What Is WhatsApp Business and Do You Need It in 2025?

The WhatsApp Business app is designed to help small businesses showcase their products and communicate with customers.

The app allows you to set up a WhatsApp Business Profile, where you can showcase your products, add a descriptive bio, and share important business information.

On top of this, the app also includes:

• Custom reply templates for frequent messages
• Automated greeting messages when users contact you
• Automated away messages when you’re contacted outside of business hours
• Labels to organize your messages into groups, such as new customers and business partners
• Channels that act as a one-way broadcast group to share updates and promotions with your customers in bulk
• Marketing messages to peak interest around products and services

Since WhatsApp is owned by Meta, it’s also optimized for Facebook ads, meaning your calls to action (CTAs) can lead straight into WhatsApp.

For medium to large businesses, the WhatsApp Business Platform is made to handle high quantities of customer interactions and manage relationships. 

There are four conversation types that the WhatsApp Business Platform is optimized for:

1. Marketing: Send personalized offers and promos to those who opt in, related product recommendations, abandoned cart messages, and more
2. Authentication: Send one-time passcodes at various stages of the customer journey
3. Utility: Send customers order tracking messages throughout the purchase process
4. Service: Provide customer service on user-initiated conversations (as of November 2024, this conversation type is free of charge)

Standout features of the WhatsApp Business Platform are:

• Messages with CTAs
• Interactive messages with multiple-choice response buttons
• An AI chatbot for automated customer service
• Set up WhatsApp Flows to provide personalized experiences during peak seasons, such as lead generation forms and early access shopping links
• Meta verification provides a green certification tick next to your business name

For small businesses, the WhatsApp Business app provides a great suite of free tools to help you carve out a business, manage expectations, and build customer relationships. Plus, for an extra fee, you can promote your products and sales with marketing emails.

I recommend the app to any business seeking to improve its customer service. That said, there are scenarios where upgrading to the WhatsApp Business Platform is beneficial. For example:

• You have business partners and staff who need access to the platform
• You want to provide order tracking information
• You require AI to improve customer experience
• Your customer numbers are rapidly growing

Ultimately, the WhatsApp Business product you pick will depend on your business size, needs, and goals.