Stefan Austermühle, CEO of Gemrock Peru Last Updated: 02/2025

We know, we know………. It is strange that we are talking to you about WhatsApp. This is not a commercial ad. And we are not too fond of Meta / Zuckerberg either.

However, like it or not, it´s a fact: by not using WhatsApp YOUR crystal business does lose opportunities.

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Stefan Austermühle

Do you want to keep losing out, by not using WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is the most used messaging App in Mexico and most of South America. In most of these countries, between 80 and 90 % of the internet users are daily on WhatsApp.
In most of Africa WhatsApp is used daily by more than 80% of internet users.
Most of Asia, chooses WhatsApp as the predominant messaging service. India alone has more than 500 Million WhatsApp users.
More than half of the European countries are predominantly using WhatsApp. 81 % of the Germans are on WhatsApp, for example.
Globally, 70% of internet users are messaging on WhatsApp

While the rest of the world is connected on WhatsApp, US and Australian Businesses are losing out.

In Australia, WhatsApp is far behind Facebook Messenger (While in the rest of the world, nobody uses Facebook anymore).

In the USA, only 23% of Internet users are on WhatsApp. The latest available data from the Pew Research Center shows Hispanic Americans use the channel the most (46%) with African Americans on 23% and Caucasians on 16%.

One of our US clients wrote us:

“I use WhatsApp a lot to get in touch with friends and relatives abroad, but here in the US pretty much no one uses it (there are many people who never heard of it at all).“

Why is this a problem for your crystal business?

If you have a crystal shop in the USA, in Australia, and maybe even in Europe, and you are not on WhatsApp yet (or even if you have it on your phone but never look at it), then try thinking of it this way:

Where do most of the crystals come from? – Arent it places like South America, Africa and Asia?

Your suppliers predominantly use a communication channel that is ignored by you.

If one of your suppliers wants to reach many clients fast, for example to make a special offer, will he sit down and send an email one by one? Or will he fire out his offer fast and to as many people as possible?

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Real-Life Examples of what you missing:

,Let’s say you are a crystal specimens dealer. We imagine it would be beneficial for you to get first-hand access to new top-quality crystals. Being the first to know is key to getting the best specimen at a good price.

Here at Gemrock, whenever a new lot of crystals comes in, we make videos and pictures. Then we send out a message to all our clients on WhatsApp with one simple click (as we have grouped all our clients in WhatsApp lists).

Within 5 minutes we can reach hundreds of clients. To be honest, we are not sending out such offers by email, Instagram, or TikTok DM (And I think I did not even open our Facebook account once in the last 4 years)

So, sad but true, If we don’t have a WhatsApp contact of you, you will never know when we have new crystals coming in, when we launch special offers, or when we developed a new product (Apart from what you may see on this newsletter)

For a foreign wholesaler like us, WhatsApp is often the only way we have to communicate with our clients in many countries around the world. We simply could not make a phone call, and even if we could, fees would be prohibitively high.

When we talk to our clients on WhatsApp, we can send them documents (excel sheets, word documents, pdf), videos, and pictures in seconds. We can send audio messages (much faster than explaining complicated topics in writing) and we can make instant video calls to talk face-to-face. All for free.

You can see what you are missing.

Our Advice: If you want IN, get WhatsApp and use it daily.

My personal experience:

95% of my daily communication as CEO of the company (internally as well as with providers, partners, and clients globally) is on WhatsApp. The first thing I do in the morning (before breakfast, yoga, or anything else), is to look at my WhatsApp. I work globally in all time zones – my communication never stops – 24/7. The last thing I do before switching the phone to airplane mode and falling into my bed is to look at WhatsApp. I probably do review my WhatsApp a hundred times or more per day. Email maybe 10 times, and Instagram: never, my wife does that.

And I am not the exception, globally speaking.

So, if you have a crystal shop in Australia or the USA, you may not need WhatsApp to talk to your country’s citizens. But on a global scale, you are not existing, if you are not on WhatsApp.

So my advice: If you are not on it yet, get it today, and let us start making business.

I hope to talk to you soon, on WhatsApp – talk to me at +51 99 410 4206

ethically produced, hand-made top-quality crystal jewelry from Gemrock

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