Connect Mailchimp for WooCommerce to WhatsApp and AI Chat
Yes. AeroChat works directly with Mailchimp for WooCommerce stores. Your WooCommerce store is built into AeroChat, and Mailchimp connects through its Marketing API. AeroChat checks whether a shopper is subscribed, subscribes or unsubscribes them on request, and adds carts from the chat to your Mailchimp store so your abandoned cart email can follow up, on WhatsApp, Instagram, web chat and every other channel your shoppers use.
The Mailchimp for WooCommerce plugin, made by Mailchimp, already syncs your customers, orders and carts into Mailchimp. Shoppers who opt in at checkout join your audience, and shoppers who don’t are added as transactional contacts. AeroChat picks up where the checkout box leaves off. When a shopper on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, web chat or email asks about your emails, wants your offers or wants to stop them, AeroChat checks their record in Mailchimp and makes the change in the same chat. You describe the workflow in your own words, AeroChat builds it, and Mailchimp stays the place your team runs campaigns.
This page covers WooCommerce stores that use the Mailchimp for WooCommerce plugin. For Mailchimp with any kind of business, see connecting Mailchimp to WhatsApp and AI chat.
What you can do with Mailchimp, WooCommerce and AeroChat
- Answer “am I subscribed?”. AeroChat finds the shopper in your Mailchimp audience by email and tells them whether they are subscribed, unsubscribed, waiting to confirm or a transactional contact from a past order.
- Subscribe or unsubscribe a customer. After a clear yes in the chat, AeroChat subscribes the shopper. When they ask to stop, it unsubscribes them straight away and confirms.
- Turn past buyers into subscribers, with consent. A customer who skipped the checkout box is a transactional contact. If they now ask for your offers, AeroChat asks for a clear yes and changes them to subscribed.
- Start your abandoned cart email from the chat. When a subscribed shopper picks products in the chat but does not finish, AeroChat adds the cart to your Mailchimp store with a link back to your WooCommerce store, so your Mailchimp abandoned cart automation can follow up.
- Tag subscribers by interest. When someone asks about a product line, AeroChat adds a tag such as Interest: Coffee gear (example), so your segments pick them up.
- Log what happened in chat. AeroChat adds a member event such as chat_signup (example) or a note to the subscriber, so your team and your automations can see it.
What it looks like on WhatsApp
Customer: I bought from you in the summer. Am I on your email list? I never get the sale emails. (example)
AeroChat: I found you. You’re in our records from your order, but you didn’t sign up for our emails at checkout, so you don’t get the sales. Would you like our offers by email? We send about two a month (example).
Customer: Yes please.
AeroChat: Done. You’ll get our next sale email.
In Mailchimp: the contact changes from transactional to subscribed, with the tag Chat signup (example).
Customer: Please stop the emails, too many. (example)
AeroChat: Done. You’re unsubscribed from our marketing emails. You’ll still get emails about any order you place.
In Mailchimp: the contact’s status changes to unsubscribed.
Works on every chat channel
Your shoppers message you wherever they already are. The same Mailchimp connection and the same workflows run on each of these channels, and Mailchimp stays the record whichever one they use.
| Channel | What your shoppers can do |
|---|---|
| Message your WhatsApp Business number to join your emails, check whether they are subscribed or stop the emails. Voice notes are transcribed, so a spoken request works too. | |
| Send the same requests by direct message. A comment on your post can get an automatic reply that moves the conversation to a DM. | |
| Facebook Messenger | Send the same requests to your Facebook Page. Comments on your Page posts can get an automatic reply too. |
| Telegram | Send the same requests to your business on Telegram. |
| Web chat | Do the same from the chat on your WooCommerce store. |
| Write to your Gmail or Office 365 address and get the same answer the chat gives. |
How the connection works
There are two parts. Your WooCommerce store is built into AeroChat: the AeroChat WordPress plugin syncs your products, stock, coupons and shipping, and orders connect through WooCommerce’s REST API. See WooCommerce and AeroChat. Mailchimp connects through its public Marketing API, documented at mailchimp.com/developer/marketing/api. The Mailchimp for WooCommerce plugin keeps syncing your customers, orders and carts as it does today, and AeroChat works with the same audience and the same connected store.
- What AeroChat reads from Mailchimp: audience members found by email, with their status (subscribed, unsubscribed, cleaned, pending or transactional), tags, marketing permissions and recent activity.
- What AeroChat writes to Mailchimp: member status changes made after the shopper asks, tags, member events and notes, and carts added to your connected store with their products and a link back to your store.
To connect, an account owner or admin creates an API key in Mailchimp under Account, Extras, API keys, and copies it. AeroChat also needs the audience your WooCommerce store syncs to, and for the abandoned cart workflow, the store ID the plugin created. Paste the key into the AeroChat dashboard when AeroChat asks.
