Table of contents

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What’s a WhatsApp product catalog? #

WhatsApp catalogs (or ‘catalogues’, depending on your location) make it easier for customers to buy from you. They’re a great way to showcase your products inside WhatsApp, allowing your customers to browse your store without leaving the chat. They can then add items to a cart, and send that cart to you over WhatsApp.

In this blog post, we’re going to create a simple product catalog on WhatsApp. It takes about 10 minutes. Keep in mind that before your catalog goes online, the WhatsApp team will need to review it, to ensure that your products don’t violate any of their policies.

Let’s get started!

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What you need #

1. A WhatsApp Business mobile app account (Read this)
2. Pictures and descriptions of your products
3. 10 minutes of free time

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Step 1: Open Catalog Manager #

1.1 Open your WhatsApp Business app

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1.2 Click on ⁝ → Business tools

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1.3 Select Catalogue (Or ‘Catalog’)

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1.4 WhatsApp will take a few seconds to prepare your catalog before you can add items to it

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Step 2: Add items to your catalog #

2.1 When your catalog is ready, select + Add new item

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2.2 Add information about your product:

• Name
• Price 
• Description (Optional)
• Link to the product on your website
• Item code

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When you’re done, select Save

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Step 3: Wait for approval #

3.1 All catalog items require approval from WhatsApp. This can take up to a few hours.

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3.2 Once approved, your product will be visible to your customers

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3.3 Add more products to your catalog. You can have up to 500 items.

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Step 4: Preview your catalog #

To view your catalog, go to your WhatsApp Business profile. You can do this from your own number, or ask a friend to test it out. This is what the profile should look like once there’s a catalog in place:

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Bonus: Catalog collections #

If you have multiple product categories, collections are a great way to organize your catalog on WhatsApp. 

In your catalog manager, select Add new collection:

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Enter the name of your collection. In this case, I’ve entered Fiction for my book store:

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Once you’ve selected products for your collection, it will once again require approval from the WhatsApp team. This should not take more than a few minutes, but it can be longer.

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Your collection will appear on the main page of your catalog, as follows:

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That’s it! You now have an organized catalog of products that your contacts and customers can browse through whenever they visit your WhatsApp profile.

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Bonus: Enable shopping cart for your customers #

With WhatsApp catalogs, customers can select the products they wish to buy or enquire about, and can add them to a shopping cart. They can then send this cart to you as a WhatsApp message.

You can enable or disable this feature from

Catalog Manager → ⁝ (top right menu) → Settings → Show add to cart button

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That’s it! Your customers can now add your products to a cart and send it to you as a WhatsApp message!

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Learn more #

If you’d like to learn more about how WhatsApp can help you grow your business, please reach out to us on WhatsApp at: +13024070488

We also offer a free consultation session where we go through your use case, answer any questions you have about WhatsApp, and help you build a strategy to make the best out of the platform. Book a call with us here. We’d love to speak you:

 For Europe, Middle East, and Africa

For North and South America

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