“High-end retail relationships hinge on personalized communication, often through informal channels like WhatsApp. Now, these channels present several major opportunities, as well as challenges.”— Avi Pardo, Co-founder and CBO of LeapXpert

In luxury retail, communication is currency. For high-end brands built on service, trust, and exclusivity, it’s often the personal connection that closes the sale or keeps a customer coming back.

But as that communication shifts increasingly to platforms like WhatsApp, iMessage, and SMS, a new set of challenges has emerged: Are these conversations secure? Are they compliant? Are they even visible to the business?

Too often, the answer is no. And the cost in the form of customer trust, regulatory risk, or lost sales can be catastrophic.

According to Avi Pardo, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer (CBO) of business communications platform provider LeapXpert, “High-end retail relationships hinge on personalized communication, often through informal channels like WhatsApp. Now, these channels present several major opportunities, as well as challenges. For example, when an employee departs, crucial client interaction data — preferences, deals, and conversations — can vanish, causing service disruptions.”

Pardo points to his own experience as a buyer: “Two years ago, I bought a car from a salesperson whose number I had saved. Recently, I WhatsApped him about trading in my vehicle, unaware he’d moved dealerships. To me, the dealership wasn’t the deciding factor — I trusted our relationship, so I naturally followed him to his new place of work. His previous dealership completely lost my repeat business — and wasn’t even aware of the missed opportunity — simply because those WhatsApp conversations weren’t governed.”

This is the invisible churn facing retailers every day, and it’s a risk that’s easy to overlook.

Private Chats, Public Risk

It’s not just about missed revenue. Letting employees use personal messaging apps for customer interactions exposes businesses to serious compliance and cybersecurity risks.

“A frequent oversight in retail today is employees using personal messaging channels for business, unintentionally creating serious compliance and security risks — or, alternatively, enforcing overly restrictive communication systems that inadvertently drive employees toward personal apps,” Pardo explained.

He recalled a recent conversation with a real estate professional who circumvented company policy just to connect with a client with ease: “I recently spoke to a realtor who asked for my number — even though we were already on a call — because his company’s mandated calling system blocked customer phone numbers to prevent off-system contact. Ironically, this pushed him toward requesting my number to reach me more conveniently via his personal WhatsApp, undermining the very compliance goal his company aimed to achieve.”

These are not edge cases — they’re everyday occurrences that demonstrate the balancing act between customer convenience and business control.

When WhatsApp Is Both a Sales Channel and a Liability

More and more retailers around the world are embracing WhatsApp and other messaging platforms like SMS, iMesssage, Telegram, Signal, WeChat, and LINE, to deepen client relationships. But without governance, that strategy can backfire.

“One of our notable successes is with a large luxury watch retailer that began officially allowing WhatsApp use among account executives,” said Pardo. “Once executives adopted WhatsApp for personalized client interactions, customer touchpoints significantly expanded clients received timely, tailored updates about new collections, exclusive promotions, and personalized offers. As a direct result of these more frequent and personal communications, sales jumped by 30%, showcasing how LeapXpert’s platform not only enhances communication governance but also drives meaningful business growth.”

The potential is massive. But only if messaging is secure, compliant, and monitored.

Why Governance and Cybersecurity Are Now Frontline Issues

2025 has already seen the luxury sector hit hard by data breaches. Adidas, Dior, and Victoria’s Secret all suffered cyberattacks — with Dior now under regulatory investigation in South Korea for alleged noncompliance with data breach notification laws.

“This breach is a reminder of why organizations must adopt a proactive security strategy,” said Aditya Sood, VP of Security Engineering and AI Strategy at Aryaka. “This should include continuous monitoring, threat detection, access control, and resilience planning… Businesses can ensure rapid containment and recovery from potential threats while continuously refining their defenses against evolving cyber risks.”

Such strategies don’t just apply to IT infrastructure — they must also apply to communication systems.

