WeChat recently upgraded a store management feature, originally part of WeChat Official Account, to Store Mini-Program. Retailers can use this type of mini-programs directly. It costs almost nothing and requires no programming knowledge although the capability of Retail Mini-Program is limited.
It’s been over four months since WeChat has officially launched its mini-program platform. The number of daily active users on WeChat Mini-Programs sees much faster growth since the last week of March 2017.
This week, WeChat team just rolled out a new feature on Mini-Programs that could be very useful to retailers.
Mini-Programs are located under “Discover” on WeChat. And, the new feature sits under “Mini Programs”, where users can search for Mini-Programs nearby. Both retail store mini-program and other types of mini-programs can be discovered using this function as long as it’s enabled.
The mini-program publisher must be registered businesses or organizations to qualify for “Mini Programs Nearby” feature. And, documents such as the business license are required to get approval.
What eventually encourage some users to naturally check out the nearby mini-programs could be discounts and coupons, which are included in Store Mini-Program:
Retailers can integrate store information like the address, contact information, photos, and operation hours as well as special offers to customers including membership card, coupon, voucher, and etc.
One store mini-program can support multiple stores; but, one store can offer one type of card promotion only. And, one mini-program can only link up to 10 locations. You can send a request to WeChat team to increase the limit.
One location can only be linked to from one unique mini-program. So, it could be a problem if you share the same address with others.