In this article
An online store needs six WhatsApp flows: cart recovery, COD confirmation, order and shipping updates, returns, reorder prompts, and a pre-sale chat that answers from your catalog. Each flow sends a different Meta message category, and the category sets what it costs: order and shipping updates are utility, cart reminders and reorder nudges are marketing, and replies inside a customer's 24-hour window are service messages. In India those three cost ₹0.115, ₹0.8631 and ₹0.115 (after 1,000 free per number a month) per delivered message from 1 October 2026.
Below, each flow has the trigger, a sample message, the category, the data it needs from Shopify or WooCommerce, and what to measure. This is the flow-and-cost view; for India-specific store problems and a platform comparison, see WhatsApp CRM for eCommerce in India.
Which WhatsApp flows does an online store need?
| Stage | Trigger | Typical category | Who sends it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Browse and ask | Customer messages first | Service (free-form reply) | AI agent |
| 2. Cart recovery | Cart left without checkout | Marketing template | Automation |
| 3. COD confirmation | COD order placed | Utility template | Automation |
| 4. Order and shipping updates | Order paid, shipped, delivered | Utility template | Automation |
| 5. Returns and changes | Customer messages about an order | Service | AI agent plus your team |
| 6. Reorder | Days after delivery | Marketing template | Campaign |
Category is Meta's call, not yours. It reviews each template's content, and a "utility" message that includes a coupon can be reclassified as marketing. Keep promotions out of transactional templates.
How do you recover abandoned carts on WhatsApp?
WhatsGrow AI's cart recovery runs from your store's cart data. The defaults are three reminders, 1 hour, 24 hours and 72 hours after abandonment, and you can set fewer. The built-in wording is:
"Hi 👋 You left something in your cart at {storeName}! 🛒 {items} Total: {totalPrice} Complete your order here: {checkoutUrl} Reply STOP to unsubscribe."
Category: marketing. Sending a nudge to buy is promotional, so budget at the marketing rate and expect Meta to treat it that way.
Data needed: the customer's WhatsApp number captured at checkout (with consent), cart items, total, and the checkout URL.
Worked example (hypothetical inputs; replace them with yours): 1,000 abandoned carts a month, all three reminders delivered, India marketing rate. Cost: 3,000 × ₹0.8631 = ₹2,589.30. With an average order value of ₹1,500 and a 30% gross margin (₹450 per order), you break even at 6 recovered orders (₹2,589.30 ÷ ₹450 = 5.75), which is 0.6% of those carts. That is a better question than a recovery-rate benchmark: could your store plausibly recover 6 in 1,000? When the shopper orders, the store webhook marks the cart recovered and it drops out of the sequence, and the eCommerce analytics count recovered carts. WhatsGrow AI's AI agent can also call its cart-recovery tool when a shopper says they meant to buy, which needs approval by default.
How do you confirm cash-on-delivery orders on WhatsApp?
Cash-on-delivery orders fail when nobody is home or the buyer changed their mind. Message them right after the order with two buttons.
Sample template: "Hi {customerName}, we received COD order #{orderNumber} for {total} {currency}: {items}. Delivering to {shippingAddress}. Tap Confirm to ship, or Cancel." Quick-reply buttons: Confirm, Cancel.
Category: utility. It is a transactional message about an order the customer placed.
How it behaves in WhatsGrow AI's eCommerce pack: the Confirm and Cancel buttons are matched by their text first and by position as a fallback, so rename them freely but keep them clearly worded; a reminder goes out after 2 hours by default (one reminder, adjustable); and the owner can be notified on cancel. You can edit the confirmation, reminder, confirmed and cancelled replies.
Worked example (hypothetical): 500 COD orders a month, one confirmation (500 × ₹0.115 = ₹57.50) and a reminder to the 200 who have not replied (200 × ₹0.115 = ₹23.00): ₹80.50 a month. If a failed COD delivery costs you ₹150 in outbound and return shipping, avoiding one failed delivery a month covers the entire cost. Track the confirmation rate and your return-to-origin share before and after.
What order and shipping updates should the chatbot send?
Four updates cover most stores. All are utility templates.
- Order confirmed: "Your order #{orderNumber} is confirmed. {items}, total {total}. We'll message you when it ships."
- Shipped: "Order #{orderNumber} is on its way via {trackingInfo}. Track it here: {trackingUrl}."
