How to Connect Shopify to WhatsApp: Free Button, Catalog and Automation

Shopify knows what you sell, what is in stock and what each customer just ordered. Your customers, meanwhile, are on WhatsApp, where they actually read messages. Connecting the two can mean four different things, and they cost very different amounts: a free chat button on your store, your products in WhatsApp, WhatsApp marketing from Shopify's own Messaging app, or messages sent and answered automatically by an app.

This guide covers all four, step by step, with what each one can and can't do. The examples come from clothing stores, where most questions are about size, stock and delivery, but every step works for any Shopify store.

Does Shopify have a WhatsApp integration?

Yes, for marketing. Since July 2026, Shopify Messaging, Shopify's own app for email and SMS marketing, also sends WhatsApp campaigns, and since 28 October 2026 it runs ready-made WhatsApp messages for abandoned browsing, abandoned carts and abandoned checkouts. It sends only to customers who opted in to WhatsApp marketing, and not to customers in the United States.

It is a marketing tool, not a chat tool. Shopify Inbox, Shopify's free chat app, still works only in your online store's chat, and Meta's Facebook & Instagram app for Shopify doesn't mention WhatsApp. So for order updates and for answering shoppers' questions on WhatsApp, you still go through something else: a button you add yourself, Meta's own tools, or an app built on the WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta's API). Here is how the four compare.

1. Add a free WhatsApp button to your Shopify store

The quickest way to add WhatsApp to Shopify is a click-to-chat link: https://wa.me/ followed by your number in international format. Leave out the plus sign, brackets, dashes and any leading zero, so a US number becomes wa.me/15551234567. Add ?text= and a message to fill in the shopper's first line for them.

Our free WhatsApp link generator builds the link, and the free WhatsApp widget generator turns it into a floating chat button with a code snippet you paste once.

1. In the widget generator, enter your WhatsApp number, a greeting and the first message you want shoppers to send, then copy the code.
2. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store, click the three dots next to your theme and choose Edit code.
3. Open layout/theme.liquid, paste the code just above the closing </body> tag, and save.
4. Open your store on a phone and tap the button. It should open WhatsApp with your message ready to send.

For a clothing store, a prefilled line that names the page works better than "Hi": "Hi, I have a question about sizes" on product pages, or "Hi, where is my order?" on the order status page. You know what the shopper wants before you answer. If editing theme code isn't for you, the Shopify App Store has free WhatsApp button apps that do the same thing.

A button is free, but every chat still needs someone to answer it. Our guide to WhatsApp widgets covers where to place the button and how to turn visitors into conversations.

2. Connect your Shopify catalog to WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp can show your products inside the chat. Customers browse the catalog, add items to a cart and send you the order without leaving WhatsApp. On the WhatsApp Business Platform, the catalog is one you upload to Meta, through Meta Commerce Manager or its API, and then connect to your WhatsApp account.

Shopify stores usually get their products to Meta with Meta's free Facebook & Instagram app, which syncs your eligible products from Shopify so you sell from one inventory. In the free WhatsApp Business app you can also add products by hand under Business tools, then Catalog, which is enough for a small range.

Two limits to know. An order sent from a WhatsApp cart arrives as a message to you, not as a Shopify order, so you still confirm it, take payment and create the order yourself or with an app. And a catalog shows what you sell, but it doesn't answer "is the black one back in M?" Someone still has to reply.

3. Send WhatsApp marketing with Shopify Messaging

Shopify added WhatsApp to Shopify Messaging on 29 July 2026. You connect a WhatsApp Business Account from Apps > Messaging, under Connect WhatsApp, through Meta's signup. Then you send campaigns built from templates or your own content, with media from your product catalog, buttons, and keyword replies: when a customer writes a word you chose, such as SIZE, they get the answer you wrote for it.

On 28 October 2026 Shopify added WhatsApp marketing automations, with ready-made flows for abandoned browsing, abandoned carts and abandoned checkouts, set up under Messaging > Automations. For a store that only wants cart reminders and campaigns on WhatsApp, this is now the shortest route, because it lives in the admin you already use.

