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WhatsApp Shop

Sell in WhatsApp chats: customers browse, search, build a cart and check their orders by messaging your WhatsApp Business number, your team answers from a shared inbox, and checkout happens on your own store's website. Off until you switch it on; needs WhatsApp Notifications with the WhatsApp Cloud API (Meta) provider.

general

Quick start

What it does. Sell in WhatsApp chats: customers browse and search your products, build a cart and check their orders by messaging your WhatsApp Business number, and your team answers them from a shared inbox. Checkout and payment happen on your own store's website, through a secure link sent in the chat. Needs WhatsApp Notifications switched on with the WhatsApp Cloud API (Meta) provider.

Who can use it

  • Off until you switch it on.
  • Your plan decides whether you can use it. The module card in Settings → Modules shows Not in your plan (with See plans) or Paid add-on (with Buy add-on) when it is not included. The features list shows which plans include it.

Switch it on

  1. In your admin, open Settings → Modules.
  2. Find WhatsApp Shop. If it is on the Installed tab, click Enable; if not, open the Browse tab and click Install.
  3. It needs WhatsApp Notifications. Switch it on first if the card asks.
  4. Click Configure to change any setting below (the defaults work for most stores).

Switching it off later stops it working but keeps its data, so switching it back on picks up where you left off.

Where to find it

  • Customers → WhatsApp Shop → Inbox
  • Customers → WhatsApp Shop → Quick replies
  • Customers → WhatsApp Shop → Metrics
  • Customers → WhatsApp Shop → WhatsApp Shop settings
  • Customers → WhatsApp Shop → Bot simulator