- Out for delivery or delivered: one line with the order number and what to do if it is missing.
- Delayed: send only when the carrier status says so, with a new date.
The variables map to fields your store already holds: order number, items, total, currency, shipping address, tracking number, tracking URL and carrier. If a template variable has no data, WhatsApp rejects the send, so test a template with an order that lacks tracking.
Since 1 October 2026 a utility template sent while the customer's 24-hour window is open is charged like any other utility message. Plan on ₹0.115 each in India. Updates that customers actually need cost far less than the support chats they prevent: a "where is my order?" thread of six replies costs six service messages once you pass the 1,000 free per number.
Put a tracking link in the message and keep marketing out of it. The moment a shipping template carries "20% off your next order", Meta may recategorise it as marketing.
How should a chatbot handle returns and "where is my order?"
These conversations start with the customer, so your replies are service messages. The AI agent can do the lookups. In WhatsGrow AI's eCommerce pack (available to workspaces set up as eCommerce) it can check an order by number or a contact's recent orders, check stock and prices, send a product photo with its buy link, pull purchase history, and change the shipping address on an order that has not shipped. Changing an address needs approval by default.
Returns are different: there is no automatic refund or return-label tool. Build the return flow as a conversation that collects what your team needs, then hands over:
- Customer: "I want to return order 4821."
- The bot confirms the order, asks for the reason and a photo using a flow's input step.
- It adds a "return-requested" label, creates a task for your support team and tells the customer your return window and the next step.
- A person approves and issues the refund.
Define in your instructions exactly what the AI may promise. "We'll check and reply within one working day" is safe; "refund issued" is not unless a person did it. The setup for handoff rules is in AI sales agent turn-by-turn.
When should you send reorder messages?
Reorder prompts are marketing templates, so they are the most expensive message in the list and the one to target tightly. Send them to customers whose product should be running out, or who bought once in the last 60 to 90 days, not to the whole list. A segment of 2,000 buyers costs 2,000 × ₹0.8631 = ₹1,726.20 at the India marketing rate.
Use purchase history to personalise, for example "Your {product} should be running low. Reorder here:" with the buy link. Run these as campaigns with the segment, and stop messaging people who opted out. The default recovery text ends with "Reply STOP to unsubscribe", and flows have an opt-out step, so honour opt-outs everywhere.
If the shopper answers, the AI agent takes over in the free window and can use order history to reorder in one step.
What data do Shopify and WooCommerce need to supply?
WhatsGrow AI connects to Shopify and WooCommerce through store webhooks and sync, which feed orders, carts, customers and products into the inbox and the pipeline. Whatever platform you use, check that these exist before you build flows:
- WhatsApp phone number with consent, collected at checkout. Without it, nothing sends.
- Order fields: number, items, total, currency, shipping address.
- Fulfilment fields: tracking number, tracking URL, carrier.
- Cart fields: items, total, checkout URL, last-activity time.
- Product catalog: names, prices, stock, buy links, photos for the AI to cite instead of guessing.
For taking orders in chat: on Shopify the AI sends the customer a secure checkout link; on WooCommerce it can create the order directly. Both are approval-gated by default. See the store solutions page for the pack overview, and automation for building custom flows around these triggers.
Which eCommerce WhatsApp metrics matter?
- Recovered orders per reminder sent, and cost per recovered order. Compare cost with margin, not revenue.
- COD confirmation rate and failed-delivery rate, before and after.
- Opt-out rate on marketing templates. A rise means you are sending too often or to the wrong people.
- Utility-to-marketing mix on your Meta bill. Reclassified templates show up here first.
- Time to first reply on pre-sale chats, and the share ending in an order.
- Service messages per chat. Past 1,000 per number a month each reply is billed, so fewer turns saves money.
All prices above are Meta's list rates for India, effective 1 October 2026; the full table and a monthly bill example are in WhatsApp API pricing for India. Run your own volumes through the pricing calculator.
Sources (checked 13 Oct 2026)
- Meta: Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (message categories, India rates in the INR rate card effective 1 October 2026, 1,000 free service messages per number, utility charged inside the window from 1 October 2026)
- WhatsGrow AI eCommerce pack behaviour (cart recovery defaults of 1, 24 and 72 hours, COD reminder default of 2 hours, AI order tools): product documentation, current release
- Worked examples are hypothetical and use list prices; they are not customer results.