How fast should you reply on WhatsApp? Data from 30 Indian brands (2026)

On Sunday 25 October, at 12:38 PM, we emailed a home furniture brand one plain question. Is this grey three seater sofa available, and do you offer cash on delivery to Delhi?

The reply landed within a minute. It was a ticket.

"Our Customer Experience team needs 48 working hours to get back to you on the issue."

Twenty six minutes later a person from their team wrote back, signed with his name, and answered both parts. The sofa was in stock. Cash on delivery was not available for it.

Honestly, 26 minutes is a decent human reply. The problem is what the buyer read in the 25 minutes before it. The brand had told them to wait two working days. If I am buying a sofa and a shop tells me that, I open another tab.

That moment is why we ran this test. When I searched for how fast to reply, the top results were mostly guides to setting up auto replies. I found no numbers from Indian brands, and nothing on the question a real Indian buyer types: is it in stock, and can I pay cash?

How did we run the test?

We sent one buying question to 30 Indian D2C brands in fashion, food, beauty and home. Each message asked about one real product on the brand's own site (stock, or a size), plus cash on delivery to Delhi.

• 15 brands on Sunday 25 October 2026, between 12:32 and 12:44 PM IST.
• 15 brands on Monday 26 October 2026, between 11:22 and 11:30 AM IST.
• 25 by email and 5 through the chat box on the brand's website.
• No phone number, no links, no pitch. Polite, like a shopper.
• We last checked for replies on 26 October at 11:34 PM IST.

We did not use WhatsApp for this sample, because we did not want to hand out a phone number to 30 companies. The buyer on the other side is the same person, though, and the wait feels the same in any inbox.

This is an early sample. The Monday brands had about 12 hours to reply when we checked, so some counts will move. The full report covers 100 brands and comes out in early November 2026. We will not name any brand, here or there.

What did the 30 brands send back?

Most of them did not answer the question.

So 18 of 30 brands left a ready buyer without an answer. Eleven sent nothing at all. No bot, no ticket.

A few more things stood out in the replies we did get:

• 10 of the 25 brands we emailed sent a ticket or an auto reply before anything else. Three of those tickets asked us to wait 24 to 48 hours.
• 5 emails opened with "Dear Customer", even though our message was signed with a name.
• 2 brands asked for a phone number or an order ID before they would help with a stock question.
• 4 website chats would not let us type a word until we gave a phone number. One also wanted an OTP.
• One auto reply told us the brand had moved its support to WhatsApp, and asked us to write there instead.

That last one made me smile. The buyer had already written. Now they are being asked to start again in another app.

How fast did the answers come?

Twelve brands answered, in full or in part. Here is how long each answer took.

• 6 answered within 5 minutes. All 6 were bots: chat assistants on the website, and one email bot.
• The other 6 took 26 minutes, 35 minutes, about 6.3 hours, about 6.5 hours, about 22 hours and about 27 hours.

If you take the middle of all 12, you get about 15 minutes. That number looks healthy, and it hides the real story. The quick half is software. The human half ranges from half an hour to more than a day.

Fast answers were not always right answers. A food brand's chat assistant replied in about 20 seconds and quoted ₹1,072 for a 1 litre ghee jar. The product page showed ₹1,019 at the same moment. Another assistant confirmed stock and then dodged the cash on delivery question, even though the product page itself said COD was available.

So how fast should a business reply on WhatsApp?

Here is the rule I would set from this data.

In working hours

Send a real answer within 5 minutes. In our sample, nobody human got there. The bots did. That tells you where the bar now sits for a buyer who has three tabs open.

If you need longer, say how long, and keep to it. "Checking stock for you, back by 4 PM" is a fine reply. "We will get back to you within 48 working hours" is a reason to leave.

At night

Answer the common questions in your away message, and reply properly before 10 AM. Price, delivery time, cash on delivery and the link to buy cover most opening questions. (A buyer at 11 PM does not need a person. They need the answer.)

Past 24 hours

On WhatsApp, never let a buyer's message sit that long. Meta's pricing page says that when a user messages you, a 24 hour customer service window starts. You can send normal messages while it is open. Once it closes, you can reach that person with an approved template message, which is paid.

Two answers in our test came after about 22 and 27 hours. The 27 hour one would have landed outside that window on WhatsApp, so it could have gone out as a paid template and nothing else.

I have built DM and WhatsApp reply systems for brands, coaches and creators since 2018. Every brand in this test had a buyer asking how to pay. Eighteen of them let that buyer go without an answer.

What should the reply actually say?

Speed gets you seen. The words get you the sale. A good reply answers the exact question, gives the price, and offers one easy next step.

A reply you can copy (change the words in brackets):

Hi [name], yes, [product] is in stock in [size]. Cash on delivery to [city] is available, with a small fee of ₹[fee]. The price is ₹[price], and here is the link: [link]. Want me to keep one aside for you?

When you need a few minutes:

Hi [name], checking stock for [product] right now. I will reply by [time] today.

When cash on delivery is not possible:

Hi [name], [product] is in stock. For this one, please pay by UPI or card at checkout, since COD is off. Delivery to [city] takes about [days] days. Shall I send the link?

Notice what none of these do. They do not ask for an order ID. They do not open with "Dear Customer". They do not send the buyer to another channel.

How does your own reply compare?

The fastest way to find out is to test it. Paste the reply you usually send into our free Reply Score tool. It scores it out of 100, shows the exact problems, and compares it with the same 30 brands from this test. Nothing you paste leaves your browser.

If you want to see where buyers drop off before they even message you, the free Growth Leak Check takes 2 minutes and shows your top 3 leaks.

For the WhatsApp rules behind the 24 hour window, read the WhatsApp 24 hour rule for Indian businesses. And if your leads come from Meta lead forms, speed to lead for Meta leads covers the call back side of the same problem.

Sources

• The Human Algorithm, Reply Report 2026, early sample. One buying question sent to 30 Indian D2C brands (25 by email, 5 by website chat) on 25 October 2026 (12:32 to 12:44 PM IST) and 26 October 2026 (11:22 to 11:30 AM IST). Replies last checked 26 October 2026, 11:34 PM IST. Full answer, partial answer and no answer are our own reading of each reply. Brand names are kept private. The full 100 brand report is due in early November 2026.
• Meta for Developers, WhatsApp pricing, read 27 October 2026: the 24 hour customer service window, and template messages outside it.
• Proof lines are from Madhur Tyagi's own client work since 2017.