The mantra of AUM Healthy Apparel, an activewear brand from Bali, Indonesia, is simple: give gyms and workout studios everywhere a pop of color.

Launched in 2016, AUM combines founders I Gede Putu Anggita Prathama’s (‘Anggi’) and Ni Made Dwi Agam Armini’s (‘Dwi’) love of graphic design and yoga, which led to reinventing what they describe as plain, uninspiring exercise clothes.

“We finally feel like it’s the right business for us to do. It sells, there are people who buy our products, and it fits with the market demand in Bali,” says Dwi.

As their brightly printed leggings and tops — featuring dragons, flowers, and other motifs — began flying off the shelves, Anggi and Dwi invested in a superior in-house printing machine to ensure they could meet increasing demand. But they needed an integrated communication system to organize their growing customer interactions, as well as the production of 500 made-to-order pieces every month. In January 2019, AUM turned to the WhatsApp Business app.

AUM receives 90 percent of its orders — individual customers and wholesale — via the app

Standardizing customer engagement has made AUM more responsive, explains Anggi, and with fewer inquiries slipping through the system unattended, sales have increased by 20 percent. The WhatsApp Business app’s business profile feature helps customers who collect their orders in person find AUM more easily, and the labels feature means Anggi and Dwi can more efficiently track their interactions — new customers, pending payments, and repeat orders. Now AUM receives 90 percent of its orders — individual customers and wholesale — via the app.

Anggi says their customers — mostly women — prefer to “chat and ask for a lot of details” before making a purchase. One customer likes that she can get the details she needs from AUM via WhatsApp and another, a yoga instructor, places all of her orders via the app.

Anggi and Dwi are focused on strengthening AUM’s local presence, which includes the opening of a brick-and-mortar store in Ubud, a popular yoga retreat destination. And by connecting with more customers via WhatsApp, Anggi and Dwi can be confident that they are adding more color and style to workouts in Bali and beyond.