Installed from the Shopify App Store, Pushouse opens inside your Shopify admin, and you connect your WhatsApp number through Meta’s official setup window. After that you can switch on five flows: WhatsApp order notifications as the order progresses, a shipping message when the parcel leaves, a reminder for shoppers who leave products in the cart, a back-in-stock alert when a sold-out product or size returns, and a welcome message for people who open an account. Every flow relies on the customer’s phone number and a Meta-approved template; WhatsApp’s rules also require the customer’s agreement to hear from you.
How many customers a flow reaches usually comes down to a handful of Shopify settings: whether checkout requires a phone number, the wording of the consent checkbox, the Pushouse form on the customer account profile page, entering the tracking number as the parcel ships, and inventory tracking being on for the product. Once these are fixed flow by flow, you can decide how to word the consent request, which messages to prepare as utility templates and which as marketing ones, and which flows to start with in the first week. You can also avoid clashing with Shopify’s own emails and try every flow on your own phone number.
Setup starts in the App Store and finishes on Meta’s screen
When you click the install button on the app’s page in the Shopify App Store, a confirmation screen opens showing which store data will be accessed and the privacy policy; clicking the button a second time on that screen completes the installation. According to Shopify’s guide to installing apps, you then reach the installed app from the Apps page in your admin. Because the app is embedded in the Shopify admin, you never leave Shopify while you configure it.
Not every app with WhatsApp in its name does the same job, and a Shopify WhatsApp integration can mean two different setups. Some apps only add a chat button to your site; with that button, the customer starts the conversation. Sending order or cart messages to customers automatically needs a different link: your number must be on the WhatsApp Business API, which Meta calls the WhatsApp Business Platform. Pushouse sets up this second kind of connection; you can read how it works in general on our WhatsApp marketing page.
The connection is made through Pushouse’s partner Gupshup, using Meta’s own official setup screen. Meta’s Embedded Signup documentation, which describes this flow, lists what happens in the window: you sign in with your Facebook or Meta Business credentials, pick your existing business portfolio and WhatsApp account or create new ones, enter and verify your number, and set the display name that can appear in place of your number in WhatsApp. Along the way you also grant Pushouse access to your WhatsApp assets. The documentation adds that businesses connected this way own their WhatsApp assets and have full access to WhatsApp Manager.
Choose which number to connect before you open the window. A number you already use with the WhatsApp Business app qualifies too, and it stays active in that app: your team keeps writing to customers from the phone while automated messages go out from the same number. For such a number, tick “Is this number currently used with WhatsApp Business app?” on Pushouse’s WhatsApp Integration screen before you click “Start Integration”. Meta’s coexistence documentation, which covers using one number in both places, also lists the conditions. The app must be version 2.24.17 or later. Broadcast lists are switched off: no new list can be made, and the old ones can only be read. One-to-one chats lose disappearing and view-once messages. Linked devices are unlinked and have to be linked again, and WhatsApp for Windows is not supported. The app’s own messages remain free of charge, whereas messages that go through the API are priced. A team that announces campaigns through broadcast lists, or uses the Windows app on a computer, should talk these differences through before setup.
A number that is active on personal WhatsApp cannot be connected until that account is deleted; if the number belongs to you or an employee, getting a separate line for the store is usually easier. A brand-new number with no WhatsApp history needs the least preparation. Because customers will not recognise the number, keep the display name the same as your store name.
In short, prepare these before the setup day:
- A Shopify admin account with permission to install apps and edit checkout settings.
- The Meta account you will sign in with in the setup window, and the line to be connected to WhatsApp.
- Someone who will add the back-in-stock block in the theme editor and the profile block in the checkout and accounts editor.
- The plan you will choose, and the first credit top-up for messages from the Balance page.
If you would like to talk about which plan and which flow to start with before deciding, set up a demo call with “Book a Meeting” in the top menu; your store’s address can also reach us via the contact form below.
