How to Add a Chat Button to Shopify for WhatsApp, Messenger and More

One button, the apps shoppers already use

Some shoppers would message you on WhatsApp, some on Instagram, and some would rather send an email or simply call. A chat button puts one small button in the corner of every page and lets each shopper pick the app they already have open. Tapping it opens that app with your account, so the question reaches you in a place you already check.

This guide covers which channels to offer and how to set each one up so it works. To plan yours, the chat button tool for Shopify checks every number, username and email address you enter and previews the button as a real store widget.

A chat button is not live chat

Live chat tools put a chat window on your site and collect every conversation in one place. A chat button does something simpler: it links out. There is no inbox and nothing is stored on the way. The shopper lands in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram or whichever app they picked, and you reply from that app, exactly as if they had found you there on their own.

That is its strength and its limit. Shoppers use an app they trust, and you keep the conversation after they leave the store. But chats stay spread across several apps, so somebody has to look at each one.

Offer the channels you will answer

• Start from where you already reply. If your team answers Instagram messages every day, that channel is worth more than a new one nobody watches.
• Look at where your orders go. Messaging habits differ by country. WhatsApp is the everyday choice in much of Europe, Latin America, Africa and South Asia, while LINE is a daily habit in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.
• Keep the list short. About three channels suits most shops. Each extra one is another app to check, and a short menu is quicker to choose from.
• Keep one route for people who do not chat. An email address or a phone number covers shoppers who would rather not message a business at all.

Get every detail right

Most broken chat buttons fail on a detail typed the local way. Phone numbers for WhatsApp, calls, texts and Viber need the country code first, written as digits only: no plus sign, no spaces and no 0 from the front of a local number. A UK number written 020 7946 0958 becomes 442079460958.

Messenger, Instagram and Telegram need the account name, not a link to a post or a story. LINE official accounts start with an @, which a personal LINE ID does not have. And an email address needs its full domain, with no spaces.

Phones and computers see different menus

With one channel, the button opens it straight away. With two or more, it opens a small menu and the shopper picks one. Call, text and Viber links show on phones only, so a button with only those channels does not show on computers at all. Instagram chats also start inside the Instagram app, so on a computer shoppers usually land on your profile instead.

Test the button on a phone and on a laptop before you rely on it, and tap every channel yourself to check each one reaches the right account.

Where the button sits

A floating button in a bottom corner is the usual pattern, shown on every page so a question can be asked wherever it comes up. Bottom corners on a phone are crowded, though: cookie notices, sticky buy bars and other widgets all compete for the same spot. Check a product page on your own phone and make sure the button covers nothing a shopper needs.

Privacy and marketing permission

When a shopper messages you, you receive their name, number or address and whatever they write. Say in your privacy policy which messaging apps you use for customer questions; the privacy policy generator can help with the wording.

A question about sizing is not permission to send promotions. Answer what they asked, and ask separately before adding anyone to a marketing list.

Next step

Choose the two or three channels you answer every day and gather the number or username for each. Then open the chat button tool to check them and preview the chat button from the Nudgesmart app. You switch it on from the app, and it shows across the store. If WhatsApp is your only channel, the WhatsApp button tool is the better fit. The other store widgets are in the store widget gallery.

A chat button catches the questions a page did not answer. For the blocks that answer them on the page first, see which product page widgets earn their place.