Five things to know before you switch it on:

• No marketing to the US. Shopify's requirements say WhatsApp marketing messages can't be sent to customers in the United States, which matches Meta's own pause on marketing templates to US numbers. So it can't remind a US shopper about a cart.
• Subscribers only. Messages go only to customers who explicitly opted in to WhatsApp marketing, and you can't switch the WhatsApp automations to reach everyone. Every message carries a STOP-to-unsubscribe line you can't remove.
• Cost. You pay per message, added to your Shopify bill, at rates that depend on the customer's region. Marketing and service messages are priced differently.
• One provider per account. If your WhatsApp Business Account is already connected to another provider, Shopify asks you to disconnect it from that provider first.
• A daily cap at first. New WhatsApp Business Accounts can send 2,000 messages a day until Meta raises the account's limit.

What it leaves to you is the reply. A keyword reply answers only the words you set up in advance. Shopify's help pages don't describe anything that answers an open question such as "Is this in M?" or "Will it reach me by Friday?", and they list its welcome, post-purchase and customer appreciation automations as unavailable on WhatsApp. When the customer you reminded writes back, someone, or something, still has to answer.

4. Connect Shopify to the WhatsApp Business Platform (API)

Buttons, catalogs and Shopify Messaging still leave you replying by hand. To send order confirmations and shipping updates on WhatsApp, to message US customers about their orders, or to have questions answered automatically, you need an app on the WhatsApp Business Platform, Meta's API. Shopify stores reach it through an app: install it from the Shopify App Store or connect your store in its dashboard, then connect a WhatsApp number through Meta's signup.

Four things to know before you pick one:

• Your number. Some apps can now connect a number you already use on the WhatsApp Business app and keep the app working alongside (Meta calls it coexistence), with limits: the app's catalog isn't supported on the API side and broadcast lists are turned off. Others, TailorTalk included, need a number that isn't on the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app. Ask before you sign up.
• Opt-in. Meta requires businesses to get permission before messaging people on WhatsApp. The permission can be general rather than WhatsApp-specific, but it has to name your business and follow local law. For a Shopify store, that usually means a clear consent checkbox wherever customers give you their phone number.
• Templates. A message your business sends first, outside a 24-hour window after the customer last wrote to you, has to use a template Meta has approved. Order confirmations and shipping updates are utility templates. Abandoned-cart reminders and offers are marketing templates, even when the customer asked for them, and an order update with a discount code in it counts as marketing too.
• Cost. Meta charges per delivered message, by type and by the customer's country, on top of the app's plan.

Meta's rates as of October 2026. Since 1 October 2026 Meta charges for every utility template it delivers, including order updates sent while the customer is chatting with you. Two things are free: each number's first 1,000 service messages a month (your free-form replies to customers), and every message in the window of up to 7 days that opens when a shopper messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad.

Shopify WhatsApp automations worth setting up

Each automation starts from a Shopify webhook, a notification Shopify sends when something happens in your store, and ends in a WhatsApp template. These are the ones that pay off for most stores, with sample wording for a clothing store.

Order confirmation

Sent when an order is created. "Hi Sarah, thanks for your order #1042: the linen shirt in M. We'll message you here when it ships." It is a utility message, and it moves the conversation to WhatsApp, where the customer can ask about the order instead of emailing. Start from our order confirmation template.

Shipping and tracking update

Sent when an order is fulfilled, with the tracking link. "Where is my order?" is the commonest question a store gets, and this answers it before it is asked.

Cash on delivery confirmation

For stores that offer COD, a message asking the customer to confirm the order before it ships, with Yes and No buttons. It cuts parcels sent to people who never meant to pay.

Abandoned cart reminder

Sent a few hours after a checkout is left unfinished, to customers who agreed to hear from you. It is a marketing message, so it costs more and needs the customer's permission. Remind them what they left and ask if a question stopped them ("Not sure about the size? Reply and we'll help"), rather than leading with a discount. Firing within minutes feels like being watched; waiting a day is usually too late. Our abandoned cart template has wording to adapt. Shopify Messaging now has a ready-made WhatsApp version of this reminder for customers outside the US, so check it before paying an app just for cart reminders. Our guide to WhatsApp abandoned cart messages has five templates and the timing.

Review request

Sent a set number of days after delivery, once the customer has worn the piece. Keep it to one message.

Ready-made wording for these and more is in our WhatsApp template library for ecommerce.