Adjust the phone field and the consent checkbox in checkout settings
On Shopify, the main place where you collect customers’ phone numbers is the checkout. According to Shopify’s checkout form options page, email is selected as the contact method on new stores. If you want a phone number with every order, you make the “Shipping address phone number” field required on the Checkout page under Settings. By default the field is optional: it is displayed but can be left empty. If you work with a carrier that already needs a phone number for delivery, requiring it adds no extra burden for the customer. In stores that sell only digital products and have no shipping step, the requirement does not apply.
Switching the contact method to “Phone number or email” may look like a way to collect more numbers. But a customer who enters a phone number instead of an email address cannot receive Shopify’s emails, and text messages do not fill the gap. According to the SMS notifications page, Shopify sends these notifications only for stores whose business address is in one of the listed countries, and Türkiye is not on the list. In a store with a business address in Türkiye, a customer who leaves no email gets no order confirmation from Shopify at all. Keeping email as the contact method and asking for the phone number in the shipping address keeps both channels open.
The consent checkbox sits in the “Marketing opt-in” section of the same page. To show it at checkout, you select “Checkout only” for the SMS option, as described in Shopify’s guide to collecting customer contact information. The box cannot be pre-ticked; the customer ticks it. The default text only says that they are signing up for news and offers. Use “Customize labels” to change it and name WhatsApp, your store and the messages you will send; in the same guide, Shopify says that stores sending abandoned cart reminders need to change this text.
A sentence like this is enough: “{{store name}} may send me order and shipping updates, cart reminders and campaign announcements on WhatsApp.” In some regions, Shopify also lets you show a separate WhatsApp checkbox instead of the SMS one. Before you switch that option on, check with our support team how consent from that box is handled in the app.
Another sentence in the guide changes what you can expect from cart reminders: an SMS or WhatsApp marketing preference is saved when the customer completes the checkout. If a first-time visitor ticks the box and then abandons the checkout, the consent never reaches Shopify, and because reminders skip anyone without consent, it never reaches them. Most of the reminder’s audience is therefore made up of customers who gave consent in an earlier purchase or through a form.
There are two reasons to word the text broadly enough to cover order notifications too. Under Law No. 6563, no commercial electronic message may go out without consent the recipient gave in advance. Order and delivery notifications are exempt from that consent under the Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages, provided they promote no product. WhatsApp’s business messaging policy adds a condition of its own: a business can message a person only after that person has shared their number with it and opted in to hear from it. Among the policy’s good-practice suggestions is a single opt-in that covers the message types you will send, from order updates to offers. That way the consent the law requires for campaign messages and the consent WhatsApp requires for order messages come from one checkbox.
The checkbox collects consent outside the Message Management System (İYS), so Article 7 of the Regulation gives you three business days to register each consent there and treats an unregistered one as invalid. Before you switch on campaign flows, decide who will transfer the consents from Shopify to İYS, and with which tool. Before the first campaign, also ask your legal advisor under which consent type WhatsApp consents should be held in İYS. Our guide to campaign audiences covers which customers to drop from a campaign list at the outset.
Plan order and shipping messages alongside Shopify’s emails
On the order side, you choose which status changes trigger a message. The customer receives notifications such as “Order received” or “Shipped” only at the steps you select, and each status message can be reworded to suit your store.
Shopify keeps sending its own emails after the integration is switched on. According to Shopify’s customer notifications page, most notifications are sent automatically and cannot be deactivated, and the order confirmation is not among those you can turn off. Since the customer gets the confirmation email in any case, write the WhatsApp message as a short summary of it: the order number, the total and the next step are enough. For which details go to which channel, see our post-purchase message sequence.
The shipping message is sent by the WhatsApp shipment tracking module. The message goes out when shipping information is added to the order and carries three things the customer can use: the order number, a link showing where the shipment currently is and the parcel’s tracking number. On Shopify, the tracking number is part of the fulfillment record; according to Shopify’s fulfillment guide, you type it into the tracking field when you mark the order as fulfilled, and you can also add it later. The same guide says that if your carrier isn’t fully supported by Shopify, or you pick Other from the carrier list, you enter the tracking URL yourself; a shipment without a tracking link gets no WhatsApp shipping message. Entering it late can make the message pointless: once the parcel is in the customer’s hands, an “on its way” message is no longer sent. Make it a rule that whoever packs the parcel enters the number, and the link if needed, there and then.
