Hugo Galvao de Franca Filho has watched a shift that most pet e-commerce operations are still treating as a support channel rather than what it has quietly become: a real place where purchases get finished, not just discussed.
A customer messages to ask if a specific food brand is in stock, gets an answer in minutes, and pays without ever opening the store’s website. That pattern is no longer a niche behavior. It has become measurable, and the numbers put it ahead of channels many retailers invest in far more heavily.
The data behind the shift
Recent research into how Brazilians completed their most recent online purchase found that just over ten percent paid directly through WhatsApp Commerce, using an in-app catalog, order and payment flow without leaving the conversation. That figure already surpasses purchases completed through Instagram and through TikTok Shop, and trails only traditional marketplaces and a brand’s own official store as a completed-purchase channel.
For context, this is happening in a country where WhatsApp is used by nearly every smartphone owner and where a large majority of businesses already rely on it for customer communication. What has changed is not adoption of the app itself, which has been near-universal for years. Hugo Galvao indicates that what has changed is how many of those conversations now end in a payment rather than a redirect to somewhere else.
Why this fits pet products particularly well
Pet purchases carry a kind of reassurance-seeking that a static product page rarely satisfies on its own. A customer switching their dog’s food often wants to confirm it suits a specific breed, age or health condition before committing, and a real-time conversation answers that in a way a page of bullet points cannot. The same applies to a first-time buyer unsure which size of litter box or which supplement makes sense for their situation.
That need for a quick, personal answer is exactly the gap WhatsApp fills. To Hugo Galvao, it compresses the browsing, questioning and buying stages into a single thread, which matters more in a category where a wrong purchase means an unhappy pet and a return, not just an inconvenienced customer.
What actually makes this work operationally
Treating WhatsApp as a serious sales channel requires more than an active phone number. Customers messaging at eleven at night expect a response close to that hour, and patience for a stalled reply during checkout has become measured in minutes rather than hours. During peak shopping periods, message volume for a single store can multiply several times over almost overnight, well beyond what a small team can answer manually without long delays.
That is where automation earns its place, handling order tracking, common product questions and payment confirmation without needing a person typing every reply, while still leaving room for a real person to step in on the more sensitive, reassurance-driven questions where a canned response would fall flat. Businesses that get this balance right keep the personal warmth Brazilian customers value while still keeping up with volume that would overwhelm a purely manual approach.
Where this leaves pet e-commerce
A channel that already outperforms two major social platforms as a place where purchases are actually completed is no longer a side experiment worth testing occasionally. For a category built on reassurance and repeat purchases, it may end up being one of the more natural fits in all of Brazilian e-commerce.
Hugo Galvao de Franca Filho has treated WhatsApp as a genuine sales channel at Enjoy Pets rather than a support afterthought, precisely because pet buyers tend to want that reassurance before they commit. More on how that approach fits into a broader digital strategy is available at www.enjoypets.com.br.
