In recent years, WhatsApp has gone from being just a communication channel between people to becoming a relevant space for interaction between brands and consumers. With this shift, new demands have emerged: if the customer wants to solve everything there, why not sell in a structured way in the same environment?
The most common answer was automation. But what many e-commerce businesses realized — sometimes belatedly — is that automating is not the same as converting.
Artificial intelligence, when used only to speed up responses, doesn’t necessarily generate sales. It’s necessary to go beyond: structuring an operation that combines context, personalization, and commercial intelligence to turn conversations into real business opportunities.
The shift from a support channel to a sales channel
In Brazil, WhatsApp is the most used app by the population. However, most brands still see the channel as an extension of customer service, not as a sales engine.
The big turning point happens when the question changes: instead of ‘how can I serve better?’, we start to think about ‘how can I sell better in this channel?’
This change in mindset opens up space for the use of artificial intelligence as a support tool for consultative sales, whether carried out by a human team or autonomous agents.
LIVE!, a well-established brand in the fitness fashion segment, faced a challenging scenario: WhatsApp already represented an important part of communication with customers, but the model did not scale with the agility that the business demanded.
The company decided to restructure the channel, adopting an AI-centered approach, with two main focuses:
- Support the human team (personal shoppers) with intelligence, to respond faster and in a personalized way;
- Automate part of the conversations, maintaining the brand language and focusing on performance.
With this change, LIVE! managed to significantly increase the productivity of attendants, reduce the average response time, and keep the customer experience at the center — without giving up on conversion. The data indicates a consistent growth in sales via WhatsApp and an improvement in satisfaction rate.
These indicators reinforce the importance of not treating WhatsApp just as another point of contact. It can and should be a structured channel for acquiring and retaining customers, as long as it is supported by data, strategy, and applicable technology.
AI with purpose: neither hype, nor miracle
Artificial intelligence in e-commerce is far from being a magical solution. It requires clear goal definition, language curation, integration with platforms, and above all, continuous learning. Success is not in ‘having AI,’ but in using AI with purpose.
Brands that move in this direction are managing to scale their operations and build a more consistent and efficient relationship with their consumers.
WhatsApp, today, is much more than a support channel. For those who know how to structure, test, and measure, it can be one of the main sales channels in the Brazilian digital retail.