On Shopify, an order can be split into several parcels, and because each fulfillment is processed separately the customer may receive more than one shipping email. The WhatsApp shipping message, by contrast, goes only once per order. If you often split orders, keep Shopify’s shipping confirmation email switched on; the second parcel’s tracking number reaches the customer through that email.
While the shipping module is on, the “Shipped” step in the order notifications is skipped on Shopify, so when the parcel leaves the customer receives only the shipping message with the tracking number. A store that does not use the shipping module can announce the dispatch with that step.
Put the abandoned checkout email and the WhatsApp reminder in sequence
A customer who leaves products in the cart gets a WhatsApp message addressed to them by name after the set waiting time. In the WhatsApp cart recovery module this message can also include a discount code, should you want one. Customers who complete their checkout do not get it, and the same cart never gets a second reminder; recovered orders and the revenue they bring appear separately in the panel.
Shopify’s own recovery email may be running too. According to the help page on the abandoned checkout automation, this email goes out through an automation you switch on in the Shopify Messaging app. How long the automation waits before sending the email is one of its settings, and you can change it in Shopify Flow. With the default settings, the email goes only to customers who are subscribed to email marketing.
If both reminders are on, the customer may get two messages about the same cart. There are two ways to keep the channels apart: switch one off, or put time between them. Sending the WhatsApp message first and moving the email to a later time keeps the customer from being alerted on two channels at once. When choosing the WhatsApp message’s waiting time, the criteria in our cart message timing article will help. Because the reminder only reaches customers whose consent is on record, switch the flow on after you have fixed the text at checkout.
Turn on inventory tracking in Shopify for the notify button
Once a product is sold out, its page shows a button inviting visitors to be told when it is back in stock. Visitors who tap it choose the variant they are after, such as a size or colour, and type in their number, with no account required. The alert from the WhatsApp back-in-stock alerts module goes out once the chosen variant is back on the shelf, and it is sent not to everyone waiting at once but to a number of people limited by the quantity that arrives. If five units come back, the hundred people waiting for them do not all get a message at once.
On Shopify, this button is an app block that you add to your theme. You add blocks in the theme editor, place them and save, as Shopify’s guide to app blocks describes; until Pushouse’s stock notification block is on your product page, the button does not appear. If the block is missing from the published theme, the app’s back-in-stock screen takes you to the theme editor with a “Complete theme setup” link.
For the button to make sense, Shopify has to treat the product as sold out. According to Shopify’s inventory setup guide, you turn on quantity tracking for each product or variant you want to track and enter the units you have available. The option described in the same guide to keep selling when stock runs out lets customers buy the product even when it is sold out; a product with that option on never reaches a sold-out moment worth waiting for. On products where you want the notify button, keep inventory tracking on and the continue-selling option off, and keep each variant’s stock level up to date separately. For the message text, see our back-in-stock message examples.
Welcome messages go to new members who fill in the profile form
The WhatsApp welcome messages module greets customers who open an account in your store on WhatsApp. The welcome can be sent on its own, or a welcome gift voucher can go with it. Codes are verified before a coupon message is sent, so no customer gets one that does not work. Campaign messages never go to people without explicit contact consent, and if the same phone number arrives with a second account, the welcome is not sent again.
According to Shopify’s customer accounts page, customers sign in by entering their email address and the six-digit code sent to it; no password is required. When someone signs in with an email address that is not yet registered, a customer profile is created automatically. A record opened with an email code holds the email address but no phone number and no SMS consent. Pushouse collects both through a form added to the Profile page of the customer account.
When a customer who has just created an account types their phone number into the form and ticks the SMS consent box, the form saves the number and the consent to their customer record in Shopify, and the welcome message goes to that customer once. The form’s default heading is “Membership Information” (“Üyelik Bilgileri” in Turkish). Customers who check out as guests, without opening an account, get no welcome, and an existing customer who updates their profile does not count as a new member. If the customer saves the form again later or changes their number, no second welcome is sent.
