Shopify Messaging adds WhatsApp as a marketing channel
By Steven Van ·
Merchants can now send order updates, promotions, and support over WhatsApp from the same unified Shopify inbox.
Shopify added WhatsApp marketing to Shopify Messaging, giving merchants a new channel to reach customers directly, one they're already checking dozens of times a day for reasons that have nothing to do with shopping.
Why WhatsApp specifically
WhatsApp is the dominant messaging app across huge parts of the world, Latin America, India, and much of Europe among them, markets where email marketing often underperforms and SMS can be expensive or unreliable. Bringing WhatsApp into Shopify Messaging means merchants can send order updates, promotions, and support directly through a channel their customers already check constantly, rather than competing for attention in an inbox.
Part of Shopify Messaging's broader role
Shopify Messaging already centralizes customer conversations across channels for merchants managing storefronts; adding WhatsApp extends that same unified inbox to one more surface rather than requiring a separate WhatsApp Business integration managed outside Shopify. For merchants selling internationally, that consolidation matters, one less tool to manage, one more place customers can reliably reach a store and get an answer.
Fits a broader e-commerce trend
Conversational commerce, selling and supporting customers directly inside a messaging app rather than only through a website, has been growing steadily, and WhatsApp is the app most commonly used for it outside the US. Shopify formalizing WhatsApp as a marketing channel, not just a support one, positions merchants to run promotions and re-engagement campaigns on the same channel their customers use to talk to friends and family.
Sources: Shopify on X.