Promotional WhatsApp messages: 24 marketing message examples for online stores

What counts as a promotional WhatsApp message

If a message tries to make a sale, treat it as marketing. Meta's template rules for the WhatsApp Business API list announcements, offers and discount codes, abandoned-cart reminders and birthday greetings as marketing, and a message that mixes an order update with a promotion is classed as marketing too. Order confirmations and shipping updates on their own are transactional.

• Meta: Template categorization (WhatsApp Business Platform)

What makes a promotional message work

A skeleton you can reuse for any occasion: Hi {name}, it's {store}. {Offer} until {deadline}. {Link}. Reply STOP to opt out. Our free WhatsApp message templates tool at /tools/whatsapp-message-templates has more ready-made texts for order and recovery messages.

• Store name in the first line. The customer sees a chat from a number; your name tells them it is not spam.
• One offer. 20% off, free shipping or a new product, not all three.
• A real deadline: a date and time, such as Sunday 11:59 pm. Never invent urgency you will not keep.
• One link, straight to the product or collection, not your homepage.
• Short: two to four lines. WhatsApp is read like a text from a friend, not an email.
• A way out: Reply STOP to opt out, and honour it the same day.

14 WhatsApp marketing message examples for everyday promotions

Replace the words in braces. We left the opt-out line off most examples to keep them short; add one to every promotion you send. Only promise stock levels, prices and delivery times that are true in your store.

• New arrival: Hi {name}, {store} here. New in today: the {collection} collection, 18 pieces in sizes XS to XXL. First look: {link}
• New arrival: {store}: just landed, {product} in sand and olive. It's a small batch, so sizes will go fast: {link}
• Sale: Hi {name}, our mid-season sale is on at {store}: up to 40% off selected styles until Sunday 11:59 pm. {link}
• Discount code: {name}, here's 15% off anything at {store} with code SPRING15, valid until {date}: {link}
• Flash sale: Flash sale at {store}: 25% off for the next 6 hours only, ending at 9 pm tonight. No code needed: {link}
• Flash sale: Three products, three hours, 30% off. {store}'s lunchtime flash sale ends at 3 pm: {link}
• Free shipping: Spend {amount} and delivery is on us. Free shipping at {store} ends Thursday at midnight: {link}
• Free shipping: Hi {name}, shipping is free on your next order at {store} with code FREESHIP, valid for 48 hours: {link}
• Back in stock: {product} is back at {store}, but only {quantity} came in this restock. Get yours: {link}
• Back in stock: Hi {name}, {product} in {size} is available again at {store}. Here's the link: {link}
• Launch: It's here. {store} launches {product} today at 10 am, at a launch price of {price} for the first 48 hours: {link}
• Launch: Hi {name}, {store} now delivers to {city}. Order before 2 pm for next-day delivery: {link}
• Last chance: Last call, {name}: your SPRING15 code at {store} expires tonight at midnight. {link}
• Last chance: Final hours of the {store} sale. It ends at 11:59 pm and prices go back up tomorrow: {link}

10 seasonal and personal promotion messages

Birthday messages only work if you collected the birthday with the customer's permission; Shopify checkout does not ask for it by default. Win-back messages go to past buyers, so check their marketing opt-in first: a purchase alone is not consent.

• Black Friday: Black Friday at {store}: 30% off everything from Friday 00:00 to Monday 23:59 with code BF30. {link}
• Black Friday: Our Black Friday deals go live tomorrow at 8 am. Want the link the minute they open? Reply YES and we'll send it.
• Ramadan: Ramadan Kareem, {name}. All month at {store}, gift boxes are 15% off and orders before 4 pm ship the same day: {link}
• Eid: Eid gifts from {store}: order by {date} for delivery before Eid, with free gift wrapping on every order: {link}
• Christmas: Order by {date} for Christmas delivery in {country}. {store}'s gift guide starts at {price}: {link}
• Christmas: Merry Christmas from {store}. Our winter sale starts on 26 December at 9 am: 20% off with code WINTER20 until 2 January.
• Birthday: Happy birthday, {name}! From all of us at {store}, here's 20% off one order this month with code {code}: {link}
• Birthday: Happy birthday, {name} 🎂 Your gift from {store}: free shipping on any order for the next 7 days. {link}
• Win-back: Hi {name}, it's been a few months since your last order at {store}. Here's 10% off to welcome you back, valid for 14 days: {link}. Reply STOP to opt out.
• Win-back: {name}, a lot has changed at {store} since your last visit: 60 new products and faster delivery. Have a look: {link}. Reply STOP to opt out.