For the form to appear, you add the “Pushouse Profile & Consent” block to the Profile page of your customer accounts. According to Shopify’s guide to customizing checkout and customer accounts with apps, you start on the Checkout page under Settings and click Edit next to your configuration. In the checkout and accounts editor that opens, you select the Profile page, place the block with Add block and then save. The app also asks you to activate the footer reminder and the block on the Orders page together with the profile block. A customer whose profile is incomplete is sent from the Orders page to the profile page, and the other account pages remind them to complete the form.
Until all three are active, the app’s Settings page shows a “Profile & Consent Extension Not Active” warning, and its “Activate Extension” button takes you to the editor. You edit the form’s fields in the “Customer account profile & legal texts” section of the same page. Keep the phone field and the SMS consent box in the form; as with the checkbox at checkout, you can name WhatsApp and your store in this box’s text too. If the message carries a coupon, our welcome coupon article helps you set how long it lasts and the minimum basket it requires.
Keep utility messages and marketing messages apart in your templates
In automated flows it is always the store that starts the conversation. WhatsApp’s policy requires every business-initiated conversation to open with an approved template. The 24-hour window that a customer’s message opens restarts with each new message from the customer, and within it you can reply without a template. In Pushouse, too, business-initiated messages go out with templates approved by Meta.
Meta’s template categorization documentation lists three groups: marketing, utility and authentication. Utility templates cover follow-ups to something the customer did; the documentation asks that order management messages contain no product promotion, product recommendations or offers. If a campaign line is added to an order update, the template counts as marketing. A cart reminder is almost the same sentence as the example under the documentation’s retargeting heading, and Meta keeps that example in the marketing group even when users request it. It is also safer to prepare the back-in-stock alert and the coupon welcome as marketing templates: one invites the customer to buy a product, the other to use a code.
Give marketing templates a way out. Under Article 8 of Law No. 6563, a recipient may refuse messages at any time, and the store must make refusing easy and free and show how to do it in the message. WhatsApp’s policy also recommends telling customers clearly how to opt out of specific types of messages. Meta’s template components documentation defines quick reply buttons as buttons that send their text to the business as a message when tapped, and notes that a common use is letting customers opt out of marketing messages easily.
Of the four texts below, the first two can be prepared as utility templates and the last two as marketing templates. The “Stop promotions” button in the marketing examples is such a quick reply button (in a Turkish template it reads “Tanıtımları durdur”); one tap takes the customer off the list.
Hello {{customer name}}, we have received your {{store name}} order. Order no: {{order number}}, total: {{total}}. We will send your tracking number on this line once your parcel ships.
{{store name}}: your parcel for order {{order number}} has left our warehouse, and your tracking number is {{tracking number}}. You can follow its latest status at this link: {{tracking link}}
{{store name}}: {{customer name}}, your {{product name}} is still in the cart. To complete your purchase: {{cart link}} If you are unsure about the size or want to ask about delivery, just write back. To stop reminders and campaign messages, tap “Stop promotions”.
{{store name}}: Thank you for signing up, {{customer name}}. Your first-order code is {{discount code}}: it takes {{discount amount}} off baskets over {{minimum amount}} until {{last day}}. Start shopping: {{site link}} To leave campaign notifications, tap “Stop promotions”.
Chat flows on Shopify come with the top plan
Some automated messages get replies: after the shipping message people ask when it will arrive, and after the cart reminder they ask about sizes. If you connected your number together with the WhatsApp Business app, you can see and answer these replies in the app on your phone; according to Meta’s coexistence documentation, the message history of the two apps is kept in sync. Decide who will reply, and at what hours, before you switch the flows on. If more than 24 hours have gone by since the customer’s last message, only a template can reach them.
When incoming messages pile up, WhatsApp question routing flows bring order to them. A customer who writes to you is first greeted with a welcome message carrying no more than three topic buttons. Customers who type their own question rather than tapping a button are routed by the keywords you have set. Anything that fits none of your rules is still handled: it falls back to the welcome step you set up. When your team steps in, the bot stays silent and replies are sent from the panel; it resumes half an hour after the team’s last reply.
