Back to Blog

IdeaSoft WhatsApp Integration: App Store Setup and Automated Messages

Installing from the IdeaSoft App Store, connecting your number in Meta’s window, the member form’s consent box and what six automated messages each need.

Pushouse20 min read
Three chat bubbles with parcel, bell and people icons
Contents

Install Pushouse from the IdeaSoft App Store, approve the requested permissions and create your account on the registration screen that follows; that connects your store, and the webhooks that pass store events along are set up automatically. You then open Meta’s official setup window from the WhatsApp connection screen of the panel and connect your business number. Once both steps are done, you can switch on order and shipping notifications, reminders for customers who left a cart half-finished, back-in-stock alerts and welcome messages for new members, and send campaigns to groups you build in Customer Audiences (Müşteri Kitleleri). Each of these store-initiated messages goes out with a template approved by Meta.

The sections below show the three places in the IdeaSoft panel to review before the first message goes out: the commercial message box on the member registration form, the status changes in the Orders tab and the variant stock of your products. The same sections give you the criteria for deciding which number to connect, in what order to switch the flows on and which category to prepare each template in.

Six WhatsApp messages an IdeaSoft store can send automatically

Five of the six flows start on their own when something happens in the store; you start the sixth whenever you want to send a campaign:

  • When an order is received, approved, shipped or delivered, the customer is told its status at the steps you choose. The WhatsApp order updates module also sends your bank details to customers who will pay by bank transfer or EFT.
  • Once shipping details exist, a message from the WhatsApp order tracking module delivers the tracking number and a tracking link to the customer.
  • A shopper who puts products in the cart but leaves before completing the purchase receives a WhatsApp cart recovery message.
  • A customer waiting for a sold-out product in a particular size or colour hears about it through WhatsApp back-in-stock alerts once that variant is restocked.
  • A new member who fills in the registration form and gives communication consent receives a WhatsApp new member welcome message.
  • In Customer Audiences, you move a customer group built from purchase history into a bulk message send.

IdeaSoft’s own WhatsApp app is not on this list because it does a different job. The WhatsApp İletişim (Sipariş) Butonu page in IdeaSoft’s help centre describes the app as a tool that lets a visitor click a button on your site and reach you on the number you set. On standard themes it is installed as a free app; on Flex themes no separate app is needed, and the button is managed from the WhatsApp Button section of the theme settings. With the button, the customer makes the first move; in the flows above, the store sends the first message. Messages from the automated flows go through the WhatsApp Business Platform, often called the WhatsApp Business API. The two setups can work together: if the button uses the same number, questions from your site arrive on the line your notifications are sent from.

Beyond the six flows, there are other modules you can use in your IdeaSoft store:

There is no need to launch all six flows at once. For most stores, a sensible order is to start with what customers already expect: first the order and shipping messages and the back-in-stock alert the customer asked for, then, once the consent box on the member form is in order, the welcome message, cart reminders and campaigns. If something goes wrong, you can also tell which flow it came from. If you want to use a module that is not on this list, ask the Pushouse team before setting up whether it works on your IdeaSoft store.

First the IdeaSoft App Store, then Meta’s setup window

Before you sit down to set things up, make sure these four things are ready:

  • An admin who can sign in to the IdeaSoft App Store with your store’s domain, install the app and approve the requested permissions.
  • The email address you will open your Pushouse account with.
  • The Facebook account that represents your business on Meta and the number you will connect; if that number runs on the WhatsApp Business app today, keep the phone with you.
  • A phone field and an unticked commercial message checkbox on your member registration form.

Planning the setup with our team is one click away: “Book a Meeting” in the menu lets you choose a day for a demo call. You can also write to us using the form at the foot of this page.

The connection starts in the IdeaSoft App Store. The app installation page in IdeaSoft’s help centre lists the steps as follows:

  1. On the IdeaSoft App Store page, press “Giriş Yap” (Log in) and sign in with your store’s domain name.
  2. Type Pushouse into the “Uygulama Ara” (Search apps) box and open the app’s detail page.
  3. When you press “Yükle” (Install), the permissions page opens; approve the permissions the app asks for.
  4. On the registration screen that follows, create your account with your email address and a password of your choice.

The webhooks are defined automatically with this installation; there is no webhook address to enter in the IdeaSoft panel for store events to come through. The second half of the IdeaSoft WhatsApp integration is connecting the number, and before that you need to decide which number to use.

