For most DTC brands selling consumable or considered-purchase products in markets where WhatsApp is the dominant messaging platform, yes - WhatsApp earns its place in the retention stack. It isn't a replacement for email or SMS.
It is an additive channel that closes the gap email leaves open after 60 days, reaches customers in an inbox they actually open, and enables the kind of two-way conversation that moves people from consideration to purchase faster than any broadcast channel can.
What is WhatsApp marketing for eCommerce?
I've spent a lot of time recently with Jeremy Horowitz, CEO of CoCo AI, who works with hundreds of Shopify brands using WhatsApp as a genuine revenue layer. And the more we talked, the more it confirmed something I've argued for years.
You cannot scale returning customer revenue on email alone.
Email engagement goes down after 60 days post-subscribe, which is natural channel behaviour. Around 50% of your subscribers will never meaningfully engage with email at all.
So if email is your only retention channel, you're already playing catch-up.
WhatsApp is one of the most underused ways to close that gap, especially for EU & UK brands where SMS is less popular.
However, this is only true if you stop treating it like SMS with a green logo.
Why does WhatsApp convert better than email or SMS?
WhatsApp messages get opened around 98% of the time, versus ~20% for email.
Websites convert 1-3% of visitors. Conversations on WhatsApp have converted 15-20%.
And roughly 80% of a brand's site visitors use WhatsApp, regardless of age. We've all got that family group chat.
Now, I'd warn you not to read these as another efficiency metric to obsess over. A 98% open rate is not what you should be aiming for.
Instead, it is reach and mental availability.
WhatsApp gives you a way to stay top-of-mind with the 95% of your audience who aren't in-market today, in an inbox they actually open, and on the device they buy from.
That's how I’d like you to read this newsletter.
Is WhatsApp a promotional channel or a conversation channel?
This is the bit most brands get wrong from day one.
WhatsApp is built for 1:1 engagement and needs to be used as such, without speaking at your customers the same way most brands do with email & SMS.
I think that is critical for retention.
With the kind of response rate WhatsApp gives you, you can start thinking about “how to create a more useful interaction” instead of "how do we send a better campaign?"
A customer can ask about shipping, get reassurance on a product, narrow down the right option, and keep moving toward purchase without ever leaving the channel.
This is conversational marketing working its magic.
Replies should be the goal with the channel and that is what will drive the best conversions and keep you in META’s good books.
Here's the warning, because it's a belief I'll die on: WhatsApp is the most personal inbox your customer has.
If you blast it with the same mindless discount you send everywhere else, you'll burn the one thing that makes it valuable.
What WhatsApp campaigns work best?
Strip away the noise and there are two modes: automations triggered by something the customer does, and Icebreakers - broadcast messages sent to your whole WhatsApp list or a segment.
For the tactical detail on which automations to launch first, how to build your list, and the full week-by-week rollout plan, read our launch guide: WhatsApp for Shopify: How to Launch Faster and Make It Convert.
For campaigns, the highest-leverage Icebreakers once your list is built are:
- VIP club: Reserve WhatsApp for your best customers with perks available ONLY there. Early access, launches, gifts. Segment by LTV and order frequency, because these are the people it hurts most to lose.
- Restock and launches: Bestseller back in stock? New drop? Your WhatsApp audience hears first.
- Private sales: A neat trick from the CoCo team: send one Icebreaker the day before a sale to tease it, and another on the day it opens. Keep both inside 24 hours and you're only charged for one conversation window.
How should you use AI in WhatsApp marketing?
A virtual assistant trained on your brand story, your values, your products and your tone of voice, that can talk to every customer at once, in any language, 24/7.
That used to cost you the founder's time or a support team - now it doesn't.
And speed is the whole game. If you can reply instantly while the customer is still on your site, it actually moves conversion.
But the same warning applies as everywhere else.
If you use AI to pump out more generic messages, you'll make the channel worse.
Remember the goal is to make WhatsApp feel responsive and guide the customers towards a more personalised shopping experience.
How does WhatApp sit alongside email and SMS?
A lot of clients ask me if WhatsApp should replace email or SMS.
It shouldn't - it's additive.
More touchpoints = more impressions = more revenue. You have to meet the consumer where they are.
WhatsApp earns its place at the high-leverage moments:
- Launch announcements
- Back-in-stock alerts
- Final-hours urgency
- VIP and early-access drops
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Conversational product discovery
Use each channel for what it's best at. Don't make them fight.
Is WhatsApp marketing right for your brand?
Mostly, yes. But not for everyone, and it's worth being honest about the fit before you invest.
WhatsApp works for any brand that wants to convert more of its traffic, engage existing customers, and build a closer relationship than email or SMS allows. It's been used across food, beauty, supplements, home, jewellery, fashion and sport, at every size from small stores to multi-million-euro brands.
It tends to earn its place fastest when:
- You sell products people have questions about before buying. Multiple SKUs, education-heavy ranges, or considered purchases where a bit of reassurance tips the sale.
- A meaningful share of your traffic is on mobile. Which, in 2026, is almost all of you.
- Your customers already live on WhatsApp. In most of Europe and much of the world, they do.
Where it's a weaker fit: very low-consideration, low-AOV products where nobody needs a conversation to buy, and one-time purchases with no natural repeat cycle. The channel still works, but the upside is smaller.
And a few hard exclusions worth knowing up front. The tooling built for this (CoCo AI) is Shopify-only, so if you're on another platform this specific playbook won't apply cleanly. It also isn't available for CBD, alcohol, or adult stores.
If you've read this and decided WhatsApp belongs in your stack, the tactical detail - list growth, automations, rollout plan - is all in our launch guide: WhatsApp for Shopify: How to Launch Faster and Make It Convert.
I'd urge you not to wait for the perfect setup. Launch, watch real behaviour, then refine.
P.S - the tooling has caught up with the strategy. CoCo AI is built for this (Shopify-only, sets up in around 30 minutes, and over 625 brands are already running on it). Worth a look if your stack can't do conversational WhatsApp properly yet. One caveat: it's not for CBD, alcohol or adult stores.
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