“Businesses are going to follow wherever the customer preference is and its really clear customers are on WhatsApp.”
This was UK country director for Meta, Shruti Dube’s key message to the audience at the IAB UK’s Media Upfronts 2025 event on 14 October.
Dube highlighted the move in customer behaviour away from SMS to online messaging, noting the average UK adult sends 55 online messages a day, compared with one SMS every ten days.
She made the case that brands should be utilising business messaging via WhatsApp to connect with their customers across the entire marketing funnel.
A paradigm shift
According to Meta, 600m messages are exchanged between businesses and people everyday, with the number of businesses using messaging having doubled year-on-year.
Additionally, Meta research showed 55% of UK adults now use business messaging every week and adults messaging with a business are 70% more likely to trust that business.
To demonstrate why this is the case, Dube said: “If you look at online messaging, the reasons that people love it is they love to communicate with businesses using it because it offers them convenience, trust and personalisation.”
Moreover, the nature of online messaging being a two way conversation was also highlighted as a key factor.
“You’re not going to just send a message out and not get anything back which happens in SMS,” claimed Dube.
A driver of growth
Organisations who have been using WhatsApp for business messaging have found it has helped to drive growth.
Notably, according to Meta, businesses are seeing they have higher order values, higher conversion rates, higher open rates and better return on ad spend when they use WhatsApp.
Reportedly, WhatsApp has more than 50% higher open rates and conversion rates compared to SMS.
Meta showcased Air France, which sends messages on WhatsApp throughout the customer journey, they reported a 4.5x higher click through rate for newsletter messages on WhatsApp compared with emails.
However, Dube underlined the need for businesses to adapt their thinking about the points at which they engage their customers.
“To unlock potential [businesses] need to evolve from thinking about the customer journey as this linear marketing funnel to this kind of always on customer life cycle, where there are multiple interactions you can be having and ways to engage your audiences. All the way from discover and identification to post purchase delight.”
Business AI and WhatsApp
The cohesion of business AI and WhatsApp was outlined, as Dube highlighted how business AI will sit behind WhatsApp as the surface.
She showcased how this could streamline booking processes, make purchases, and resolve pain points for customers as well as creating more “delight” points.
Additionally, the fact business messaging is within one persistent thread, brands are able to use it for customer acquisition, retargeting and servicing.
Dube stated: “This is exactly how brands get to truly define the way in which they are connecting with their customers in a new era of customer engagement.”
