Shopify now collects WhatsApp marketing consent at checkout. Here is what it changes

By the Beacon Wave Studio team · Published October 1, 2026 · 8 min read

Since September 2026 Shopify has a WhatsApp opt-in box at checkout and a WhatsApp consent field on every customer, separate from SMS. Which messages need it, how to switch it on, and how Beacon Messenger reads it today.

For as long as WhatsApp apps have existed on Shopify, consent for WhatsApp marketing has been borrowed. Shopify had one phone-based marketing flag, SMS, so every app that wanted to send a WhatsApp reminder read the SMS box and hoped the wording at checkout covered it. That ended on September 10, 2026, when Shopify shipped a WhatsApp opt-in checkbox at checkout, a few weeks after adding a WhatsApp marketing field to the customer profile and the customer CSV. WhatsApp consent is now a first-class thing in Shopify, separate from SMS, and that changes what you should collect, what you may send, and what an app like Beacon Messenger looks at before it sends.

What Shopify added, in three pieces

A field on the customer. Each customer profile now shows WhatsApp marketing consent alongside email and SMS, and you can set it by hand from the profile. Shopify's changelog entry is “Manage WhatsApp marketing consent in Shopify”.
A column in the import and export. The customer CSV has an Accepts WhatsApp Marketing column that takes yes or no, so a list you built elsewhere can be brought across in one go, and your current subscribers can be exported.
A checkbox at checkout. Under Settings > Checkout > Marketing opt-in there is now a WhatsApp row next to SMS. Set it to Checkout only and shoppers see a WhatsApp box when they enter their phone number. As with SMS, the preference is only saved when the checkout is completed.

For developers, the same consent is exposed on the Admin API's CustomerPhoneNumber object as whatsAppMarketingConsent and is written with the customerWhatsAppMarketingConsentUpdate mutation, also available through the Customer Account API so a shopper can manage it from their account page. In other words, Shopify is now the system of record for WhatsApp opt-ins the way it has long been for email.

Why a separate flag matters

Reading SMS consent as WhatsApp consent was defensible when there was no alternative, but it was never quite right. A shopper who ticks “text me offers” has agreed to SMS. Whether a WhatsApp message counts as a text in their mind depends on the country they live in and on how your checkout worded it. Regulators in the EU and the UK read opt-ins narrowly: consent is for the channel and purpose described, not for whatever channels happen to use a phone number. Meta's own rules go the same way. Businesses must obtain opt-in before sending a message that the customer did not initiate, and the opt-in must make clear the message will arrive on WhatsApp.

A dedicated box fixes both problems. The shopper sees the word WhatsApp when they agree, so the consent is specific, and the flag Shopify stores says WhatsApp, so an app can prove it later. It also stops the opposite mistake: a shopper who happily uses WhatsApp but does not want SMS can now say so, instead of being lost to both.

Which of your messages need it

Not all of them. WhatsApp separates templates into utility and marketing categories, and the opt-in you need depends on which one a message is. The marketing flag Shopify collects is for the second group.

Beacon Messenger automations and the consent each one relies on
Message	Template category	Marketing consent needed?
Order confirmation	Utility	No. The shopper gave you their number for updates about this order.
Shipping update, delivery	Utility	No, same reason. Keep the text strictly about the order.
Cash-on-delivery confirmation	Utility	No. It is a question about the order they just placed.
Abandoned checkout reminder	Marketing	Yes. It is about a purchase that has not happened, and Meta prices and reviews it as marketing.
Back-in-stock, review request, offers	Marketing	Yes.

The line between the two is whether the message is about the order the shopper placed or about one you hope they will place. Order confirmations and shipping updates are utility messages and go to every customer with a phone number, which is how Beacon Messenger treats them by default. The abandoned-checkout reminder is marketing and is gated on consent by default; the recovery guide goes through the timing and the template.

What Beacon Messenger reads today

Each automation has a checkbox labelled “Only message customers who opted in to SMS/WhatsApp marketing”. It is on for marketing triggers and off for utility ones, and you can flip either. When it is on, the app looks at the checkout or order Shopify sends it: the buyer's marketing acceptance on the checkout, and the customer's SMS marketing consent state when there is a customer record. If neither says subscribed, the message is written to the Messages log as skipped with the reason “no consent” and nothing is sent.