Answering shoppers' questions from your Shopify catalog

Automations cover what happens after the order. Most WhatsApp messages come before it: "Do you have this in L?", "Will it arrive by Saturday?", "Can I exchange it if it doesn't fit?" Templates can't answer those. A person can, if someone is free, or an AI agent connected to your Shopify catalog can, at any hour. Speed matters: Harvard Business Review found that firms which tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that replied even an hour later.

This is what TailorTalk does. The agent reads your products, variants and stock from Shopify at the moment the shopper asks, so it won't offer a size that sold out an hour ago. It answers size, fit, delivery and exchange questions from your catalog and policies, matches a screenshot the shopper sends to the closest pieces you stock, sends a payment link in the chat, and hands the conversation to a person when it should.

If your Shopify product data is thin, with short descriptions or missing fabric and fit details, AI Catalog builds fuller product entries from your photos, so the agent has more to answer from.

Setting it up takes about 30 minutes:

1. Connect your Shopify store in TailorTalk. This gives read access to products, inventory and orders, and subscribes to the webhooks the order messages use.
2. Connect your WhatsApp number through Meta's signup. Use a number that isn't registered on the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app, or delete that account first. You add your own payment method in Meta's signup, so Meta bills you directly for messages.
3. Turn on the order messages you want and submit their templates to Meta early, since approval can take a day.
4. Test with your own phone: ask a size question, send a screenshot, then place a test order and abandon a checkout.

TailorTalk sends Shopify-triggered messages only to customers who have already messaged the agent on that number, so there is no contact list to upload and your number's quality rating isn't exposed to a bad list. The trade-off: a shopper who abandons a cart without ever messaging you won't get a reminder. Test with a phone that has already chatted with the agent, or the order messages won't arrive.

WhatsApp starts on the Growth plan at $112 a month ($89 billed yearly) for 1,600 conversations, with Meta's fees paid to Meta, and every plan has a 7-day free trial. The same agent can answer Instagram DMs and website chat too: see how to connect Shopify to Instagram.

Samyakk, an ethnic-wear retailer, handles 1,000+ inquiries a day with the same agent on Instagram.

Which Shopify WhatsApp app should you use?

It depends on the job. If all you want is WhatsApp campaigns and cart reminders for customers outside the US, start with Shopify Messaging, since it is already in your admin. For order messages, most WhatsApp API tools do the basics; compare them on how they bill Meta's fees and on seats. For answering product questions, look for one that reads live Shopify stock rather than a copy of your catalog.

• Clothing and fashion stores: our list of the best WhatsApp automation tools for clothing stores compares 8, with prices checked on each vendor's site.
• Any business: the 5 best WhatsApp automation tools.
• AI chatbots across Shopify, Instagram and website chat: the 8 best AI chatbots for Shopify.
• Moving off BusinessOnBot (BOB): our BusinessOnBot comparison shows what its support and marketing suite does and where an AI sales agent fits instead.
• Just starting out: the free WhatsApp Business app's greeting, away messages and quick replies are enough for a few chats a day.

Common mistakes

• Leaving template approval until launch day. Submit order and cart templates as soon as the number is connected.
• Messaging customers who never agreed to hear from you. It breaks Meta's opt-in rule, and blocks lower your number's quality rating.
• Sending abandoned-cart reminders within minutes of the drop-off.
• Letting Shopify stock drift. An agent that reads your catalog will repeat whatever it says.
• Adding a chat button with nobody to answer it. A button that leads to a two-day wait loses more sales than no button.

FAQs

References

• WhatsApp Help Center, "How to use click to chat".
• Meta for Developers, "Get opt-in for WhatsApp".
• Meta for Developers, WhatsApp Business Platform pricing.
• Shopify Help Center, "Edit your theme code".
• Shopify, webhooks documentation.
• Harvard Business Review, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads", 2011.
• Meta for Developers, WhatsApp catalogs overview.
• Meta for Developers, template categorization.
• Meta for Developers, onboarding WhatsApp Business app users (coexistence).
• Shopify App Store: Shopify Inbox; Facebook & Instagram by Meta.
• Shopify Changelog, "Shopify Messaging now supports WhatsApp marketing" (29 July 2026) and "Create WhatsApp marketing automations in Shopify Messaging" (28 October 2026).
• Shopify Help Center, WhatsApp marketing with Shopify Messaging and its requirements.
• Meta for Developers, per-user marketing template limits.