global jewellery industry?

It sounds obvious but the answer is not the phone, email or post! This is an important question and answer when you consider that suppliers are spending less on attending trade shows and advertising in magazines and moving to a more connect online market that misses out the traditional media in favour of a much lower cost base of the ‘marketplace’.

These marketplaces which essentially are B2B directories for suppliers and retailers to come together but with lots of useful tools, most offer a means to talking directly with each other but by far is WhatsApp.

WhatsApp Business makes it easy for businesses to connect with existing suppliers and engage with new suppliers, something so important these days in a global world of trade. It’s a lot like the WhatsApp you already know, just with a few extra features to make it compatible with doing business.

• A business profile complete with the company address, email, and website link.
• You can also view stats that measure message open/read rates and use tools that make it simpler to respond to customers.

WHY USE IT?

Whether you use online marketplaces or not, these numbers will make you think twice if you’re not using it. There’s a lot of talk about Facebook Messenger Marketing and WeChat, but WhatsApp is bigger. It’s a way to tap into the 1.5 billion users, 1 billion daily actives who use WhatsApp!
There’s a lot of business buzz right now about the WhatsApp messaging app, it has quickly emerged as the go-to messaging app for over 1.5 billion members. It’s fast, simple, and convenient way to chat, create group texts, share photos and videos, send and receive documents, and engage in private, secure conversations anytime, day or night and better still if you need to talk you can send a voice recording or have a good old fashioned voice call, and its free no mater where some one is in the world.

Engaging globally
If your supplier base is global, you should consider this, its reported that in 2019, WhatsApp is the number one messaging app globally and in 104 countries. It has the highest smartphone penetration rates as high as 95% in some of those countries. Because it’s free for users, WhatsApp has, in less than a decade, become the most popular app for personal and business conversations.

WhatsApps popularity is unrivalled in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, with the exception of China who tends to prefer WeChat for business communications. The rise of smartphone penetration in these regions has also accelerated the use of messaging apps as a preferred channel for commercial transactions, as well. If you want to tap into a more global market, WhatsApp and other messaging tools should absolutely be in your communications portfolio.

Although the jewellery trade is very trusting, we still want to talk and meet the person we are looking to work or buy from, the traditional tools like email and telephone just don’t cut it, these modern tools are a must to allow us to embrace a new world of global online marketplaces and online trade directories such as The Jewellery App-Connect (TJA-Connect) for sourcing new suppliers and products.

Lets not forget, modern platforms aren’t just about sending a message, you can send images, videos, recorded messages and even conference calls which considering its free it shouldn’t be ignored.

By embarrassing some new tech tools like TJA-Connect, WhatsApp, Facebook or WeChat buyers and sellers will open up new opportunities that will help them grow, develop and build their business and when they start at free you really don’t have a reason not to.