A step-by-step guide to setting up your brand on your social commerce studio.
Nile provides the infrastructure that enables brands to turn social content into measurable sales through a seamless, chat-based shopping experience.
Instead of sending shoppers from Instagram or TikTok to a traditional website (where conversion is often low), Nile’s infrastructure guides them into a faster, more familiar checkout journey powered by WhatsApp and keeps a customer where in the apps they are already using, every single day.
In short:
Nile connects discovery → conversation → purchase.
For brands, Nile provides:
Social commerce is shopping that happens through social content, not traditional online stores.
It’s when customers see something they love in a video or post, and can buy it immediately in one seamless shopping journey.
Social commerce works because people don’t shop in a straight line anymore.
They shop like this:
Social commerce brings shopping closer to how people actually behave online.
Nile makes your brand’s products shoppable through social content, using WhatsApp as the shopping destination.
Here’s the simple flow:
Step 1: Customers Discover
A shopper sees your product featured in a creator’s video or brand content.
Step 2: They tap to shop
They click a shoppable link that is specific to each video (for example: “Shop in WhatsApp”).
Step 3: Your AI-driven Conversational Sales Agent guides the purchase
The shopper is taken into a WhatsApp shopping journey, where our AI Agent helps them:
Step 4 : The brand fulfils the order
Orders flow into your existing ecommerce and fulfilment process so your team can manage delivery and customer support as usual.
Step 5 : You track what converted
Inside your social commerce studio, you can see:
Nile is built for brands that want to grow through social-driven commerce and WhatsApp shopping.
Brands are eligible to join if they:
Nile works best for brands already investing in creators who want to finally measure what’s working.
All brands working with Nile are reviewed and verified to ensure quality, trust, and customer safety.
Brands can access Nile through two onboarding paths:
Option 1: Integration with Your Ecommerce Platform
To get started on Nile, your brand will go through an integration process that connects your existing ecommerce store to the Social Commerce Studio.
Nile connects to your ecommerce platform so your products, pricing, and availability can be reflected inside your Social Commerce Studio.
Our team will guide you through the integration process based on your platform (e.g. Shopify, WooCommerce, or custom setup), ensuring your products are correctly available for social commerce.
Depending on your setup, this may involve:
The purpose of this integration is to ensure that your full product catalogue including stock, pricing, variants, and product details is accurately synced into your Social Commerce Studio.
Once integrated:
This creates a seamless connection between your existing ecommerce operations and your new social commerce channel, allowing you to manage everything in one connected ecosystem.
Option 2 : Shopify Plugin (Self-Serve Entry Point)
If your brand is on Shopify, you can begin the integration process instantly through the Nile Shopify Plugin.
Here’s how it works:
Once installed:
Even if you discover Nile through Shopify independently, our team ensures you are fully supported and guided through every step of the process.
Once your brand is approved, you will receive an email with:
Invite your team to your social commerce studio.
You can add other team members who will help create shoppable links, add creators and view conversations.
Fields required:
You can always add more users later.
Manage everything your customers can buy.
The product details are synced from your ecommerce platform through your integration.
Product information shown:
Only in-stock products will be purchasable.
To enable social commerce through WhatsApp, you will need to connect your WhatsApp Business account.
This allows customers to move directly from content into a conversation with your shopping assistant.
Our team will guide you through this setup step-by-step to ensure everything is correctly configured.
What is a Persona?
When we say persona, we’re talking about the “personality” of your AI-driven Conversational Sales Agent.
Think of it like this:
If your brand had a helpful salesperson in-store; someone who knew your products, your tone, and how to speak to customers - that would be your persona.
A persona helps your assistant:
In simple terms:
A persona is how your AI-driven Conversational Sales Agent talks, behaves, and represents your brand.
Why does this matter?
Customers are not just buying a product, they are interacting with a shopping experience.
Your persona makes sure that experience feels:
For example:
What do you need to set up?
