“Email open rates in India are 15-18%. WhatsApp open rates are 95%. Why is everyone still spending on email tools?”
This question from a D2C founder in a Slack group sparked a heated debate. The answer? You need both — but if you’re an Indian D2C brand and you haven’t set up WhatsApp automation yet, you’re leaving the easiest money on the table.
WhatsApp has 500+ million users in India. Your customers already use it 25+ times a day. They open your message within minutes, not hours. And for ecommerce-specific use cases — cart recovery, COD verification, reorder reminders — nothing else comes close.
| Metric | SMS | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Open rate | 95% | 15-18% | 90%+ (but declining) |
| Click-through rate | 15-25% | 2-3% | 5-8% |
| Cart recovery rate | 25-30% | 5-10% | 8-12% |
| Cost per message | ₹0.30-0.80 | ₹0.01-0.05 | ₹0.10-0.25 |
| Rich media support | Images, video, buttons, catalogs | HTML (often broken on mobile) | Text only |
| Two-way conversation | Yes (native) | Rare | Limited |
The cost per message is higher than email, but the revenue per message is 5-10x higher. A WhatsApp cart recovery message that costs ₹0.50 and recovers a ₹999 order is infinitely better than a free email that gets ignored.
74% of Indian ecommerce carts are abandoned. At ₹999 average order value and 1,000 abandoned carts/month, that’s ₹7.4 lakh in potential revenue walking away. WhatsApp recovers 25-30% of these.
The flow:
Expected recovery rate: 25-30% of abandoned carts. On 1,000 abandoned carts at ₹999 AOV, that’s ₹2.5-3 lakh/month in recovered revenue.
We covered this in detail in our COD fake orders guide and RTO reduction playbook. The short version: automatically send a WhatsApp confirmation for every COD order. No confirmation within 12 hours = auto-cancel.
Impact: 25-40% reduction in fake COD orders and RTO.
Replace generic SMS tracking with rich WhatsApp messages:
This reduces “Where is my order?” (WISMO) customer support queries by 40-60%. It also builds trust and sets up the post-purchase engagement flow.
3-5 days after delivery:
“Hi [Name]! How’s your [Product]? We’d love your honest feedback. Tap here to leave a quick review: [link]. As a thank you, get 10% off your next order!”
This message typically gets a 15-25% review submission rate — far higher than email review requests (3-5%). More reviews = more social proof = higher conversion on product pages.
For consumable products (food, skincare, supplements), set up automatic reorder reminders based on typical usage:
For non-consumable products, use broadcast campaigns for new launches, flash sales, and seasonal promotions. Keep frequency to 2-4 broadcasts/month maximum — more than that and customers block you.
You need a WhatsApp Business API provider (not the free WhatsApp Business app — that doesn’t support automation at scale). Here are the top options for Indian D2C brands:
| Tool | Monthly Cost | Best For | Shopify Integration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interakt | ₹999-3,499 | All-in-one (cart recovery + COD + broadcasts) | Native app |
| AiSensy | ₹999-2,999 | Budget brands, simple automation | Via API |
| KwickReply | ₹799-2,499 | Shopify-first Indian stores | Native app |
| Wati | ₹2,499-4,999 | Team inbox + advanced chatbots | Native app |
| GoKwik | ₹2,000-5,000 | COD verification + RTO reduction | Native app |
Our recommendation: Start with Interakt (best balance of features and price) or KwickReply (if you’re on Shopify and want the simplest setup). Add GoKwik separately if COD verification is your primary need.
WhatsApp Business API pricing (Meta’s charges, on top of your provider’s fee):
For a brand doing 2,000 orders/month with 500 abandoned carts:
| Flow | Messages/Month | Cost/Month |
|---|---|---|
| Cart recovery (3 messages × 500 carts) | 1,500 | ~₹1,050 |
| Order updates (3 per order × 2,000) | 6,000 | ~₹1,950 |
| COD verification (1,200 COD orders) | 1,200 | ~₹300 |
| Review requests (2,000 delivered) | 2,000 | ~₹1,400 |
| Reorder reminders | 500 | ~₹350 |
| Monthly broadcasts (2×) | 4,000 | ~₹2,800 |
| Total Meta charges | 15,200 | ~₹7,850 |
| Provider fee (Interakt) | — | ~₹2,499 |
| Grand total | — | ~₹10,350 |
If cart recovery alone brings back 125-150 orders at ₹999 AOV, that’s ₹1.25-1.5 lakh in recovered revenue — a 12-15x ROI on your WhatsApp spend.
Cart recovery + COD verification + reorder reminders + post-purchase support flows — every Shopify build we ship has the WhatsApp Business API wired in by day one. The 95% open rate is real. We’ve done it for 200+ Indian D2C brands. ₹385Cr+ revenue processed. 4.5x average ROI. 98% retention.
The Shopify build is ₹50,000 fixed-price with no AMC — bug fixes for what we ship are included for the lifetime of the store. Active WhatsApp campaign management sits on the optional ₹30K/month Growth Retainer.
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