You describe the workflow in your own words, for example “when a shopper asks to stop our emails, find them in Mailchimp and unsubscribe them”. AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and asks for the keys by name. You enter them in the AeroChat dashboard. They never pass through the conversation.
Workflows to copy
Six ready-made workflows for WooCommerce stores on Mailchimp. Copy one into AeroChat, add your Mailchimp key, and it runs on every channel.
1. Answer “am I subscribed?”
Copy this into AeroChat
When a shopper asks whether they are on our email list, ask which email they use. Find them in our Mailchimp audience. Tell them plainly what their status means: subscribed means they get our offers, transactional means they are in our records from an order but did not sign up for offers, pending means they still need to confirm by email, and unsubscribed means they asked to stop. If there is no match, say so and ask if they use another email. Reply in the customer’s language.
2. Subscribe a shopper with consent
Copy this into AeroChat
When a shopper says they want our offers, tell them what our emails contain and how often, and ask for a clear yes. Only after a yes, add or update them in our Mailchimp audience as subscribed, or as pending if our audience uses double opt-in, and add the tag Chat signup (example). If they say no, carry on helping and change nothing.
3. Unsubscribe on request
Copy this into AeroChat
When a shopper asks to stop our emails, find them in our Mailchimp audience by email and change their status to unsubscribed straight away. Confirm in one line, and tell them they will still get emails about orders they place. Do not try to talk them out of it.
4. Turn a past buyer into a subscriber
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks about sales or offers, find them in our Mailchimp audience. If they are a transactional contact from an order, explain that they are not signed up for offers and ask whether they would like to be. Only after a clear yes, change their status to subscribed. Never change a transactional or unsubscribed contact without a yes in this conversation.
5. Start your abandoned cart email from the chat
Copy this into AeroChat
When a shopper picks products in the chat but stops before paying, check whether they are subscribed in our Mailchimp audience. If they are, add a cart to our Mailchimp store with the products, quantities, prices, currency and a link back to those products in our WooCommerce store, under their email. Tell them you saved the items. If they later complete the order in the chat, remove the cart. Never add a cart for someone who is not subscribed.
6. Tag subscribers by interest
Copy this into AeroChat
When a subscriber asks about a product line, such as coffee gear or tea (example), find them in our Mailchimp audience and add the tag for that product line, for example Interest: Coffee gear (example). Add a member event called chat_enquiry (example) with the product line. Do not change their subscription status. Reply in the customer’s language.
Who uses it
WooCommerce stores that send their newsletters, offers and abandoned cart emails through Mailchimp use it to handle email questions in chat and to grow their list from conversations. These recipes fit a WooCommerce store:
What stays in Mailchimp
Mailchimp stays your record. Your audience, tags, segments, campaigns, automations and reports live there, and the Mailchimp for WooCommerce plugin keeps syncing your store. Your team still writes and sends the campaigns and builds the abandoned cart automation.
AeroChat handles the conversation. It reads and updates the subscriber records your recipe asks for, adds carts from the chat, and leaves the rest to Mailchimp and your team.
WhatsApp workflows that use Mailchimp
These end-to-end WhatsApp workflows run with Mailchimp and WooCommerce behind them. See them all in the WhatsApp workflows library.
- WhatsApp Opt-In and Opt-Out Synced to Your Marketing Lists
- WhatsApp Abandoned Cart Recovery That Answers the Question
- WhatsApp Win-Back Messages for Lapsed Customers
Questions
Does AeroChat work with Mailchimp for WooCommerce?
Yes. Your WooCommerce store is built into AeroChat, and Mailchimp connects through its public Marketing API with an API key you create in Mailchimp. AeroChat is not a Mailchimp product, and AeroChat has no partnership with Mailchimp.
Will AeroChat subscribe customers who did not opt in at checkout?
Only if they say yes in the chat. Customers who skipped the checkout box stay transactional contacts until they ask for your offers and agree.
Does this replace the Mailchimp for WooCommerce plugin?
No. Keep the plugin. It syncs your customers, orders and carts. AeroChat uses the same audience and store to answer and act in the chat.
Which plan do I need?
On the Mailchimp side, you need an API key and the audience your store syncs to. Abandoned cart emails need an automation set up in your Mailchimp account. On the AeroChat side, workflows via Skills are on every plan, with a 7-day free trial. Choose by message volume: Starter covers 500 AI responses a month, Growth 2,000 and Advanced 5,000. See plans.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Connect Mailchimp to your store chat
Connect your WooCommerce store, paste the first recipe, add your Mailchimp key, and ask your own chat whether you are subscribed.
Start your 7-day free trial. No credit card needed.
Sign up for an annual plan on Growth or above and we’ll set up your workflows and connect WooCommerce and Mailchimp for you, free. See plans.