Mercayo sends your store's order updates, a COD confirmation with buttons, bag reminders, back-in-stock alerts and sign-in codes on WhatsApp, and offers to shoppers who joined your list there. Messages go from Mercayo's WhatsApp Business number, or from your own once you connect it, using templates WhatsApp has approved in English and Hindi. Each carries your store's picture, your store's name in bold and buttons to your store. This guide explains what you switch on and what shoppers see. The screens are in WhatsApp, Messages and Templates.
What Can Go on WhatsApp
| Message | When | Who Gets It |
|---|---|---|
| Order confirmed | Right after the order | Shoppers who said yes to updates |
| COD confirmation, with CONFIRM ORDER and CANCEL ORDER buttons | A COD order nobody confirmed yet (when you switch it on) | Shoppers who said yes |
| Shipped, out for delivery, delivered | As the parcel moves | Shoppers who said yes |
| Bag reminder (with or without a code) | After an abandoned checkout | Shoppers who joined your list or said yes |
| Back in stock | When a variant they asked about is back | Shoppers who asked on WhatsApp |
| Sign-in and COD codes | When the shopper asks for one | The shopper who asked |
| Your own offers | When you send them | Shoppers who joined your list on WhatsApp |
Step 1: Let Shoppers Say Yes
Order updates go only to shoppers who say yes. With Offer Order Updates on WhatsApp on (Settings › Checkout and COD, on by default), the thank-you and order pages ask the shopper if they want shipped and delivered updates on WhatsApp. Once they say yes, the store remembers it for their next orders.
Step 2: Choose Which Updates Go
On Marketing › WhatsApp, each message shows its approval, its switch, its price and a picture of it. Order confirmed, shipped, out for delivery and delivered are on by default. The COD confirmation with buttons is off by default: switch it on to let shoppers confirm a COD order in one tap (their yes marks the order confirmed; their cancel cancels it while they still may, or asks your team).
Step 3: Reminders and Codes
- Bag reminders: in Bag Reminders Settings, set Send Reminders By to Whatsapp or Both.
- Codes: COD codes can go on WhatsApp with Codes by WhatsApp Too (Checkout and COD Settings); shopper sign-in codes go on WhatsApp first with Send Phone Codes on WhatsApp First (Shopper Accounts Settings).
Step 4: Offers to Your WhatsApp List
Shoppers can join your list with their WhatsApp number (the footer band or popup set to WhatsApp number). Make your own marketing template on Templates, submit it for approval, and once approved send it to your WhatsApp subscribers. The screen shows how many people it goes to and what it costs before you send.
Step 5: Make Them Look Like Your Store (Optional)
On Marketing › WhatsApp › Branding, upload a banner or a picture for any message, and change the line in your own words with EDIT WORDS. Without them, Mercayo uses the product's photo or makes a banner from your logo and brand colour. See WhatsApp.
Step 6: Use Your Own Number
Under Your Own WhatsApp Number, press CONNECT YOUR OWN NUMBER and finish in Meta's window. Mercayo submits its templates to your WhatsApp Business account; as WhatsApp approves each one, it goes from your number, with your name at the top of the chat. Codes always go from Mercayo's number.
Stopping Messages
A shopper who replies STOP stops your store's messages; anything queued to them is cancelled and they are told how to start again (START). Your team can stop a number on request from Messages (STOP MESSAGES TO THIS NUMBER); only the shopper can start it again. Marketing messages carry "Reply STOP to stop these messages".
What It Costs
Paid from your plan's monthly WhatsApp bundle first, then your notification credits: order updates and codes at the order price, marketing messages at the marketing price (from credits only). Replies are free, and a message WhatsApp could not deliver is given back. Messages shows each message's charge.
Questions
Can messages come from my own WhatsApp number?
Yes. Connect it under Your Own WhatsApp Number on Marketing › WhatsApp (Step 6). Until you do, messages go from Mercayo's WhatsApp Business number, with your store's name, picture and buttons in each message.
Do demo or sample orders send messages?
No. Messages for demo data and showcase stores are never sent.
Why did a shopper not get an update?
They may not have said yes, may have replied STOP, or the message failed (its reason is in Messages).