You can connect a number that is already in use in the WhatsApp Business app without changing it, and it goes on working there. On its page about connecting numbers used in the app, Meta writes that one-to-one chats then continue from the app and that the history on both sides is kept in sync. The same page requires version 2.24.17 or later of the app. Once connected, the app stops letting you start broadcast lists and freezes the old ones as read-only; group chats stay out of the sync, and the disappearing-message setting is turned off for individual chats. Messages you type by hand in the app stay free, while messages sent through the API are subject to Meta’s pricing. A store that announces campaigns through broadcast lists should plan to send those announcements to consenting customer groups with approved templates once the number is connected.

To connect a number registered to a personal WhatsApp account, you first have to delete that WhatsApp account; before you do, set aside any customer conversations you want to keep. A brand-new number will be unfamiliar to your customers; add it to the WhatsApp button on IdeaSoft and to your contact page so that it looks familiar when the first message arrives. Plan the budget at this stage too: the module subscription and message credits are separate items.

Once you have chosen the number, follow Entegrasyon > WhatsApp Entegrasyon (Integration > WhatsApp Integration) in the Pushouse panel to open the WhatsApp connection screen (“WhatsApp bağlantısı”). If the number is currently registered in WhatsApp Business on your phone, tick the box for this on the screen; if you are connecting the number for the first time, leave it empty. Pressing “Entegrasyonu Başlat” (start the integration) opens Meta’s setup window. Meta’s Embedded Signup page lists what happens in this window: verifying your identity with your Facebook account or your business credentials at Meta, accepting the terms of service, selecting a business portfolio and a WhatsApp Business account or creating new ones, entering and verifying your business phone number, and setting the display name that WhatsApp can show instead of the number. You also give Pushouse the access it needs in the same window.

The connection is made through Meta’s official setup screen with our partner Gupshup. Use the store name customers see on your site as the display name; an order message from a name they do not recognise can make them hesitate. Do not close the window until the process is finished. If you are connecting a number from the WhatsApp Business app, keep your phone with you: according to Meta, the window shows a verification code, a message arrives in your app from the official Facebook Business account, and you confirm the connection by following the steps in that message and entering the code.

Route messages from the button and from notifications into a welcome flow

Once the number is connected, customers can reply to your notifications on this line. One writes an address correction under the order confirmation, another asks about the delivery time under the shipping message; if the button uses the same number, product questions arrive here too. Do not let address corrections wait: according to IdeaSoft’s Orders tab guide, delivery and billing details can be edited only before the order is shipped, and no changes can be made after it has been shipped.

Connect incoming messages to a welcome flow that you build with the WhatsApp question routing module. The welcome message can offer the customer up to three topic buttons; free-text messages are matched to a topic by the keywords in your rules, and a message that no rule catches is sent to the welcome step of your choice. Once a team member takes the conversation over in the panel, automated replies pause; the bot rejoins the conversation 30 minutes after the last reply from your team.

WhatsApp’s rules call for this kind of setup as well. WhatsApp’s Business Messaging Policy allows a business to reply without a template within the 24-hour customer service window, which opens and resets with each message from the customer. The same policy expects any business answering automatically in this window to offer a prompt, clear and direct escalation path, such as handing the chat over to an agent within the thread.

Give the three buttons to the topics customers ask about most; for many stores, product questions, order tracking, and returns or exchanges are a sensible first set. In the automatic message field of the button on IdeaSoft, write a text that fits these topics as well. When the visitor is on a product page, IdeaSoft adds the link of the product being viewed to the message itself. Rather than guessing which step of the flow the first message from the button lands on, test it: tap the button on your own phone, send the prefilled text and see how the flow responds. Enter the number in the button starting with +90; IdeaSoft warns that redirection may not work properly if the country code is missing.

Check which statuses change on their own in the Orders tab

The order updates module sends a message when an order reaches a step you selected; on an IdeaSoft store, these steps move forward with the status changes in the Orders tab. The same Orders guide explains that statuses change in two ways. An order paid by credit card automatically appears as “Onaylandı” (Approved), while you move a bank-transfer order to this status yourself after checking in mobile banking that the payment has reached your account. In a store that uses a shipping integration, the status becomes “Kargoya Verildi” (Shipped) on its own when the barcode is scanned, and “Teslim Edildi” (Delivered) when the carrier delivers.

