Connect Salla to WhatsApp (2026): an AI bot, order confirmation and cart reminders

What runs automatically after the connection — in one table

The Salla connection is not one button but five things that start working after it, each with a different sender and a different cost at Meta. A merchant should read this table before anything else, because the difference between a message you start and one the customer starts is the difference between halalas and zero.

Meta's cost on our accounts ÷ its message countsample 120 daysmeasured 5 September 2026

The steps to connect Salla to WhatsApp

The whole connection runs from two dashboards: ArabyBot's and Salla's. The usual time is under an hour, and the longest part is neither ours nor Salla's but Meta's: approving the first template.

1. Create the account and connect a WhatsApp number

   Sign up with no card and no sales call, then connect the number through the official WhatsApp Cloud API from inside the dashboard. A Saudi +966 number is accepted like any other. If your number currently runs on the WhatsApp Business app, move it with coexistence mode and keep your chats and contacts — or use a new number. You need a Meta business account; verification with the commercial register opens the higher sending tiers later and does not stop you starting.

2. Install the ArabyBot app from the Salla app store

   From the Salla dashboard: Apps → App store → ArabyBot → Install. You will see the permissions the app asks for: reading products, stock, orders and customers, and writing order status. No permission to edit prices or products, deliberately.

3. Approve once from your store dashboard

   The approval links the store to your ArabyBot account and opens the event channel: every new order, every status change and every abandoned cart reaches us from Salla itself the moment it happens. Check the store name at the top of the dashboard before approving if you own more than one store.

4. Choose what to automate and get the templates approved

   Turn on order confirmation (for all orders or cash on delivery only), shipping status, and the abandoned cart with its timing. Each has a ready Arabic template that is sent to Meta for approval; utility ones are usually approved the same day. Do not turn confirmation on before its template is approved — that is mistake number one in the list below.

5. Create the AI agent and answer its questions

   How products are ordered, how they ship and delivery times per city, the return policy, and when to hand to a person. The agent builds its operating rules from your answers and reads products from Salla directly, so you upload no catalogue. Set the dialect to Gulf or auto.

6. Test with five messages, then go live

   From your phone as your customer writes: «وش سعر الشحن لجدة؟» — «متوفر مقاس 54 كحلي؟» — a voice note about returns — «وين طلبي؟» with a real order number — then create a test order in Salla and see whether the confirmation arrived with its buttons and whether the order status changed when pressed. Watch the first two days from the app.

What runs automatically — in detail

Order confirmation before dispatch

The moment an order is created in Salla the customer receives a message with the order summary and three buttons: confirm, edit address, cancel. Pressing confirm writes the status into Salla; pressing cancel stops the order before you pay a courier. Most Salla stores are prepaid, so a paid order needs a receipt more than a confirmation; the real value is in cash-on-delivery orders, where the unconfirmed order is the one that returns. That is why confirmation can be limited to one payment method. The difference between confirming on WhatsApp and by phone call is in the store-connection guide.

Shipping status and the review request

When the order status in Salla changes to "shipped" the customer gets a message with the tracking number, and when it becomes "delivered" a message asking about their experience. These messages turn «وين طلبي؟» — the most common question any store receives — from a conversation the customer starts anxiously into a message that reached them before they asked. They are utility templates at the halala rate, not marketing.

The abandoned-cart reminder

The cart reaches us from Salla's own event, so the follow-up starts from an accurate signal rather than tracking we build. Three messages on your timing — after an hour, a day and three days, say — carry the abandoned products and the checkout link, and all stop the moment they buy. It is a marketing template at Meta, the dearest category, so make it three rather than ten: the fourth follow-up costs you money and quality rating together.

AI answers from the live catalogue

The agent keeps no copy of your catalogue; it asks Salla at the moment of the customer's question: searches by name, opens the product page, reads price, options, photos and stock, and reads an order's status by its number. So when a customer asks «متوفر اللون الكحلي مقاس 54؟» it reads the stock of that exact combination and sends its photo, not the first one. What it cannot find it does not invent: it says it is unavailable and offers an alternative or hands over. One limit to know: a product with several option axes shows its card at the base price, with stock read per combination. The full explanation is in the agent reads your store.

Six mistakes that break the connection — and we see them every week

1. Turning confirmation on before the template is approvedOrders arrive from Salla and the message is not sent because Meta has not approved the template yet, so the merchant concludes the connection is broken. Wait for "approved" on the template before switching on — utility ones are usually approved the same day.
2. The number is still active on the WhatsApp appThe WhatsApp Cloud API refuses a number that is simultaneously running on the app. Either move it with coexistence mode from inside the dashboard, delete it from the app and then register it, or use a new number. Uninstalling the app from the phone alone is not enough; deleting the account from inside WhatsApp's settings is what is needed.
3. Approving from the wrong store, or from a staff account without permissionA merchant with two stores approves while logged into the other one, and receives orders from the store they did not want. Or a staff member approves from an account without app permissions and the approval is silently refused. Approve from the owner account, and check the store name at the top of the dashboard.
4. A cart reminder to someone who did not consent to be contactedA customer who entered their number without clear consent wording reports the message, and a handful of reports lower the number's quality rating and its sending limit. Add consent wording at checkout, and put a way to stop inside the message. What the data-protection law means here is in the PDPL guide.
5. Expecting the bot to edit products or pricesThe connection reads the catalogue and writes order status only. A merchant who asks the bot to "change the abaya's price" or "add a product" will not find that, deliberately: editing happens in the Salla dashboard alone, and the bot reads the change that instant.
6. An unverified business account, then a wide broadcastAn unverified account at Meta runs with a limited daily allowance for conversations you start. A merchant running confirmation, shipping and cart together on a sale day hits it before noon and the messages wait until tomorrow. Verify the business with the commercial register early; the higher tiers open gradually with sending quality. Your replies to people who wrote to you are unlimited.

The cost in riyals — a worked example

A Salla store receiving 500 orders a month with confirmation and shipping status on: 500 confirmations + 500 "shipped" + 500 "delivered" = 1,500 utility messages × 4 halalas ≈ 60 riyals from Meta a month. Customer questions about sizes, delivery and returns — however many — are started by customers and cost zero. With the ArabyBot subscription (120 riyals for the WhatsApp plan) the total is about 180 riyals a month for everything on this page, except the abandoned cart whose Saudi rate we do not publish because we have not been billed for it yet. Full rates and a calculator are on WhatsApp API pricing in Saudi Arabia.

Frequently asked questions