How Atelier Wen Grew a 2,000+ WhatsApp Community, Powered Launches, and Recovered Carts
From Collectors to Community
Atelier Wen
Atelier Wen is an independent luxury watch brand founded in 2018 by Robin Tallendier and Wilfried Buiron, two Frenchmen who met while studying at Peking University and share a deep passion for Chinese culture and horology. The brand name combines “Atelier” (French for workshop) with “Wen” (Chinese for culture), capturing its mission to celebrate Chinese craftsmanship through fine watchmaking.
From hand-applied porcelain dials to rose-engine guilloche work by China’s first master of the craft, Atelier Wen creates timepieces that blend traditional Chinese artistry with modern horological design using premium materials like 904L stainless steel. Based in Hong Kong, the brand sells direct-to-consumer worldwide and has built a devoted global following of high-end watch collectors.
Atelier Wen had built a thriving WhatsApp community of high-end watch collectors but struggled to scale its growth. Inviting new prospects from the CRM to join via email was slow and had low conversion.
Zaapi’s webhook triggers enabled Atelier Wen to build automated flows that send a WhatsApp invitation to every new individual added to the CRM, directly on WhatsApp where the community already lived.
Community growth rate tripled (3x) after implementing the automated invite flow, growing the WhatsApp community to over 2,000 high-end collectors from around the world.
As a DTC luxury brand with a loyal collector base, Atelier Wen needed a way to reach its most engaged customers directly for product launches. Email open rates were not delivering the urgency that limited-edition drops required.
Zaapi’s WhatsApp broadcasting solution allowed Atelier Wen to send targeted, high-value launch announcements to segmented lists of their most loyal collectors. Broadcasts became a standard part of every product launch.
A single WhatsApp broadcast for a notable launch generated over $300,000 in revenue within 24 hours. Broadcast read rates of 31% and the ability to target by segment give Atelier Wen precise control over its launch communication.
Atelier Wen was already highly active on WhatsApp and wanted to extend this positive experience to cart recovery, recovering potential revenue from abandoned Shopify checkouts through a channel customers already trusted.
Using Zaapi’s native Shopify integration, Atelier Wen set up an automated cart recovery flow: when a customer abandons a Shopify checkout, a WhatsApp message is automatically sent 1 hour later via a WhatsApp template, re-engaging them on their preferred channel.
Cart recovery rates increased by 72% compared to email-based recovery. The seamless Shopify-to-WhatsApp automation runs 24/7 without manual intervention, recovering revenue that would otherwise be lost.
The Result
Zaapi helped Atelier Wen transform WhatsApp from a simple messaging channel into a comprehensive marketing and community engine. By leveraging webhook-triggered automation flows, Atelier Wen tripled its WhatsApp community growth rate, building an exclusive group of over 2,000 high-end watch collectors worldwide.
Zaapi’s broadcasting solution became a core part of every product launch, with one notable campaign generating over $300,000 in revenue within just 24 hours.
And by extending their WhatsApp-first approach to cart recovery via Zaapi’s native Shopify integration, Atelier Wen achieved a 72% increase in recovery rates compared to email, proving that meeting customers on their preferred channel drives both engagement and revenue.
Robin Tallendier, Founder at Atelier Wen
"WhatsApp is where our collector community lives - it’s where they share their passion, discuss new releases, and connect with us directly. Zaapi gave us the tools to turn that into a scalable growth engine. From automating community invites via webhooks to powering our product launches with targeted broadcasts, Zaapi has become an essential part of how we engage our most loyal customers and drive revenue."
Try Zaapi free today
Automate your customer journey, increase your conversion rate, and grow your revenue without hiring more staff. No credit card required.
