Setting up a product catalogue in the WhatsApp Business app

The catalogue is a shop window inside WhatsApp: each product or service has a photo, a name, a description and, if you like, a price and a link. It exists only in the WhatsApp Business app, which is free; ordinary WhatsApp has no catalogue. It takes a few minutes to create, and what makes it valuable is how it is organised, not how big it is.

Creating the catalogue, step by step

1 Install the WhatsApp Business app and link it to the company number (what the app offers and who it is for). If you are on ordinary WhatsApp, the Business app lets you migrate the account and its history.
2 Open the business tools. In the app settings look for Business tools (the name may vary with the version) and choose Catalogue.
3 Add the first product or service. Pick the photos, write the name and the description. The price and the link to your page are optional, but the link is how you bring people back to your website.
4 Organise into collections. Group by type (for example “Cakes”, “Savouries”, “Large orders”). People opening the catalogue look by type, not in the order you created things.
5 Share it. You can send the whole catalogue or one product in a chat, and each has its own link, which you can put on the website, on social media and in a QR code.

What makes a catalogue useful

Do Avoid
Sharp photos, with good light and the product in front Dark or cropped images, or ones lifted from a supplier’s window
A clear name, the way a customer would say it Internal codes and abbreviations only the shop understands
A short description: size, what is included, delivery time Long paragraphs nobody reads on a phone
Prices that match the shop or the website Different prices in different places. Whoever spots the gap stops trusting you
Hiding what is sold out Leaving everything visible and answering “we no longer have it” twenty times
The catalogue does not show on Google. It lives inside WhatsApp: people who do not know you never reach it. To be found, what counts is the website (being found on Google). Use the catalogue as a complement, for people who are already talking to you.
The app’s catalogue is not a shop. It does not manage stock, calculate shipping or take payment. If orders are already too many to note by hand, that is the sign you need a proper shop: WhatsApp and your online shop.
Each product can open the conversation already written. Put the product link on the website, on an “Ask on WhatsApp” button, and the person arrives at a specific product instead of a blank chat. For the button, see putting WhatsApp on your site.

Want the catalogue tied to your website and a page per product? Tell us what you sell.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

The WhatsApp Business app: advantages, disadvantages and who it is for

Greeting, away and quick-reply messages

Organising customers with labels

Putting WhatsApp on your site

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