Integration
Connecting WhatsApp to your Shopify store
Two platforms have to meet in the middle: Shopify holds your products and orders, Meta holds your WhatsApp number. This is what the app does between them.
Why this needs connecting at all
Shopify knows what you sell and who bought it. WhatsApp knows where your customers ask questions. Neither knows about the other by default, which is why an answer like "yes, three left in medium" is hard to give: it requires the messaging channel to read the store.
Connecting them is what turns a WhatsApp number into a sales and support channel rather than a second inbox somebody has to watch.
What the connection gives the agent
Answers from your live catalogue
The agent searches your indexed products semantically, so a question like "do you have this in a medium?" is answered from your real products rather than a script.
Reads live Shopify data
101 Shopify operations available to the agent: 33 on orders, 18 on customers, 38 on products and 12 on inventory. It can look up products, variants, stock levels, orders and fulfilments while it replies.
Nine languages
The admin and the storefront widgets ship in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil) and Turkish. The catalogue index is multilingual, so product search works across languages.
A human is one click away
Hand any conversation to a person, per conversation, at any moment. The agent stops replying when you take over and stays out of the way.
Every run is explained
Each agent run is a timeline showing, node by node, which tools it called and what came back — so you can see exactly why it answered the way it did.
Conversations become a pipeline
Leads are captured while the agent chats, with scores, tags, notes, consent state and CSV or JSON export.
How the connection is made
- Step 1
Install from the Shopify App Store
The app installs into your Shopify admin and asks for the permissions it needs. Those scopes are visible before you approve them.
- Step 2
Connect WhatsApp through Meta Embedded Signup
You authorise through Meta's own flow. The number must not already be active in the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app — that is the most common cause of a failed connection.
- Step 3
Index your catalogue
Your active products are read into a private search index for your store, so the agent can match a customer's description to a product rather than needing the exact name. Plans cover 100, 2,500 or 5,000 products.
- Step 4
Add the storefront button, if you want one
Optional. The theme block adds a WhatsApp button or chat widget to your storefront, in whichever position and colour you choose.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- The phone number is already registered to WhatsApp. Delete it from the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app first, then retry.
- Meta business verification is still pending. Registration cannot complete until Meta approves the business account, and then it completes automatically.
- Expecting the agent to chase customers. It answers messages it receives. Messaging somebody who has not written to you needs an approved template or an automation trigger, and commerce-event triggers are not selectable yet.
Languages
The admin and the storefront widgets ship in nine languages — English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil), Turkish — and the catalogue index is multilingual, so a customer can ask in one language against product data written in another.
Honest limits of the integration
- Commerce-event triggers are not selectable yetThe engine supports orders, checkouts, customers, products and fulfilments. Merchants can currently switch on the inbound WhatsApp message trigger only. The rest are rolling out.
- No abandoned-cart recoveryThe checkout trigger is implemented in the backend but is not merchant-selectable, so no customer can be messaged unprompted.
- No helpdesk, CRM or ERP integrationsConversations live in the app's own inbox. There is no Zendesk, Gorgias or Intercom integration.
Integration questions
Does Shopify have native WhatsApp messaging?
Shopify provides the store, the catalogue and the customer records. WhatsApp Business messaging runs on Meta's platform and needs a WhatsApp Business API connection, which is what this app sets up for you.
What connects to what?
Your Shopify store supplies products, inventory, orders and customers. Meta supplies the WhatsApp number and message delivery. The app sits between them: it receives incoming messages, lets the agent read store data, and sends replies back through the WhatsApp Business API.
What data can the agent read from Shopify?
101 Shopify operations across four areas: 33 on orders, 18 on customers, 38 on products and 12 on inventory. You grant those in groups, per agent.
Do I need a developer?
No. The connection uses Meta Embedded Signup, catalogues index from a button, and the storefront button is a theme block you add in the Shopify theme editor.
Can the agent write to my store?
Agent access is granted in groups centred on reading store data so it can answer questions accurately. Treat it as an assistant that looks things up, not as an automation that changes your orders.
Does it work on any Shopify plan?
It installs as a standard Shopify app and works on stores that can install apps from the App Store. No Shopify Plus requirement, and no theme changes beyond adding the optional widget block.
Step-by-step instructions are in how to connect WhatsApp to Shopify. Support is at [email protected].
Start with the free plan
Free: 1 agent, 100 messages a month and up to 100 products indexed. No credit card required, billed through Shopify, cancel any time.