Settings

  • Bot answers customers — The menu bot replies to customers who message your WhatsApp number. Off: every message waits in the inbox for your team. Default: on.
  • Welcome message — First message of a conversation, shown above the menu buttons. {store_name} becomes your store name. Up to 1024 characters; empty uses the default. Default: Hi! Welcome to {store_name}. What would you like to do?.
  • Menu button labels — Four labels separated by commas, in this order: browse, search, my orders, talk to us. Up to 20 characters each, all different. Default: Browse, Search, My orders, Talk to us.
  • Not understood message — Sent with the menu when the bot cannot match what the customer wrote. Up to 1024 characters. Default: Sorry, I didn't get that. Pick an option below..
  • Search results per message — Products listed in one search result message, 1 to 10 (a WhatsApp list holds at most 10 rows). Default: 10.
  • Conversation memory (hours) — How long the bot remembers where a customer was (category, product, page) after their last message, 1 to 168 hours. Default: 24.
  • Checkout link valid for (hours) — How long a checkout link sent in the chat keeps working, 1 to 720 hours. Default: 72.
  • Take orders in the chat — Customers who pay by cash on delivery or bank transfer place the order without leaving WhatsApp: they give their name, email and address, pick a delivery option and confirm the total your checkout calculates. Card and online payments still go through the checkout link. Needs at least one of those payment methods switched on, and guest checkout on for customers without an account. Default: off.
  • Talk to a person keywords — Words that hand the chat to your team, separated by commas. Upper and lower case match alike. A word cannot also be an unsubscribe keyword. Default: agent, human, help, support.
  • Wait for a team reply (seconds) — When nobody from your team replies this long after a customer asks for a person, the customer gets the team busy message and the bot helps again. 60 to 86400. Default: 600.
  • End a team chat after customer silence (seconds) — A chat your team took over goes back to the bot when the customer has not written for this long. 60 to 86400. Default: 300.
  • Connecting message — Sent when a customer asks for a person. Up to 1024 characters. Default: One moment, connecting you to our team..
  • Team busy message — Sent when nobody from your team replied in time. Up to 1024 characters. Default: Our team is busy right now; I'm back to help in the meantime..
  • Use opening hours — Outside opening hours a customer gets the after-hours message once a day; the bot keeps helping them shop. Default: off.
  • Opening hours time zone — An IANA time zone such as Asia/Kolkata or Europe/London. Empty uses your store's time zone (UTC when none is set).
  • Opening hours — Days and times separated by commas, for example: Mon-Fri 09:00-18:00, Sat 10:00-14:00. Days not listed are closed. Times are 24-hour HH:MM and closing must be after opening; use 24:00 to close at midnight. Default: Mon-Fri 09:00-18:00.
  • After-hours message — Sent outside opening hours, once a day per chat. Up to 1024 characters. Default: We're closed right now; we answer during opening hours. The bot can still help you shop..
  • Unsubscribe keywords — Words that stop every message to the customer (their consent is withdrawn and they get a confirmation), separated by commas. Upper and lower case match alike. Default: STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE.
  • Unsubscribe confirmation — Sent once when a customer unsubscribes with one of the keywords above, never again for a repeated keyword. Up to 1024 characters. Default: You've been unsubscribed from our messages. You can message us any time to shop..
  • Show a WhatsApp chat button on the store — A floating button on your storefront that opens a WhatsApp chat with your number. Default: off.
  • Chat button WhatsApp number — The WhatsApp number the chat button opens, with + and the country code, for example +15550100123. Required while the button is on.
  • Chat button position Default: Bottom right.
  • Chat button first message — Text placed in the customer's WhatsApp message box when they tap the button; they can change it before sending. Up to 1024 characters. Default: Hi, I'd like some help with….
  • Notify the team about new chats — An in-app and push notification to your team when a new conversation starts. Default: on.
  • First reply target (minutes) — The inbox flags chats still waiting for a first reply after this long, 1 to 1440 minutes. Default: 10.
  • Monthly message budget — What WhatsApp messages may cost per month, as an amount in your store currency (for example 500.00), set on the WhatsApp Shop settings page. Your team is warned at 80%. 0 means no budget. Default: 0.
  • Stop optional bot messages when the budget is used up — At 100% of the monthly budget the bot stops sending optional messages. Messages your team sends are not affected. Default: off.
  • Keep conversations for (days) — Messages older than this are deleted every night, 30 to 730 days. Default: 180.
  • Remind customers about a cart left in the chat — One WhatsApp reminder per chat cart left with items in it, with a fresh checkout link. Sent only to customers who opted in to offers on WhatsApp, never during your quiet hours, never while your team is handling the chat and never for a cart that became an order. Needs an approved template. Default: off.
  • Cart reminder template — The approved WhatsApp Promotions template the reminder is sent with; choose it on the WhatsApp Shop settings page. It may use {{store_name}}, {{customer_name}}, {{link}} (the checkout link) and {{item_count}}.
  • Send the cart reminder after (hours) — How long the chat must be quiet (no cart change, no message either way) before the reminder goes out, 1 to 72 hours. Default: 4.
  • Use native WhatsApp forms — When a customer checks out in the chat, the bot asks for the contact details and the delivery address with a form inside WhatsApp (Meta Flows) instead of one question at a time. Needs Take orders in the chat on, the forms set up on this page and the WhatsApp Business Account ID in Admin → Messaging. Off: the bot asks step by step. Default: off.
  • Run my published flow — The bot follows the flow you published in WhatsApp Shop → Flows instead of the standard menu. Off, or no flow published: the standard menu. Unsubscribe and talk-to-a-person keywords and opening hours still apply. Default: off.
  • AI answers questions — When the bot does not understand a typed question, CartWhizz AI answers it from your products, policies and FAQs. Needs CartWhizz AI available for your store and its AI key active; usage counts against that key's limits. Unsure answers fall back to the bot and offer your team. Default: off.
  • AI answer confidence — How sure the AI must be before its answer is sent, 0 to 1. 0.9 is an answer built on your own store data; 0.5 an answer that looked nothing up. Below it, the bot answers and offers a person. Default: 0.7.
  • Back-in-stock alerts on WhatsApp — Customers who tap Notify me on a sold-out product in the chat, and linked customers who signed up on your store to hear when a product is back, get one WhatsApp message when it can be bought again. Never during your quiet hours, never past the budget's hard cap. Needs an approved template. Default: off.
  • Back-in-stock template — The approved WhatsApp template the back-in-stock alert is sent with; choose it on the WhatsApp Shop settings page. A Promotions template goes only to customers who opted in to offers; a Custom template is sent as a utility message. It may use {{store_name}}, {{customer_name}}, {{product_name}}, {{product_price}} and {{link}} (the product page).
  • Price-drop alerts on WhatsApp — Linked customers whose wishlist holds a product that now costs less than when they saved it get one WhatsApp message about it, while it is in stock. Never during your quiet hours, never past the budget's hard cap. Needs an approved template. Default: off.
  • Price-drop template — The approved WhatsApp template the price-drop alert is sent with; choose it on the WhatsApp Shop settings page. It may use {{store_name}}, {{customer_name}}, {{product_name}}, {{product_price}} (the new price) and {{link}}.
  • Smallest price drop that alerts (%) — How much lower than the saved price the product must be before the alert goes out, 1 to 90 percent. Default: 5.

Related

Questions? See the store guide or contact CartWhizz support.

In depth