[PRESS OFFICE] Across the continent, commerce is no longer initiated on websites or apps, writes Megan du Toit, AdTech lead & solutions design at Dentsu Performance.
It starts inside WhatsApp conversations, where questions are asked, trust is built and decisions are made in real time. WhatsApp has become the continent’s most powerful commerce infrastructure, and the rest of the world is still catching up.
Dentsu understands that brand discovery, consideration, transaction and service are now collapsing into a single conversation thread. What is new is not that the chat exists, it is that chat now closes the customer conversion loop.
For millions, WhatsApp is not just a messaging app, it is the internet, the counter and the customer care line. While other markets are trying to pull consumers back into conversation, Africa never left.
The rise of conversation commerce and why it matters?
Brands built for browsing are structurally misaligned if decisions are being made in conversation. Funnels designed for clicks, forms, and landing pages are too slow, too distant, and too impersonal. Growth will not come from more impressions; it will come from better conversations.
Dentsu’s point of view is clear, WhatsApp is not a channel to add on, it is infrastructure to architect.
The brands seeing exponential growth are not using WhatsApp, they are designing it as a revenue layer, a service layer, a data layer, and a community layer. When done right, it stops being a touchpoint and becomes the connective tissue across media, CRM, loyalty, and customer experience.
It is not a chatbot replacing service. It is orchestration enhancing experience
A retail brand shifted from link in status to WhatsApp led sales. Customers now message to ask about availability, receive tailored recommendations, and complete purchases in chat, increasing conversion rates significantly.
A financial services provider replaced long application forms with guided WhatsApp conversations. Qualification, document submission, and support now happen in one thread, cutting acquisition time and improving completion rates. And for banking they promote free WhatsApp calling to get prompt assistance as opposed to visiting a branch. These are not edge cases, they are signals of a broader shift.
When conversational data feeds media optimisation, segmentation, and lifetime value modelling, WhatsApp evolves from a messaging tool into an operating system for growth. Africa has a structural advantage here, mobile first, trust driven, and community led behaviours mean we are not retrofitting conversation, we are building around it.
The show and the sale no longer start on a homepage.
They start with, “Hi.”
