This is an English guide for merchants whose customers in Mexico, Brazil, and other Latin American markets already ask questions on WhatsApp. A click-to-chat button on your Shopify store opens that chat with your number and a greeting you write. Squadkin’s WhatsApp Chat Button can place the button. It does not translate the widget into Spanish or Portuguese for you, and this article will not rank for searches in those languages.
If you publish the store in English and your buyers write in Spanish or Portuguese, you still type the greeting in the language you want them to see. Right-to-left layout, which the app does document for Arabic, Hebrew, and other RTL storefronts, is the wrong control here. Spanish and Portuguese read left to right. Use the ordinary position settings, and spend the time on the words.
Who should use this setup
The fit is an exporter or a US or EU brand that already ships to the region, with a site that stays in English, and with customers who treat WhatsApp as the normal way to ask “do you have this size?”. The fit is weaker if you need a full Spanish or Portuguese storefront, local tax copy, and a support desk hired in that language. A button cannot do that translation work. A person who can answer in the customer’s language still has to be on the number.
The button is a theme app embed. Popup mode shows a greeting and a text box, then opens WhatsApp. Direct-link mode skips the panel. The transcript stays in WhatsApp. Shopify admin does not gain a shared inbox, and the catalog does not document the WhatsApp Business API. One person with WhatsApp on their phone can answer. A team that needs assignment on a single number needs an inbox product.
Click-to-chat from an English store
Enable the embed, add the number your Latin American customers should reach, and choose where the button sits: bottom or middle, left or right, with offsets. Device rules can show it on phones, which is where WhatsApp usually is, and hide it on desktop if those sessions are mostly staff. Page rules include or exclude by page type or URL. They do not include a country geo-IP rule. A visitor in Mexico City and a visitor in Chicago see the same button unless you have built separate pages.
That limit is useful to know before you promise “the button only in Brazil.” You can put the button on a collection or a landing page you built for that market, and exclude the rest of the site by URL. You cannot ask the app to detect the country and swap numbers. If you truly have a Mexico number and a Brazil number, the shopper-chosen agent list can show both names, each with its own phone, avatar, and greeting. The shopper picks. The app does not route by country.
- One number, one language: a single greeting you write, plus the page URL variable if you want the product address in the message.
- Two numbers: an agent row for each, with names such as “México” and “Brasil” only if those people really answer.
- English site, local greeting: the page can stay in English while the popup text is in Spanish or Portuguese, because you typed it.
Write the pre-filled message yourself
The catalog’s only message variable is {{ current_page_url }}. It does not insert the product title, and it does not translate. A practical greeting names the job and leaves a blank the shopper can fill: the size, the colour, or the city they ship to. Write that sentence in the language you will answer in. An English default on a button aimed at São Paulo or Mexico City tells the shopper you did not prepare for them.
If you are not fluent, have a person who is write the line and the offline text, then back-translate it so you know what you promised. Avoid slang you cannot support, and avoid a reply-time promise your timezone cannot keep. The same care applies to the button label if you use the pill style. A custom logo does not translate words that are baked into an image. Prefer live text for any word you might change.
What this page will not rank for
People searching in Spanish or Portuguese will not be served by this English article. There is no documented automatic translation of the widget into Portuguese or Spanish. Do not describe the WhatsApp admin as localized into those languages based on this catalog section.
Use this article to decide the operating model: click-to-chat, a greeting you commission in the customer’s language, hours set to the desk that replies, and no expectation of a transcript in Shopify. Hire or assign someone who can answer. The button only opens the door.
Hours across time zones
Business hours use one timezone on the widget, with open and close times for each weekday. Set that zone to the place where a person reads WhatsApp. A team in Madrid answering Mexico will be dimmed in the Mexican evening if the clock is Europe. Say so in the offline text, in the customer’s language: when you will read the message, in a zone they recognize.
Outside the window, the popup text changes and the button dims. The button stays on the page. It is not hidden. A customer in Brazil can still tap at night and leave a note. Your offline sentence should welcome that note and name the morning you will reply. The catalog does not run a separate clock per country.
Optional analytics count clicks, popup opens, and send taps by day. They do not split those counts by country, and they do not report revenue. Google Analytics or Meta Pixel passthrough, if you enable it, is still a click event. Judge the button by whether real product questions arrive in a language your team can answer.
Questions about selling into the region
Does the app translate the button into Spanish?
No. You write the greeting, the button label, and the offline text. The catalog does not document automatic translation into Spanish or Portuguese.
Can one store show two numbers by country?
Not by geo-IP. Page rules are page type and URL. An agent list can offer two numbers and let the shopper choose. The app does not assign the country for them.
Is right-to-left layout part of this setup?
No. RTL support is for Arabic, Hebrew, and other right-to-left storefronts. Spanish and Portuguese storefronts stay left to right. Set the corner so the button clears add to cart, then test on a phone.
Read the click-to-chat controls on the WhatsApp Chat Button page. Install WhatsApp Chat Button when you will write the greeting yourself and answer on your own number.