Retailers may not realize it, but untracked messages between staff and clients can pose a major legal liability. If those interactions contain sensitive information — from payment details to personally identifiable customer data — they must be governed and stored according to privacy laws like GDPR or CCPA.

“Protecting sensitive customer information is both a legal and ethical obligation,” noted Retail Insider. “Customers are more likely to return to businesses that prioritize their privacy and demonstrate robust data protection practices… Mishandling data can result in lawsuits and irreversible damage to your brand’s image.”

“As organizations increasingly rely on platforms like WhatsApp, iMessage, and other messaging applications to conduct critical business communications, safeguarding these channels from threats becomes essential,” explained Dima Gutzeit, Founder & CEO of LeapXpert. 

“While these messaging platforms offer unparalleled ease and convenience, they were originally built with consumers in mind, not the complex security requirements of enterprises,” he added 

Gutzeit points to LeapXpert’s recently released Messaging Security package that includes AI-driven Messaging Impersonation Detection, antivirus, anti-malware, and CDR solutions, giving enterprises “a comprehensive toolkit to ensure data governance and security across these channels.”

Convenience Can’t Come at the Cost of Compliance

The rise of e-commerce, clienteling platforms, and AI-driven personalization has made communication central to retail success. But as businesses strive to offer frictionless experiences, they must ensure that back-end governance keeps pace.

“LeapXpert solves both of these scenarios seamlessly,” Pardo said, referring to the compliance risks of both overly strict systems and the chaos of unchecked personal messaging. “We integrate directly into existing workflows and enable staff to securely use familiar apps like WhatsApp while ensuring every conversation is captured, governed, secure and compliant.”

And as messaging evolves into more than just a medium — becoming the environment where purchases are finalized — the need for governance grows.

“In fact, looking ahead, as we expand our footprint in the broader retail sector, we’re going to embed workflows directly into messaging platforms,” Pardo shared. “Just as financial services professionals execute and approve trades within conversations on our platform, retailers will soon be able to offer clients the ability to review, approve, and complete purchases — all within the same messaging thread. This transforms messaging platforms from mere channels for discussing high-end products into dynamic transaction spaces, redefining retail customer experiences.”

From Conversation to Compliance: A New Operating Standard

Retailers aren’t just talking to customers. They’re also in constant communication with suppliers, franchisees, logistics partners, and service providers. And as these conversations shift to text and chat apps, so does the responsibility to protect them.

“Retailers often communicate extensively not only with customers but also with external partners, distributors, suppliers, and franchisees,” Pardo noted. “LeapXpert ensures these varied interactions remain seamlessly integrated, secure, and compliant.”

The rise of agentic AI only raises the stakes further.

“While some retailers are adopting AI to replace sales personnel and augment contact center representatives, perhaps the greatest untapped opportunity lies in leveraging advanced AI to deeply analyze and understand the high-value, one-on-one interactions between salespeople, relationship managers, or VIP service managers and their key customers,” Pardo said.

Done right, these insights can transform clienteling and personalization — but only if conversations are centralized, governed, and retained in a compliant system.

Retailers Can’t Afford to Ignore Messaging Governance

Retail’s future is fast, personal, and mobile. But without robust oversight, it’s also risky.

Whether the issue is data privacy, compliance, employee turnover, or cybersecurity, governance of communication channels is now a business-critical function. Letting staff “chat off the record” — even with the best of intentions — is no longer acceptable.

LeapXpert’s platform offers a practical solution: let staff communicate where customers prefer, but ensure that every message is captured, secured, and compliant. That’s not just risk management — it’s relationship continuity.

As Pardo summed it up: “Your high-value clients expect personalized service — and LeapXpert lets you build trust and intimacy by empowering customers to contact you however they prefer, whether via WhatsApp, iMessage, or other channels. Our platform securely captures and governs every interaction, preserving essential relationship history even if staff changes. In short, you enhance customer loyalty and drive growth without ever compromising on governance and compliance.”