Answer Shopify product questions in Instagram and WhatsApp

Your Reel shows a product. Someone asks the price in an Instagram DM while another customer asks on WhatsApp whether a colour is available. The product is in Shopify, but your replies depend on the details your team can actually find and trust.

A saved reply copied last month can still contain an old price. A product photo may show a variant that is unavailable. Connecting a catalog gives you a starting point; checking the product and the reply is how you make it useful.

This playbook follows that work from connection to a tested conversation. The examples use an illustrative electronics business. They are sample replies, not measured customer results or a promise about synchronisation speed.

Download the Shopify reply verification sheet. Record the expected value before each check, then the actual result, date and next action. Leave a check unconfirmed until you have observed it. Use test records and keep customer details out of shared copies.

Choose the product you will test first

Pick a product that customers already ask about. Write down its exact name, variants, price, availability and the link you expect to share. Use the information in your store, rather than a caption or an old screenshot.

For example, your test item might be The Watch in Sage at ₹4,999. Keep Sand as a separate variant to check, even when both colours appear in the same photograph. If you have different prices for different variants, include that in the test.

Choose the first few customer questions too: “How much?”, “Is Sand available?”, “What is the difference between these options?” and “Can someone check this for me?” Each should lead to a useful answer or an appropriate hand-over.

Connect the store through its approval screen

You need access to the Shopify store and permission to approve the connection. If someone else manages the store’s apps, ask them to review it with you.

1. Open the Shopify connection in InsideDM, from Connections or your product catalog. The setup panel is called Connect Shopify.
2. In Your Shopify store, enter the store’s address ending in .myshopify.com. Use that address rather than your customer-facing custom domain.
3. Press Connect Shopify. On Shopify, review the permissions requested for the store before approving.
4. When you return to InsideDM, check the connection status and review the products as they appear in your catalog.

The catalog setup reads product information into InsideDM. Review the actual approval screen for the connection’s full permissions. You do not need to paste a Shopify password or an access token into a customer conversation.

The product setup guide covers the other ways of adding products too. Connecting Shopify and connecting a messaging account are separate tasks: use the Instagram connection guide and WhatsApp connection guide for the channels you want to use.

Review what came into your catalog

Open the test product in InsideDM and compare it with the store. Check the product name, price, currency, image and the variant the customer is likely to mean. Review any edits your team made inside InsideDM before assuming a different value is a sync problem.

Look at availability separately from the product description. A description can explain a colour without establishing whether it is available now. If the catalog or connection has a problem, resolve it before depending on the reply.

Keep a short checklist: which product you checked, which value you expected, what appeared and what needs attention. Do not record “passed” just because the connection says it worked. A successful connection and a correct customer answer are different checks.

An imported product can be marked Edited by you. Check those fields before comparing its price with Shopify: an intentional InsideDM edit can explain the difference. For a test item, agree which source should supply the value before resetting anything. In the product settings, Back to Shopify lists edited fields with a Reset action. Reset only the field you intend to return to the source, then check it again.

Test the first answer on each channel

First check the answer without sending a customer message. Open the agent’s Try it, enter a price question and press See its answer. Review the reply and the named sources when shown, or the reason it would come to your team. An error is an unresolved check, not an answer. This preview does not establish that either messaging connection can deliver a reply.

Then follow the agent testing guide: set On its own? to Assist before sending from a test account on each connected channel. Read the held draft and approve only the test reply you intend to send. Check the result in the receiving account. Record preview and channel delivery separately.

Check the product link and image as well as the words. A correct price beside the wrong variant is still an incorrect answer.

Test Instagram and WhatsApp separately. They are separate connections, and a successful reply on one is not evidence that the other has been set up. Keep the conversation on the channel where it started.

The words may vary. Judge whether the facts and next action are correct; matching the sample wording is not the goal.

Include the questions that need a person

Try an unavailable variant, an unclear product reference and a quantity your team needs to quote. Give the agent enough business information to explain the next step, and make the hand-over useful to your teammate.

This reply records the request without making an availability or delivery promise. If the person needs a bulk quote, the lead-qualification playbook helps you choose the details to collect.

Refund and return decisions remain with you and your team. A catalog connection does not replace that decision.

Keep product changes and replies in step

After a price or availability change, review the product in InsideDM and repeat the relevant test. Do not promise that a change appears within a particular number of seconds unless you have measured and confirmed that behaviour for your setup.

If a value differs, check the store address, connection status, product identity and any manual edit. Keep the last correct observation and the exact problem when asking your team for help. Avoid repeatedly reconnecting while someone is investigating the same issue.

For an order or payment conversation, check what has actually been recorded. A sent link is not a completed payment, and a fulfilled order is not proof of delivery. The orders and payment-links guide covers the customer’s next steps.

Still comparing options? The buyer’s guide and scorecard covers account access, integration tests, team controls and the complete bill.

The short version

• Start with one real product and the questions customers already ask.
• Connect the correct store and review Shopify’s requested permissions.
• Compare imported product details and manual edits before testing replies.
• Test each connected channel, including variants and hand-over cases.
• Recheck after product changes and keep unconfirmed details explicit.