That is the SMS flag, because until last month it was the only one. We are moving the check to the WhatsApp consent Shopify now stores, so that a shopper who ticks WhatsApp but not SMS is messaged and one who ticks SMS only is not. Until that lands, the practical advice is to enable both boxes at checkout: a shopper who wants WhatsApp reminders will generally tick both when they are shown together, and Shopify lets you choose the regions in which each box appears. Keep an eye on the skip reasons in the Messages log over the next few weeks; if they jump, the two flags are diverging in your store and it is worth telling us.

Getting the wording right

Shopify's default opt-in label says the shopper is signing up for news and offers. If what you will actually send is a reminder about their unfinished checkout, the help centre is explicit that you should change the text, and the theme's language editor is where you do it. Something plain works best: “Message me on WhatsApp about my order and the occasional offer.” Avoid burying it in the terms. Consent that a shopper did not notice giving is consent they will report as spam, and spam reports are what get a WhatsApp number's quality rating lowered.

The pre-ticked question is settled in most of the markets that care about it. In the EU, UK and Canada the box must start unticked; Shopify lets you set that per region, with a default based on the shopper's jurisdiction. In the US a pre-ticked box is allowed but converts worse than people expect, because shoppers who untick it on purpose remember doing so.

Importing the subscribers you already have

If you collected WhatsApp opt-ins through a previous app, a popup tool or a form, they are probably sitting in that tool and not in Shopify. Export them, add an Accepts WhatsApp Marketing column with yes, and import through Customers > Import with the overwrite option so existing profiles are updated by phone number. Import only people who opted in to WhatsApp specifically; moving an SMS list across with a find-and-replace is the exact problem the new field exists to fix.

What this does not change

The 24-hour window. A reply from the customer still opens a 24-hour service window in which you can send free-form messages; outside it you need an approved template whatever the consent flag says.
Template approval. Meta still reviews the template text, and an abandoned-checkout template still has to be submitted as marketing.
Pricing. Marketing conversations cost more than utility ones in every country, and Meta's October 2026 changes to per-message pricing apply regardless of where the consent came from. The pricing post has the numbers.
Your obligation to honour a stop. A customer who replies STOP, or unticks the box in their account, has withdrawn consent, and the next marketing message must not go out.

If you are setting WhatsApp up for the first time, start with the notifications guide, then switch on the checkout box before you enable the abandoned-checkout automation so that consent accrues from day one. Beacon Messenger's free plan covers the utility messages; the reminder is where the new consent field earns its keep.

Frequently asked questions

Does Shopify have a WhatsApp marketing opt-in at checkout?

Yes, since September 10, 2026. In Settings > Checkout, under Marketing opt-in, set the WhatsApp row to Checkout only. Shoppers who enter a phone number see a WhatsApp checkbox, and the preference is stored on their customer profile when they complete the checkout.

Is SMS consent enough to send WhatsApp marketing on Shopify?

It was the only option before Shopify added a WhatsApp flag, and many apps still read it. It is weaker than a WhatsApp-specific opt-in because the shopper did not see the word WhatsApp when they agreed. Enable the WhatsApp box, and treat the SMS flag as a stopgap.

Do order confirmations and shipping updates on WhatsApp need marketing consent?

No. They are utility messages about an order the customer placed, and the opt-in is the customer giving you their number for order updates. Keep them strictly about the order; a discount code slipped into a shipping update turns it into marketing.

How does Beacon Messenger decide whether a customer has consented?

Each automation has an “Only message customers who opted in” checkbox, on by default for marketing triggers. Today it reads the SMS marketing consent on the checkout or order, and messages without it are logged as skipped for no consent. Reading Shopify's new WhatsApp consent field is next on our list.

Can I import WhatsApp subscribers from another app into Shopify?

Yes. Add an Accepts WhatsApp Marketing column to the customer CSV with yes for each subscriber and import it through Customers > Import, ticking the option to overwrite existing customers so profiles are matched by phone number.