A chat flow is not tied to a store event; it starts when the customer writes to you. On Shopify it is included only in the top plan, and the app’s Plans page shows which plan that is. WhatsApp’s policy also asks businesses that reply automatically to offer ways for the customer to reach a person quickly, and it lists in-chat transfer to a human agent first among them. The handover step is how a chat flow meets that requirement.
Count the plan fee and the message cost separately
On Shopify, everything you pay Pushouse goes through Shopify’s billing. You choose a plan such as Growth, Pro or Enterprise on the app’s Plans page and approve the monthly or yearly fee on Shopify’s confirmation screen. Messages are not included in the plan: you top up a prepaid balance on the app’s Balance page, and the cost of each message is deducted from it. Each top-up is a one-time charge that you also approve in Shopify. According to Shopify’s app charges page, subscription charges appear on your regular Shopify bill, while one-time charges are shown on separate invoices. When you compare plans, make sure the flows you will switch on first are included in the plan you choose. Alongside the five flows, the app also includes modules such as a spin-to-win wheel, WhatsApp campaigns, the Trendyol reviews integration and shoppable Reels; the Plans page shows which plan each module comes with. The Müşteri Kitleleri (customer audiences) screen, which builds customer groups from purchase history on some platforms, is not available on Shopify.
To estimate message costs in advance, count each flow separately. For order notifications, multiply your monthly order count by the number of steps you switch on; with three steps on, every order that passes through all of them costs three messages. The shipping message is at most one message per order. The volume of cart reminders depends on the carts left by customers whose consent is on record, and the volume of back-in-stock alerts on the quantity that arrives and the number of people waiting. A breakdown like this shows, before setup, which flows will account for most of your message spend and how much to load onto your balance.
Test every flow with your own number first, then switch them on one by one
Shopify’s test order page describes a test order as the way to see that your checkout and your order processing, inventory, shipping and email notification settings work correctly. You can place the order with Shopify’s test payment method, but customers cannot place real orders while your payment provider is in test mode. You can also pay for real and then cancel and refund the order straight away; with that method, your payment provider may charge a fee. Test the WhatsApp flows with your own phone number in this order:
- At checkout, fill in the phone field, tick the consent box and complete the order. Because consent is saved when the checkout is completed, the later tests rely on this order.
- Check that the order message arrives and that the order number and total are shown correctly.
- Mark the order as fulfilled with a tracking number and carrier (with a tracking URL if Shopify does not recognise your carrier) and check that the link in the shipping message opens the tracking screen on your phone. If you test late in the evening, it is normal for the shipping message to arrive the next morning.
- Start a second checkout with the same number, abandon it and wait for the WhatsApp reminder; if Shopify’s email is also on, note which one arrives first.
- Set one variant of a test product that has inventory tracking on to zero, ask to be notified with the button on the product page, then add a single unit to that variant.
- Open a customer account with a new email address. In the form on the Profile page, enter a phone number you did not use in the first step, tick the SMS consent box and see whether the welcome message reaches that number; if it does not, check whether the customer record in Shopify has a phone number and SMS consent.
After testing, do not switch all the flows on the same day. Start with order status and shipping messages; customers expect them anyway, and as long as they promote no product they fall into Meta’s utility category. If some of your sizes sell out often, you can switch on back-in-stock alerts in the first week as well, because the customer asked for the alert. Decide whether to keep the welcome message on once you have seen whether it reached your test account.
Switch on cart reminders after you have changed the consent text and seen your number of consenting customers grow. To see the number, create a new segment under Segments in Shopify’s Customers menu and enter the condition sms_subscription_status = 'SUBSCRIBED' in the query. According to Shopify’s customer segment filters page, this condition returns customers who are subscribed to SMS marketing. When you run the query, the number of matching customers appears above the editor.
WhatsApp’s quality rule is another reason for this order. Under the policy, people can block a business or report it, and WhatsApp may respond to that feedback by limiting how many messages the business can send. Starting with messages customers expect helps reduce this risk in the first weeks of a newly connected number. Go through the replies during the first days too: if customers ask after the welcome message whether the code applies to sale items, the code’s conditions are missing from the text. If you get stuck on the Shopify or Meta side of the setup, use our contact form to reach us.