When setting up your persona, you will choose things like:
Don’t worry, Nile will guide you through this step and help you get it right.
Testing Your Conversational Sales Agent
Once you have created a shoppable link within your Social Commerce Studio, you can test your agent to ensure everything is working as expected.
To do this:
This will open WhatsApp, where you can interact with your agent exactly as a customer would after clicking through from social media content.
Your agent will use the information linked to that content to simulate a real customer shopping journey.
You can use this environment to test:
This is the best way to experience your conversational sales flow before sharing links with customers or creators.
This is where you will see a list of all the creators you are working with. You will be able to see sales generated from every piece of content created by a creator and linked in your Social Commerce Studio.
When setting up a creator on your portal:
Click on “+Add creator” on the top right hand side of the page
Information required:
On each creator, you can click on the three dots which allows you to edit a user. Here, you can activate or deactivate and delete a creator.
You can filter information about your creators by status (active or inactive).
One of the most powerful parts of social commerce is the ability to generate
shopping links.
These links are what turn content into conversion.
What is a Shoppable Link?
A Nile link is a trackable shopping link that connects:
Content → WhatsApp → Checkout → Purchase
It allows a customer to go from:
A video or post they love
→ straight into a WhatsApp shopping journey
→ guided by your AI-driven Conversational Sales Agent
→ to a secure checkout
Why are links important?
Links do three critical things:
1. They make content instantly shoppable
Instead of a customer needing to visit a website or search manually, they can shop immediately through conversational commerce in chat.
2. They track what content drives sales
Nile can show you exactly which content and creators generated sales.
3. They connect customers into WhatsApp
WhatsApp is where people already chat, trust, and respond fastest so conversion is higher.
Is it one link per piece of content?
Yes. Each piece of content should have its own Nile link so that sales can be attributed correctly.
Example:
What makes a link effective?
A shoppable link is not just a URL - it is a customer journey trigger.
For a link to work properly:
The link is what brings the customer into the WhatsApp shopping journey.
What should the call-to-action (CTA) be?
The CTA is the text you use next to the link in your content.
It should tell the customer exactly what to do.
Strong CTA options include:
The clearer the CTA, the higher the conversion.
Shopping links are the bridge between: social discovery and real purchase. They are what makes your content measurable, trackable, and powerful for your brand.
Links turn your content into a WhatsApp shopping journey.
Use links to:
Every sale is tied back to the link that generated it.
How to set up each specific link:
Key:
Product: 1 single product
Basket: Multiple products
Optional campaign context: Add any promotional messaging or campaign details you would like your assistant to reference.
This is where you view all purchases made through social commerce.
Each order shows:
Brands are responsible for shipping and delivery, as well as post purchase support.
Inside your Social Commerce Brand Portal, you will see a section called
Conversations.
What are Conversations?
A “conversation” is simply a record of what shoppers are asking and discussing with
your personal shopping assistant while they shop your products.
When a customer clicks a shoppable link, they enter a WhatsApp journey.
From there, they might ask questions like:
All of those messages form a conversation.
Why is this important for your brand?
Normally, when people shop online, you don’t get to see what they were unsure about, what they were interested in, or why they didn’t buy.
With Nile, you get visibility into that.
The Conversations section helps you understand:
What will you see inside Conversations?
Each conversation will show you things like:
This helps you connect the dots between:
customer curiosity → product interest → purchase decision
How should brands use this section?
Think of Conversations as your real-time customer insight feed.
Brands often use it to:
It’s like being able to listen in on what customers would ask in a physical store.
The Conversations tab is not a customer support chat.
It is a powerful window into shopper behaviour, helping you understand what people are saying, what they want, and what drives them to buy.
It gives brands something traditional ecommerce often misses:
context, feedback, and real intent directly from the customer journey.
The Analytics tab is where you can track how your brand is performing per link, per creator etc.
This section helps you understand what is working, not just in terms of views or engagement but in terms of real shopping behaviour and showing attribution.
