With over 2 billion active users worldwide and 100+ billion messages sent daily, WhatsApp is a leading digital messaging app. In fact, it’s the third most used social network globally. Ecommerce businesses worldwide are finding WhatsApp to be a crucial tool for engaging customers, customer support, and marketing outreach. 

Since the introduction of WhatsApp Business accounts in 2018, the number of businesses using WhatsApp as a communication tool continues to rapidly grow. By 2023, there were 200 million businesses with an active and verified WhatsApp Business account, an increase of 150 million since 2020!

On the customer side, a recent report found that 65% of WhatsApp users felt more confident messaging a business via WhatsApp than using email. While 68% said using WhatsApp was the easiest and most efficient way to contact a business. 

How can WhatsApp be used to help grow my Shopify business?

WhatsApp can be a great tool for both customer support and marketing for Shopify merchants. Depending on what markets you are selling to, you may need to consider how you plan to implement WhatsApp on Shopify. If you are selling primarily to markets that rely heavily on WhatsApp as a main communication channel, then you can consider implementing WhatsApp as both a primary customer support tool and marketing channel.

However, if your Shopify business is selling broadly global, it’s best to offer WhatsApp as one part of your customer support channel mix, alongside the likes of live chat, email etc to cater to all markets, allowing customers to choose their preferred channel. Later, in markets where WhatsApp converts well, it can easily be optimized further.

What are examples of WhatsApp marketing use cases for Shopify?

WhatsApp typically has much higher view and engagement rates in markets that rely on WhatsApp, compared to other channels like email, SMS, etc, but it does come at a higher conversion cost. 

In light of the above, we suggest using WhatsApp by integrating it into some of your Shopify marketing automation flows by focusing on the best targeted customer engagement flows, such as the following for a Shopify business:

• Abandoned cart
• Replenish stock reminder
• Promotions on Shopify site
• And much more…

How Can WhatsApp help build better customer engagement and loyalty on Shopify?

As WhatsApp is the preferred communication channel in many markets, leveraging WhatsApp to connect with your Shopify customers can help build deeper connections. By engaging with your customers alongside their friends and family, it helps evoke trust and loyalty.

To build trust and loyalty further, Shopify merchants can integrate WhatsApp into their marketing and loyalty flows. Sending special offers and updates to loyalty program members further cements that trust and helps customers feel a connection with your brand. Customers will more likely read your messages and start an action (such as a sale) if your communication with them delivers value. 

At Wave Commerce, our team has developed and operate OMNI Loyalty, which is a Shopify loyalty program app designed for Shopify merchants who need a better localized loyalty program  schemes with rewards and benefits. OMNI integrates with Shopify and WhatsApp (as wells Shopify Flow, Klaviyo, Loox, JudgeMe and more). With OMNI, Shopify merchants can launch exciting and expert-designed loyalty flows that build trust, loyalty, and overall stronger customer engagement. These flows include welcome offers, birthday rewards, VIP special offers, and more, designed to drive a new sale.

If you want to learn more about how to integrate WhatsApp with your loyalty program, click here to check out our landing page for OMNI Loyalty. Or, contact us here to talk with our experts about loyalty flow set up and customization. 

How can I setup WhatsApp on Shopify

Sold on the benefits of WhatsApp for Shopify your Shopify store?! I bet you’re wondering how to set it up!!

At this time, there is not a native Shopify integration for WhatsApp (such as Shopify Email for email, or Google’s plug and play Youtube integration). Fortunately however, there are a number of third-party solutions in the Shopify ecosystem that integrate WhatsApp with Shopify.

To get started in setting up WhatsApp for your Shopify store, consider the options based on your business need;

• WhatsApp as a primary customer support channel: 
  • Consider adding a WhatsApp floating widget to your site (or hyperlink on the contact page), which will link outwards to a WhatsApp chat window for ease of starting a chat with your brand without customers needing to copy/paste or manually inputting numbers to their phone.
  • To take customer support up a notch, evaluate a WhatsApp chatbot to provide approved answers and support to customers instantly. There are a few already live on the Shopify app store!
• WhatsApp as one channel in a broader support/ticketing setup:
  • If you are also planning to offer email, live chat, ticketing, etc as primary contact channels, then it would be ideal to evaluate advanced support and ticketing systems that offer Shopify and WhatsApp integration. Gorgias and Zendesk are a couple of the popular platforms that offer both Shopify and WhatsApp.

What if I’m not ready to do full-on live support via WhatsApp, but want to use WhatsApp to better engage customers for marketing?

In this case, you can setup WhatsApp as an extension integrated into your marketing automation platform, such as Klaviyo, with triggered flows that feed into WhatsApp.

First up, you would need to collect “opt-in” mobile phone numbers for WhatsApp usage. The best practice would be to have a mobile one-time passcode (OTP) verification on your Shopify site to ensure you are collecting compliant and authentic subscribed phone numbers for downstream marketing. Once collected, you can set up flows on your Klaviyo account to trigger WhatsApp messages such as welcome messages or abandoned cart reminders like mentioned above.

Need assistance for choosing a WhatsApp solution and implementing the right WhatsApp marketing flows?

Contact us for a thoughtful conversation around your WhatsApp business needs. Depending on your target market, use cases (support vs. marketing or both) and budget, Wave Commerce can help you find a WhatsApp solution to help grow out your business. 

Wave Commerce is a leading Shopify Developer and Shopify Plus Agency based in Hong Kong. As one of Shopify’s top partners in APAC, we help brands in the region as well as Fortune 500 enterprises navigate the rapidly changing digital commerce and retail ecosystem. We have a successful track record of launching commerce solutions for some of the world's most recognizable brands across apparel, consumer electronics, fashion, F&B, FMCG, health and wellness, home, hospitality, and retail sectors.