Two things follow. First, if you do not change the status of a bank-transfer order in the panel, the WhatsApp message tied to the “Approved” step does not go out either. IdeaSoft gives an example of saving the “onay bekliyor” (awaiting approval) status and the bank-transfer payment type as one filter and approving the paid orders in bulk in the morning; set up this routine so the message is not delayed. Second, IdeaSoft automatically sends the customer an information email every time the order status changes. If you turn WhatsApp on for every step, the customer gets each update through two channels. Keep WhatsApp for the moments the customer is actually waiting for or has to act on: bank transfer details, the parcel leaving, delivery. For in-between statuses such as “Hazırlanıyor” (Preparing), the IdeaSoft email is enough for most stores.

Without a tracking number there is no shipping message. When shipping details exist, the order tracking module messages the customer with the order number, the tracking code and a tracking-page link. It messages each order only once and never tells a customer who already has the parcel that it is “on its way”. Before switching the flow on, run a test order through your shipping process and check that the message reaches your phone with the tracking number and whether the link leads to the correct shipment. If the “shipped” step of the order updates module is also on, count in the same test how many separate messages tell you about the dispatch; if there are two, keep the shipping notification that carries the tracking link and turn the other step off.

The consent rule for order and shipping notifications works differently from campaigns. The Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages is clear on this: under the second paragraph of Article 6, notifications about purchases, deliveries and similar matters do not need prior consent, but the same paragraph does not allow product promotion or inducements to be added to them. WhatsApp applies its own rule on top: its business messaging policy only lets you write to people who shared their number with you and said yes to hearing from you. Meta’s opt-in page notes that this consent does not have to be specific to WhatsApp as long as local laws are followed, but it must say clearly which business the person is agreeing to hear from. At the step where customers give their number, tell them plainly that order updates will come on WhatsApp under your store’s name.

Keep coupons and campaign wording out of order and shipping templates. Meta’s template categorization page requires a template in the utility category to have no promotional intent and to relate to something specific to the user, such as their order, account or transaction; it counts an order update with a promotion added as marketing. Our article on the post-purchase message sequence lays out what to tell the customer at each step.

Hello {{customer name}}, your order ({{order number}}) is on its way. Tracking number: {{tracking number}}. Use the button below to follow your parcel.

Messages that promote your products or invite customers to buy need the customer’s prior consent. Article 5 of the Regulation makes this consent a condition for messages you send to promote and market your business or products, and Law No. 6563 ties commercial electronic messages to prior consent in its Article 6. The law’s definition names tools such as telephone, email and text messages and leaves the list open, so look for this consent when you send cart reminders, welcome messages with a coupon and campaign announcements over WhatsApp.

On IdeaSoft, this consent is given at sign-up. The member and dealer management page in IdeaSoft’s help centre explains that the phone, email and SMS permissions on a member’s screen depend on whether the “ticari ileti almak istiyorum” (I want to receive commercial messages) option was ticked during registration, and that the permissions stay off if it was not.

Set up the box itself in line with the regulation. Under Article 7 of the Regulation, the statement of consent cannot be pre-ticked, consent may not be a condition for getting the goods or services you offer, and consent cannot be requested by sending the recipient a commercial message, so do not plan to ask for it later over WhatsApp. Consent gathered anywhere other than İYS, the official İleti Yönetim Sistemi (Message Management System), must be entered into that system within three business days; unrecorded consent is not valid.

The welcome message also needs a phone field on the form. IdeaSoft’s new member registration guide lists first name, last name, email and password as mandatory fields that cannot be changed; the mobile phone field can be made mandatory or optional in the panel under Genel Ayarlar > Üye Kayıt Formu (General Settings > Member Registration Form). Making the phone mandatory is your decision; do not make the commercial message box a mandatory field, though, because the regulation does not allow consent to be demanded as a precondition.

Once the form is ready, the welcome module sends a WhatsApp welcome message to anyone who fills it in and gives communication consent. Adding a welcome gift voucher is up to you; you can also send a welcome text without a coupon. No second welcome goes to the same number, even if the customer later opens another account. Coupon codes are checked before sending, so a code that does not work never reaches the customer. The calculation in our guide to a new-member coupon’s validity and minimum spend helps you set the code’s lifetime and the smallest order it can be used on. Before switching the flow on, create two test memberships with two different phone numbers and tick the box in only one of them; the welcome message should arrive only for that account.