It allows you to track what customers are clicking on, what they are asking about, and what is actually converting into sales.
What is the Analytics Tab for?
The Analytics tab helps you answer questions like:
Think of it as your performance dashboard.
Key Metrics Explained
These are the main numbers you will see at the top of the Analytics page:
1. Total Link Clicks
What this means:
This is the total number of times customers clicked on one of your shoppable links. A “click” happens when someone sees your content online and taps:
“Shop in WhatsApp”
So in simple terms:
Total Link Clicks = How many people showed interest and entered the WhatsApp shopping journey.
Why it matters:
Clicks tell you that your content is driving traffic and curiosity even before a purchase happens.
2. Conversion Rate
What this means:
Conversion Rate shows the percentage of shoppers who completed a purchase after clicking on a shoppable link.
For example:
That counts as a conversion.
In simple terms:
Conversion Rate = The percentage of link clicks that turn into completed orders.
Why it matters:
This helps brands understand how effectively their content is turning interest into actual sales.
A strong conversion rate usually means:
3. Total Orders
What this means:
This is the number of purchases successfully completed through your WhatsApp channel.
An order counts when:
So:
Total Orders = How many sales have been generated for your brand through your WhatsApp vchannel.
Why it matters:
This is the clearest measure of conversion. It shows actual revenue outcomes, not just interest.
4. Average Order Value (AOV)
What this means:
Average Order Value shows the average amount customers spend per order.
For example:
The average order value would be:
(500 + 700 + 300) ÷ 3 = R500
So:
AOV = The typical basket size customers purchase through your WhatsApp channel.
Why it matters:
This helps brands understand:
Higher AOV often means better quality conversion.
Clicks & Conversions Over Time (Real-Time Graph)
This graph shows how customers move from content to conversation to conversion - helping you understand what drives traffic, what drives engagement, and what drives real sales.
Below the top metrics, you will see a graph called:
“Clicks and Conversions Over Time’
What this graph shows
The graph tracks four key data points:
Total Clicks
The number of times customers clicked on your shopping links and entered WhatsApp.
Spikes usually indicate a post, campaign, or creator driving traffic.
Link Conversions (Orders)
The number of purchases completed from tracked shoppable links.
This shows how well your content is converting into sales.
No Link Sessions
Customers who entered WhatsApp without using a tracked link.
This may include direct WhatsApp visits or unlinked content.
No Link Orders
Purchases completed without a specific link attribution.
This shows organic or untracked sales activity.
Timeline View
The graph displays activity over time:
You can select a custom date range to view performance for any specific period.
This allows you to:
It updates in real time as new customers shop.
Date Range Filters
Select a Date Range:
Use the date selector in the top right corner to choose the period you’d like to analyse.
You can view performance over:
a custom date range of your choice
This allows you to:
Filter by Link Type
You can also filter your analytics by selecting:
All – View all sessions and orders combined
With Links – View only traffic and sales generated from tracked shopping links
With No Links – View sessions and orders that occurred without a specific link attribution
This helps you understand:
Link Performance (Per-Link Breakdown)
One of the most powerful features is link tracking.
The Link Performance section shows you the results for every individual shopping link you’ve created.
What you will see for each link:
Clicks: How many people tapped that specific link.
Conversions: How many purchases came from that link.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of clicks that turned into orders.
Example:
Conversion rate = 5%
Why this matters
Link performance allows you to see exactly:
This is how the portal helps brands move beyond guesswork into measurable performance.
The Analytics tab is where the portal becomes a true sales tool, not just a content platform.
It gives you real answers to:
Instead of relying on likes or views, the portal lets you measure social commerce properly from click to checkout.
Need help? We’re here.
If you need any assistance at any stage, please email us at support@onnile.shop
The Social Commerce Studio has a dedicated support team who can also help you.
You will never be left to figure it out alone.
Before going live, confirm:
We are building the future of social commerce with you and our team will support your success every step of the way.