Selling on WhatsApp
The first reply decides the sale
· 5 min read
Selling on WhatsApp — article artwork
On Soko, a buyer taps Order and lands in your WhatsApp with the item already attached. What you do next is the entire sale. Sellers who reply within a few minutes close far more of these than sellers who reply in an hour — not because they are better at selling, but because the buyer is still holding the phone.
Reply before you have an answer
If you cannot check stock immediately, say so immediately. "Let me confirm and come back to you in ten minutes" keeps the conversation alive. Silence for an hour ends it, and the buyer has already messaged someone else.
Confirm the item back to them
Repeat what they are ordering in your first message — the item, the size or variant, the price, and the total. It takes one line and it prevents the most expensive kind of mistake, which is delivering the wrong thing to someone who then does not pay for it.
Use saved replies for the questions that repeat
WhatsApp Business lets you save quick replies. Write one for delivery areas and cost, one for how payment works, and one for your location and opening hours.
This is not laziness — it is consistency. Buyers get the same clear answer every time, and you stop rewriting the same paragraph at ten at night.
Give them a next step, not a full stop
End each message with the actual next action: "Shall I send it today?", "Which area are you in so I can quote the boda?", "Do you want me to hold it until this evening?"
A message ending in a question gets a reply. A message ending in a price gets thought about and forgotten.
Do not fight about the price in the first message
When someone opens with "last price?", the worst answer is your last price. Answer with what they get instead: warranty, condition, delivery included, the fact you have it in stock today.
Sellers who publish their prices and hold them get fewer haggling messages over time, because the buyers who arrive have already accepted the number.