Intelligent conversation operations
The COD confirmation, the abandoned cart, the delivery slot and the return — for a store on Salla, Zid, Shopify or an Instagram bio link, selling to buyers who pay on the doorstep. The fact everything turns on: confirming an order is utility and reaches every buyer; "20% off this weekend" is marketing and reaches only the ones who agreed.
The category decides everything else: the price, whether it reaches somebody who opted out, and the criteria it is reviewed against.
| Message | Category | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm your COD order — reply YES or the order is cancelled in 24h | Utility | The buyer placed the order. The YES button is what cuts COD rejection rates — the Gulf's single biggest e-commerce cost — from a third of orders to a few percent. |
| Shipped, out for delivery, driver is 10 minutes away, delivered | Utility | Delivery updates are the most-approved template category there is, and the one buyers actually want. The courier's tracking link goes in as a variable. |
| You left {{item}} in your cart — it's still available | Marketing | Meta classifies cart recovery as marketing however it is worded, so it costs the marketing rate and goes only to opted-in buyers. Still the highest-return template most stores send. |
| Return approved, refund issued, exchange on its way | Utility | About the buyer's own order. The refund message with the amount and the expected date is the one that stops the "where is my money" thread from starting. |
Instagram sellers run the shop from a personal WhatsApp, and the day the account is banned for "unusual activity" — bulk-forwarding the new collection to four hundred contacts — every customer conversation goes with it. A verified business number is the fix, and the verification is where stores stall: Meta compares the display name against the trade licence, and an Ajman or Sharjah free-zone licence naming a "general trading" activity does not obviously match a shop called Noor Abayas. Submit the trade-name certificate alongside the licence. Once verified, the number carries the catalog, the COD confirmation buttons and the delivery templates, and Zanii's inbox shows the order number on the conversation so the person replying is not asking the customer for it.
Hi {{1}}, thanks for your order #{{2}} of {{3}} — total {{4}}, cash on delivery to {{5}}. Tap Confirm to dispatch it, or Change if the address or items need editing.
Category: Utility
The double braces are variables WhatsApp fills per recipient. Meta rejects a template whose numbering has gaps, and Zanii catches that before you submit it.