Sending promotions from the WhatsApp Business app

Most small stores send promotions from the WhatsApp Business app, either one by one or with broadcast lists. Our guide to WhatsApp broadcast messages for business at /blog/whatsapp-broadcast-messages-for-business covers how lists work, so here are only the rules that affect promotions.

• A broadcast list message only reaches contacts who saved your number in their phone. Ask customers to save it, for example in your order confirmation.
• Each broadcast list holds up to 256 contacts. In some countries WhatsApp also sells paid business broadcasts inside the Business app, as of October 2026.
• The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy applies to the Business app as well as the API: you need the person's opt-in before you message them, and you must respect any request to stop, made on or off WhatsApp.
• The same policy says WhatsApp may limit how many messages you can send, or remove access, if your business receives significant negative feedback. Customers can block or report you from any chat, so unwanted promotions put your number at risk.

• WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy
• WhatsApp Help Center: How to use broadcast lists
• WhatsApp Help Center: About business broadcasts

Sending promotions with the WhatsApp Business API (marketing templates)

For campaigns to thousands of customers, stores use the WhatsApp Business Platform (API) through a provider. A promotion you start is sent as a marketing template that Meta reviews before you can use it.

1. Collect opt-in first. Meta requires the opt-in to state clearly that the person is agreeing to receive messages, and from which business.
2. Create a template in the marketing category with your text, variables such as {{1}} for the name, and an optional button or image. Wait for approval.
3. Budget per message. Meta charges each delivered marketing message at the rate for the recipient's country calling code. On the rate card effective 1 October 2026, for example, a marketing message to a Saudi number costs $0.0576. See /blog/whatsapp-business-api-pricing-explained for rates by country, and estimate a campaign with /tools/whatsapp-api-cost-calculator.
4. Expect some messages not to be delivered. Meta caps how many marketing templates a person receives from all businesses, based on how they engage with them, and does not publish the number. Retrying too soon returns error 131049, and Meta asks you to wait at least 24 hours.
5. Check your markets. As of October 2026, Meta's documentation says marketing templates are not delivered to US phone numbers, and the per-user limit is not active for the EEA, the UK, Japan and South Korea.

• Meta: Getting opt-in for WhatsApp
• Meta: Per-user marketing template message limits
• Meta: Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform

Consent and opt-out wording you can copy

Name your store and the channel, say what kind of messages people will get, and tell them how to stop. Keep marketing consent separate from order updates, so a customer can say no to offers and still get their tracking.

• Checkbox at checkout or sign-up: Send me offers and new arrivals from {store} on WhatsApp. I can opt out anytime by replying STOP.
• Pop-up or landing page: Join {store} on WhatsApp for early access to sales. At most one message a week. Reply STOP anytime.
• Welcome after opt-in: Thanks, {name}! You're subscribed to {store} offers on WhatsApp. Expect up to four messages a month. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.
• Footer for every promotion: Reply STOP to opt out.
• Reply to an opt-out: Done, you won't get offers from {store} anymore. Updates about orders you place will still arrive here.

• WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy: opt-in and opt-out

How often to send WhatsApp promotions

• Start at no more than one promotion a week, and only when you have something real to say: a sale, a launch, a restock.
• Plan a month ahead around real dates (payday, Ramadan, Black Friday, Christmas) instead of sending whenever sales are slow.
• Do not repeat the same offer to the same people. One reminder before a deadline is enough.
• Send at hours your customers are awake in their own time zone, and avoid prayer and late-night hours in markets where that matters.
• Watch the signals: blocks, STOP replies and unanswered messages mean you are sending too often or to the wrong list. On the API, low engagement also reduces how many of your marketing templates Meta delivers.

Where WhatsApp Pilot fits, and where it does not

WhatsApp Pilot does not send bulk promotions, broadcasts or campaigns. It connects your own WhatsApp number to Shopify as a linked device (not the WhatsApp Business API) and sends messages tied to one customer and one moment. For a sale announcement to your whole list, use broadcast lists, paid business broadcasts or an API provider.

• Shopify Help Center: Managing customers (email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing preferences)