Welcome, {{customer name}}. Your first-order code for your {{store name}} membership: {{discount code}}. It is valid for {{validity period}} on orders of {{minimum spend}} or more. To stop our campaign messages, use the “Stop promotions” button under this message.

Review your privacy notice as well. Article 10 of the Personal Data Protection Law, the provision on the data controller’s duty to inform, requires you to tell people, when you collect their data, why it will be processed and to whom, and for what purpose, it may be transferred. State in the notice that phone numbers and order details are shared with a service provider for WhatsApp messages.

Prepare the cart reminder as a marketing template

The cart recovery message greets the customer by name when they put products in their cart without completing the order, and a discount code can be added if you like. It never goes to customers who completed their order, is sent only once per cart and skips anyone without consent; anyone who no longer wants these reminders can opt out with a single message. You can follow the orders the message brings back, and their revenue, in your panel.

On its template categorization page, Meta lists its example of a reminder about items left in the cart among marketing templates, even when the user requested it. Prepare the template in the marketing category from the start and do not leave out two pieces of information. Article 7 of Law No. 6563 asks for details that identify the sender, and Article 8 asks that the message show an easy, free way for the recipient to refuse further messages. Once a refusal reaches you, you have to stop sending commercial messages to that person within three business days.

The way out in the examples is the “Tanıtımları Durdur” quick-reply button added to the template (“Stop promotions” in English templates); a customer who taps it stops receiving promotional messages from your store. Do not ask customers to type a word such as “DUR” (stop) or “ÇIKIŞ” (exit), because one-word replies are not processed automatically. If a customer writes in their own words that they want to opt out, add the number yourself within three business days under WhatsApp Kara Liste (WhatsApp blacklist) on the Doğrulanmış Müşteri Verisi (Verified customer data) screen in the panel. Send the template to your own phone once before it goes live and try the button. Base the delay on the criteria in the article on how long to wait before a cart reminder, and the code decision on the calculation in the piece on whether a cart reminder should carry a discount code.

Good day {{customer name}}, you can complete your order for the items you left in your {{store name}} cart with the button below. Not interested in our promotional messages? Just tap “Stop promotions”.

Enter new stock at size and colour level

The back-in-stock module shows a button labelled “Stoğa Gelince Haber Ver” (tell me when it is back) on a sold-out product’s page for customers to tap. Shoppers pick a size or colour and type in a phone number, with no membership needed. The alert goes only to people waiting for the exact variant that has been restocked, and only as many people are messaged as units arrived: if five items come in, not all hundred people waiting get a message. Customers who have not consented are not messaged, and anyone can opt out with one reply.

Because customers choose a size or colour, stock also has to be kept accurate at variant level. IdeaSoft’s variant system page explains that the price, stock quantity and image of each variant are set separately, and that the main product stops being purchasable as soon as variants are created. Enter incoming stock on the row of the size or colour people are waiting for. Before going live, leave an alert request with your own number for a single size of a sold-out product and test it by entering stock for that size. For the wording, you can draw on the back-in-stock message examples.

Hi, the {{product name}} you asked us to tell you about is on sale again in the size you picked: {{product link}} You can stop our promotional messages at any time with the “Stop promotions” button below. {{store name}}

Send campaigns to consenting customers with Customer Audiences

With Customer Audiences you decide which customers a campaign announcement goes to. The module works with the purchase data transferred from your store: you write the group you are after as a sentence, for example “loyal customers with no order in six months”, and the sentence becomes a rule that you can read on screen and fix if needed. The same screen then shows the group’s size, how many members are reachable by message and their net revenue. A group consisting of people without consent shows up on its card yet cannot be turned into a send list. The group can be downloaded as an Excel file or passed directly to a bulk send without any file. The Website AI Reporting page explains the method in detail.

The sending is done by the WhatsApp bulk messaging module. Credits for messages that are not delivered are refunded, the reason each recipient was filtered out of the list is shown, and if a campaign is retried, customers who already received it do not get it a second time. If you are moving away from broadcast lists, start your first campaign with a small, clearly defined group; you can plan who to set aside with the article on which customers deserve their own campaign group.

After the first campaign, look at the number of delivered messages in the panel and the orders that followed, and count how many people opted out. If opt-outs climb quickly, narrow the group or leave more time between sends; set how often the same customer should receive a campaign with the criteria in the article on the right frequency for campaign messages. If your test order or test membership does not produce a message you were expecting, go through the flow with the Pushouse team before you open it to customers.

Back to Blog

Related Articles