Setting up
Do I need a new phone number?
No. Vendesso works on the number your customers already have. You keep using the WhatsApp app on your phone exactly as you do now — Vendesso replies alongside you rather than replacing you.
Do my customers have to install anything?
No. They message you the way they always have. From their side it simply looks like you replied quickly.
Will my customers know it's not me typing?
It doesn't pretend to be you. Ask it who it is and it says plainly that it's your shop's assistant.
How long does setup take?
Connecting takes a couple of minutes. The real work is your catalogue, and that depends on how much you sell — a small shop can be answering the same evening.
How it answers
What if it gets something wrong?
It will sometimes misread a message. What it won't do is invent an answer. When it isn't sure which one they meant, it asks. When it doesn't understand, it asks them to put it another way. A customer can correct it (“no, the blue one”) or ask for you at any time, and if it keeps missing, it offers to bring you in.
What if it puts the wrong thing in an order?
It's rare, but it can happen. Your customer can say “remove the …” at any point while the order is being put together, and sees every item and the total before they pay. Once an order is placed, it's final. If your customer asks for a change, the assistant offers to hand them over to you, and you sort it out with them directly. You also see every order on your dashboard before you send anything out.
Can it invent a discount or promise stock I don't have?
No. Every discount stays inside the limits you set, and availability comes from the stock count you keep.
Does it understand Pidgin?
Yes, at no extra cost. English is always on, and Pidgin is a switch in your settings — some businesses want it, and a school or a corporate seller would rather stay formal. That choice is yours, and you can change it any time.
What if a customer just wants to talk to me?
They get you. Asking for a person hands the chat over immediately. And whenever you reply in a conversation yourself, Vendesso steps back in that chat so you're never talking over each other.
Bargaining
How does it decide what discount to give?
From the two figures you set: the price you show and the lowest you'd accept. It moves down toward your lowest figure in shrinking steps — a bigger concession first, smaller ones after — and stops. It never names your lowest figure to the customer.
Can a customer bargain forever to wear it down?
No. Each customer gets a limited number of rounds per product. After that it stops making new offers and offers to bring you in, and switching to a different version of the same product doesn't reset the count.
What if I don't want to bargain at all?
Leave the lowest-price field blank and the price is simply fixed. Asked for a discount, it says the price is the price.
Money
How do I get paid?
Directly. Customers pay into your own bank account or your own payment provider. Vendesso never holds your money, so there's no wallet, no settlement wait on our side, and no withdrawal to request.
Do you take a commission?
No. We take no cut of your sales and charge nothing per message. WhatsApp itself charges for messages once a number goes past its free allowance each month — that's billed to you by WhatsApp, not by us.
Your data
Who can see my customers' messages?
Vendesso reads incoming messages in order to answer them, and keeps a record of each conversation — so a dispute about what was quoted can be settled, and so we can fix the cases where the assistant answers badly. We don't sell your data or your customers' data. See the privacy policy for the detail.
Can I stop it replying to certain people?
Yes. You can exclude specific numbers, so personal or sensitive chats on your line are never answered automatically.
What happens to my catalogue if I cancel?
It stays as you left it. Cancelling stops the replies and the billing; it doesn't delete your shop. If you want it removed entirely, ask and we'll delete it.
Channels
Which platforms does it work on?
WhatsApp. We'd rather do one channel properly than several badly.