With a presence in virtually all cell phones in Brazil, WhatsApp has established itself as a working tool for small and medium-sized businesses throughout the country. The app is installed on 99% of cell phones in Brazil and maintains 147 million users, according to the study Digital 2024: Brazil.
For experts in service channels, what was once just an informal means of contact now plays a strategic role: more and more companies are automating processes, organizing their operations, and selling directly through the application.
According to a report from Opinion Box, 82% of Brazilians already use WhatsApp to communicate with companies, and 60% say they have already made purchases through the app. It’s no wonder that the number of businesses using the enterprise version – WhatsApp Business – has also grown: Brazil is one of the largest markets in the world for the solution. Approximately 70% of Brazilian companies already use the app as part of their marketing, sales, and relationship strategies, according to the Marketing and Sales Overview 2024 from RD Station.
“Before, everything was manual. Today, I can talk to dozens of customers at the same time, without making anyone wait,” says Gabriel Sávio, director of a furniture store in Goiás. After automating customer service and sales through WhatsApp, he claims to have multiplied revenue by six. “Organization and agility made all the difference”. He uses the Poli Digital customer service platform in his operations, also a company from Goiás, which has chatbot, automations, and CRM for customer service.
“The platform combined with automation can be a real sales engine for a company. There is a big difference between fulfilling an order and operating an intelligent, scalable, and efficient commercial process,” says Alberto Filho, CEO of Poli Digital.
Cases like Gabriel’s are not isolated. A Meta survey (2023) interviewed 6.5 thousand adults from 13 countries, including Brazil, and showed that 81% of Brazilians said they find it easier to message a company than to access a website for contact, and 78% say they are more likely to make a purchase when they can resolve everything there — from first contact to payment.
Alessandra Bona, from Burntech Caldeiras Equipamentos Industriais, also a client of Poli Digital, mentions that the ability to respond to customers on the same screen, attending to multiple channels at once, greatly facilitated the day-to-day. “Being able to have everything recorded in a pre-sales funnel (messages and calls) was a deciding factor.”
In addition to improving conversations, WhatsApp also boosts sales with integrated features. One of the most used is Click-to-WhatsApp, which turns Instagram and Facebook ads into direct conversations on the customer service platform. According to Meta, more than 40% of Brazilian advertisers have already adopted this functionality — a sign that WhatsApp has become a central point in the buying journey.
Another highlight is Poli Pay, a tool developed by Poli Digital that acts as a direct order management system through WhatsApp and Instagram. It allows companies to send and receive payments directly through chat, with an integrated product catalog and shopping cart. The functionality generated around R$ 7 million since its launch in 2020. The conversion rate achieved with Poli Pay was 46%, double the average of traditional e-commerce.
“In other words, with support and organization, we were able to grow even with a lean team. WhatsApp is the app that is already in our pocket, it is agile, direct, and convenient — a huge competitive advantage,” says Alessandra Bona.
Contrary to robust solutions created for large companies, which are often expensive and difficult to implement, WhatsApp Business offers an affordable entry point for the digitalization of SMEs. “Automating customer service, recording conversation histories, training teams, and integrating direct payment through chat. All of this is already possible, and does not require significant investments,” says Alberto Filho.
