eCommerce on WeChat

[jekram]

eCommerce on WeChat

Please investigate how WeChat has been successful in eCommerce. What can we learn from that experience for Messenger or WhatsApp eCommerce

This is more from a business perspective.

[ImranBinShoukat]

I have investigated and looked into WeChat. From what I understood, the reason WeChat has been successful in eCommerce is because of its Mini-program. WeChat has built-in payment system, WeChat store, and WeChat mini-program functionalities which make them successful in eCommerce.

Mini-programs are app within app. Businesses can design their user interfaces the way they want to and have control over customer data as well. They can create a mini-app for displaying product catalog, for checkout, for all the things they want and they can design the UI as per their need. Facebook messenger and WhatsApp has limited set of message types and templates available and only these can be sent. But through WeChat mini-program business can have different other message templates designed by the business itself.

On WeChat, users can do all of the things without leaving WeChat. They can browse products, manage cart, make electronic payments all within WeChat and good thing is the user experience that they get. The UI seems pretty much similar to what businesses show on the website.

I tried to install WeChat to experience WeChat feature and user experience but I could not complete the signup process. It is asking me to ask WeChat user to first scan your QR code. I don't understand what this is and why they need to do this.

After investigating I found out that here’re so many users abusing WeChat account to do something illegal or violating the terms of WeChat. So WeChat has very strict rules on WeChat. NOT ALL people need to ask WeChat users for help. Some might no need to ask for verification when they signed up WeChat. Basically, WeChat system will detect your country and phone number and then decide you need verification or not.

[sojharo]

I have also looked and investigated into WeChat and here are important points that I have found.

WeChat Pay

1. Just like Messenger and Whatsapp, they also have their payment system called WeChat Pay. Facebook's payment system is still new and is gradually being introduced to the other countries.
2. Within the WeChat Pay, they have different types of payment products available:

https://pay.weixin.qq.com/index.php/public/wechatpay_en/product_index

WeChat Quick Pay

WeChat Pay users present their WeChat Pay payment code to the merchant. Merchants scan the code to take the payment. Cashiers can use Quick Pay to accept payments within 1-2 seconds without the need for any cash or change, increasing efficiency and avoiding cashier errors.

QR Code Payment

Merchants generate their own individual payment collection QR code. Users open WeChat to scan the code, confirm the amount, and make the payment after passing the security checks. This product is designed for merchants without code scanners or other cash registers that can be used to collect money

Mini Programs Payment

Merchants accept payments in a Mini Program by calling the WeChat Mini Program payment API. WeChat users open the merchant’s Mini Program, place an order, enter their payment password to complete the payment, and then return to the merchant's Mini Program. These are often suitable for online shopping experience.

Official Account Payment

Merchants can communicate with users on WeChat through Official Accounts. Once a merchant has opened an Official Account and enabled the payment feature, users can pay for goods and services inside the Official Account. An Official Account is a tool for managing and understanding fans. Merchants can regularly promote their brands and services through their Official Accounts to encourage users to spend money in their physical or online stores. After a merchant successfully opens its Official Account, users can pay for goods or services in the Official Account.

In-app payment

Users make purchases in merchant apps using WeChat Pay. Merchants with an app of their own can integrate WeChat Pay into their app. Once integrated, WeChat users can easily complete transactions using WeChat Pay through the merchant's app.

Web payment

Web payments allows order information to be embedded in a unique QR code shown on website checkout. By scanning the code in WeChat, users complete the payment.

Customs Clearance

The merchants who have activated the WeChat Pay Auto Clearance feature can submit customs information at WeChat Pay Merchant Platform, and send the payment information of the goods to the customs through an API, thus improving the efficiency of customs clearance.

WeChat Shops

As the WeChat app provides e-wallet to their users, it easily serves the purpose of e-commerce. There are two ways merchants can sell products using WeChat features.

1. WeChat Mini-Programs
2. WeChat Shops

WeChat Mini-apps are special programs written to work and open inside WeChat app. They can't be shared outside the WeChat application and only run there. A WeChat Mini-program is basically an “App within the App”. It is an App built in a specific language to be accessible easily via WeChat. It can provide e-commerce services or other kind of functionalities.

While a WeChat shop refers to any e-commerce experience optimized for WeChat. It could be a simple website (HTML5) optimized for WeChat via proper WeChat UX, WeChat Login and WeChat Payment.

When users are accessing we-chat optimized website via WeChat, they can use WeChat as a billing system to check-out through a “one-click-payment”. The website is basically running inside the WeChat application here instead of browser.

Here are few features of such stores:

1. WeChat payments: the ability to pay from within WeChat, with one click
2. WeChat log-in: users are automatically logged-in without having to manually enter their email or password
3. Automatic phone number collection: access the phone number of the user associated with their WeChat account (requires user approval)
4. Automatic address collection: access the list of addresses of the user stored in their WeChat account (requires user approval)
5. Integration with influencer accounts: WeChat store enable to easily create a link from an influencer campaign to a product page, enabling extremely high conversion rates
6. Social sharing: WeChat stores are easy to share with friends through WeChat.
7. Re-targeting: stores can re-target users based on their WeChat Store behavior with WeChat ads or WeChat messages from merchants Official Account
8. Customer service: by having customers buying via merchant's WeChat shop, connected to their WeChat public account, this give them a way to speak to their customer service: simply by speaking or writing to the WeChat public account
9. Native WeChat coupons: merchant's WeChat shop also enables them to easily send discounts to your customers via a WeChat Official Account.

WeChat Mini Programs

They can also have similar functionalities as WeChat shops however, they are not only limited to shops. Mini Program can be any program which can execute inside WeChat. As their e-commerce features are almost same as WeChat shops so I am not discussing this feature here. Imran has also discussed this above.

WeChat MiniShops

It is a recent new feature by them which further makes the merchant on-boarding easier. They rolled out in June 2020 a mini program-based shop builder tool Minishop on Wechat. This is like shopify running inside WeChat as a Mini-Program.

With this, they are coming in direct competition with Alibaba and JD.com inside china and shopify internationally.

Minishop offers basic functions such as product listings, order management, payment, logistics, and after-sales service as well as built-in streaming features. It helps merchants create their own merchandising shops on Wechat.

Further information is given on this: https://technode.com/2020/07/16/wechat-is-testing-a-new-e-commerce-mini-program-feature/

[jekram]

@sojharo @ImranBinShoukat Thanks for the detailed analysis. I agree on what WeChat success is based on Mini App and Payment system. Which is currently lacking in Messenger and Whasapp.

[ImranBinShoukat]

As discussed in the meeting we can use webview to enhance our messenger chatbot experience. So, instead of displaying products in messenger gallery, we can create webview component and show products there. We can also give options to view items in list or grid format.

[jekram]

@sojharo @ImranBinShoukat I am closing this now and we would reopen later