A WhatsApp chatbot for your online store
Shoppers ask the same things on WhatsApp every day: is it in stock, how much is delivery, where is my order. A chatbot can answer those, show products and take orders, while your team handles the rest.
What shoppers ask on WhatsApp
Look at your store's chats and you will find a familiar pattern. Before buying: price, stock, sizes and colours, delivery charges and time, cash on delivery, returns. After buying: where is my order, can I change the address, how do I return this. A few complaints and special requests make up the rest.
Each group needs a different kind of automation. Pre-purchase questions are answered best with products and short facts. Post-purchase questions need data from your store, such as the order status. Complaints and special requests need a person quickly. Design your bot's main menu around these three, and you have covered most chats on day one.
- Before buying: products, prices, delivery, returns
- After buying: order status, changes, returns
- Everything else: straight to a person
Show products from your catalog
WhatsApp supports a product catalog connected to your business account. In WaKite you can manage products and send them in chat: a single product, or a product list of up to 30 items from the catalog. The customer sees pictures, prices and descriptions, can browse without leaving WhatsApp, and can add items to a cart if you allow carts on the number.
When the customer sends a cart, it arrives in the inbox as an order with its items, ready for your team or your flow to confirm. For stores with many products, send a short list per category from a list menu, such as "Kurtas", "Sarees" and "New arrivals", rather than everything at once. Keep catalog prices and stock current, or the bot will promise what you cannot deliver.
Answer "where is my order?" automatically
Order status is the most repeated question in ecommerce support, and the easiest to automate if your store can be asked. A flow asks for the order number, or picks it out of the customer's message with the AI step's extract mode, and then a "Call web address" step asks your store system for the status. The answer goes back to the customer in seconds.
If the order is late or the system has no answer, the flow should hand the chat to a person with the order number in a private note. That way the customer never repeats themselves. Add a button for "Change address" or "Cancel" that goes straight to the team, since those requests usually need a human decision.
Order updates and cart reminders with templates
Messages about an order after the customer has left the chat must use approved templates. Your store software can send them through the WaKite API: order confirmed, packed, shipped with a tracking link, out for delivery, delivered. Updates about an order the customer placed normally fit Meta's utility category. Write them plainly and include the order number.
Cart reminders are different. A message encouraging someone to finish a purchase is usually treated as marketing, so send it only to customers who agreed to marketing messages and keep it to one reminder. Your store detects the abandoned cart and calls the API with a marketing template. Customers who replied STOP are opted out, so check the result and do not resend.
Payments: link to your checkout
Most stores take payment on their own website or payment page. In a WhatsApp flow, a link button sends a message with one button that opens a web page, such as the checkout for the items the customer chose or a payment link created by your payment provider. Send the link after the order details are confirmed, with the total in the message.
Never ask customers to type card numbers, UPI PINs or passwords into a chat, and say so in your messages: it protects them from scammers who copy your style. After payment, your store can send a utility template confirming it. If a payment fails or a customer is unsure, hand the chat to a person.
Hand off to support, and ask how it went
Some chats need a person: a damaged parcel, a size exchange, a complaint. A "Hand to a person" step moves the chat to the shared inbox with a label such as "Return" and a note of what the customer already said. Your support team picks it up with the history in front of them, and the bot stays quiet while they reply.
When the team resolves the chat, WaKite can ask the customer for a quick rating with three buttons, from great to poor, if the window is still open. The ratings are saved with the chat and the team member who handled it. A short question like this, asked after the problem is solved, tells you more about your service than a long survey.
Step by step
- 1Set up your catalog
Add your products, connect the catalog to your WhatsApp number, and decide whether carts are allowed.
- 2Build the main menu
Create a welcome flow with buttons for products, order status and talking to a person.
- 3Connect order status
Ask for the order number and use a "Call web address" step to fetch the status from your store.
- 4Add templates for updates
Get utility templates approved for order updates and send them from your store through the API.
- 5Plan the hand-off
Route returns and complaints to the support team with a label and a note.