12 WhatsApp templates for a Shopify store, with the category and cost of each

Ananya Bose sells handloom sarees from Kolkata through her Shopify store, with a team of six and about 1,500 orders in a good month. When she moved order updates to WhatsApp, her first question wasn’t about wording. It was about the bill. Would a shipping update cost the same as a Puja sale message?

It doesn’t. Meta prices each delivered template by its category, and for Indian numbers the gap is wide:

• Utility: ₹0.115 per delivered message
• Marketing: ₹0.8631 per delivered message

Both are before GST, from Meta’s India rate card effective 1 July 2026, unchanged on the 1 October 2026 card. Marketing costs about 7.5 times as much.

You choose a category when you submit a template. Meta decides what it really is. If it thinks a “utility” template is marketing, it approves it as marketing and bills it that way. So the categories below are our reading of Meta’s rules, and the likely outcome, not a promise.

The twelve at a glance

#	Template	Likely category	India cost per delivered message
1	Order confirmed	Utility	₹0.115
2	COD order: please confirm	Utility	₹0.115
3	Payment pending	Utility	₹0.115
4	Shipped, with tracking	Utility	₹0.115
5	Out for delivery	Utility	₹0.115
6	Delivery attempt failed	Utility	₹0.115
7	Delivered, any problem?	Utility	₹0.115
8	Return or exchange received	Utility	₹0.115
9	Refund processed	Utility	₹0.115
10	Abandoned cart	Marketing	₹0.8631
11	Back in stock	Marketing	₹0.8631
12	Reorder reminder or sale	Marketing	₹0.8631

A message that isn’t delivered costs nothing. One that’s delivered and ignored costs the full amount.

A few rules the wording follows

Every template below starts and ends with fixed text, numbers its variables in order, and keeps symbols such as # and ₹ outside the braces. Those are the format rules Meta’s reviewers reject most often; our guide to why templates get rejected goes through each one. Button labels stay under Meta’s 25-character limit.

You’ll need a sample value for each variable when you submit. Use realistic ones in your own order-number format, not “test”.

Order updates (utility)

Meta’s utility test has two parts: no promotional intent, and specific to something the customer did or essential to them. Order management is the first example on Meta’s own list.

1. Order confirmed

Hi {{1}}, thank you for your order #{{2}} of ₹{{3}}. We'll message you here when it ships.

Buttons: View order. Send it as soon as the order is placed. Don’t add “shop our new arrivals” to it. That single line is enough to make the whole template marketing.

2. COD order: please confirm

Hi {{1}}, you've placed a cash-on-delivery order #{{2}} for ₹{{3}}. Please confirm so we can pack it.

Buttons: Confirm order, Cancel order. It’s about the customer’s own order and asks for nothing extra, so it fits Meta’s order-management use case. Send it within minutes of the order. Don’t offer a discount to switch to prepaid in the same template; that’s a sales message.

3. Payment pending

Hi {{1}}, the payment for order #{{2}} didn't go through. Your items are reserved until {{3}}. You can retry below.

Buttons: Retry payment. Meta lists payment reminders as utility. Send it once. If the shopper never started the order, this isn’t the right template; that’s an abandoned cart (number 10).

4. Shipped, with tracking

Good news {{1}}, order #{{2}} has shipped with {{3}}. Expected delivery: {{4}}.

Buttons: Track parcel (URL). Send it when the fulfilment is created.

5. Out for delivery

Hi {{1}}, order #{{2}} is out for delivery today. Please keep ₹{{3}} ready if you chose cash on delivery.

For prepaid orders, use a version without the cash line. Two short templates beat one with a variable that says “₹0”.

6. Delivery attempt failed

Hi {{1}}, our courier couldn't deliver order #{{2}} today. Reply here with a landmark or a better time, and we'll arrange another attempt.

This one earns its cost several times over, because an RTO is far more expensive than 11.5 paise. The reply opens a chat, and your team takes it from there.

7. Delivered, any problem?

Hi {{1}}, order #{{2}} was delivered today. If anything is wrong with it, tap below and we'll sort it out.

Buttons: Report a problem. This follows Meta’s own feedback example closely: it names the order and asks about that order only. A generic “rate us” survey doesn’t qualify. If you add “review us and get 10% off”, budget it as marketing.

8. Return or exchange received

Hi {{1}}, we've received your return request for {{2}} from order #{{3}}. Pickup is scheduled for {{4}}.

9. Refund processed

Hi {{1}}, your refund of ₹{{2}} for order #{{3}} has been processed. It usually reaches your account in {{4}} working days.

Fill the last variable from your payment provider’s actual timeline, not a guess.

Messages that sell (marketing)

These three go only to shoppers who opted in to offers on WhatsApp, with your brand named in the opt-in. Meta requires the opt-in to be clear about what the person is agreeing to and from whom.

10. Abandoned cart

Hi {{1}}, your {{2}} is still in your bag. We'll hold it for you until {{3}}.

Buttons: Complete my order, I have a question. Meta’s rules name cart reminders as marketing “even if requested by users”, so no wording makes this utility. Send one about 30 minutes to an hour after the cart is left, cancel it if the order comes in, and send at most one follow-up. Our abandoned cart playbook has the timing and the cost-per-recovered-order maths.

11. Back in stock

Hi {{1}}, the {{2}} you asked about is back in stock in size {{3}}. Stock is limited this time.

Buttons: Buy now. The shopper asked to be told, which tempts people to file it as utility. Its purpose is to get a sale, and Meta judges promotional intent, so expect marketing. Send it only to the people who tapped “notify me” for that item, not your whole list.

12. Reorder reminder or sale

Hi {{1}}, it's been about {{2}} weeks since you ordered {{3}}. Running low? Your usual size is ready to reorder.

Buttons: Reorder, Stop offers. The same slot covers a festive sale or a new-collection message. Give every marketing template a way to say no. Honour a “Stop offers” tap straight away, and keep sending that customer’s order updates, which they still want.

What a month of these costs

A worked example with made-up but plausible numbers for Ananya’s store:

• 1,500 orders, each getting templates 1, 4, 5 and 7: 6,000 utility messages × ₹0.115 = ₹690.
• 200 COD confirmations and 60 failed-delivery messages: 260 × ₹0.115 = about ₹30.
• 900 cart reminders to opted-in shoppers: 900 × ₹0.8631 = about ₹777.
• One back-in-stock send to 300 people: about ₹259.

That’s about ₹1,756 a month before GST. The cart reminders, which are about 12% of the messages, make up about 44% of the bill. That ratio is normal, and it’s why the marketing sends need a held-back group so you can see what they recover.

Two costs people miss after 1 October

Since 1 October 2026, a utility template sent while the customer’s 24-hour chat window is open is charged at the utility rate. Before that, it was free. And free-form replies from your team are free only for the first 1,000 per number per month, then ₹0.115 each. We covered the change in the service-message news brief.

One thing stays free. If the shopper first messaged you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad and you replied in time, a free window of up to 7 days opens, and any message inside it, templates included, costs nothing.

Before you submit all twelve, read each utility template once and ask whether it would still make sense if you had nothing to sell. Any that fail, split in two.