R180,000 in WhatsApp Revenue. 100 Carts Recovered. Wine of the month’s new best Sales Channel

Wine of the Month is a South African wine retailer operating a direct-to-consumer Shopify store. With a strong brand, a loyal wine-loving customer base, and a growing digital presence, the business had all the ingredients for online growth.

They have been using WhatsApp for years - but never as a sales tool. It was a coordination channel: customers would reach out to confirm delivery times, ask about shipping, or follow up on an order. The idea of WhatsApp as a place where someone could actually browse, discover, and buy a bottle of wine had simply never been part of the picture.

That changed when the founder encountered Flowcart. The promise of an AI-powered WhatsApp store that could respond to customers instantly and guide them to a purchase was compelling. But the feature that made him move from interested to committed was the abandoned cart recovery. The idea that every customer who left without buying could receive a personalised follow-up message - automatically, inside WhatsApp - was the moment the decision was made.

The Challenge

Wine of the Month had a healthy flow of website traffic and a Shopify store set up for direct sales. But two problems were quietly costing the business revenue it had already earned the right to.

• Abandoned carts with no recovery path: Customers were adding bottles to their cart, reaching the checkout, and leaving without completing the purchase. No follow-up. No reminder. No way back.
• WhatsApp as a dead end: Customers who reached out on WhatsApp were looking for information or coordination, not shopping. There was no catalog, no product discovery, no way to go from a conversation to a completed order inside the app.

The result was a business leaving money on the table at two separate points in the customer journey - and no automated system to recover either.

The Flowcart Solution

Flowcart connected to Wine of the Month's existing Shopify store and WhatsApp number. No migration. No rebuild. Two capabilities transformed how the business uses WhatsApp.

AI-Powered WhatsApp Store

Flowcart gave Wine of the Month a WhatsApp presence that could actually sell. Customers who message the brand are now met by an AI-powered bot that can answer questions, share product information, and guide the customer toward a purchase - instantly, at any hour. What was a coordination channel became a sales channel. The first WhatsApp sale through Flowcart happened on March 23, 2025.

Abandoned Cart Recovery

Flowcart set up automated WhatsApp messages triggered whenever a customer abandoned their Shopify cart. Rather than sending a recovery email that most customers never open, the message arrives in WhatsApp - the channel the customer is already using - with a direct link back to their cart ready to complete.

The recovery sequence was progressively optimised with the support of Flowcart's customer success team, improving from the initial baseline rate to 23.15% in the current period - well above the 3 to 5% typically achieved through email-based cart recovery.

The Results:

Since launching in March 2025, Wine of the Month has built a WhatsApp channel that did not exist before Flowcart - and is already recovering nearly 1 in 4 abandoned carts.

Recovery Rate Trajectory

The recovery rate has improved consistently as the sequence has been refined. This is what a maturing programme looks like: a higher proportion of abandoned carts converting with every iteration.-