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Meta Business PartnerGlossary term

WhatsApp Catalog: The In-Chat Storefront for Your Business

A WhatsApp Catalog is a mobile storefront that lives directly inside your WhatsApp Business profile, letting customers scroll through your products, tap for prices and descriptions, and add items to a cart without ever leaving the conversation. Instead of pushing shoppers to a website that may load slowly or ask them to log in, the catalog keeps the entire browse-and-enquire journey in a chat window they already trust. For Indian businesses on the WhatsApp Business API, the catalog is the foundation for richer commerce experiences — from a single product message inside a promotion to a full multi-product cart handed off to your team or a payment link.

Meta Commerce Manager, linked to your WABA
Where it lives
Single-product and multi-product interactive messages
Message types
Free for customers; no messaging fee to view
Cost to browse
Per delivered message by category (since 1 Jul 2025)
Billing on sends
One catalog also serves Instagram and Facebook Shops
Cross-channel

In one line

A WhatsApp Catalog is an in-chat product listing customers browse and enquire about without leaving WhatsApp. On the WhatsApp Business API it powers single- and multi-product messages, syncs from Meta Commerce Manager, and turns conversations into a lightweight storefront.

What a WhatsApp Catalog actually is

At its core, a WhatsApp Catalog is a structured list of products — each with an image, title, price, description, and optional link — that Meta stores in Commerce Manager and attaches to your WhatsApp Business Account. Customers encounter it in two ways: as a browsable storefront reachable from your business profile, and as interactive product messages your team or automation sends inside a chat. Think of it less as a separate app and more as a shared inventory that WhatsApp can render natively wherever a conversation is happening. Because the product data is centralised, the same catalog can simultaneously feed your WhatsApp storefront, Instagram Shop, and Facebook Shop, keeping one source of truth across Meta's surfaces.

  • Product fields: image, name, price, currency, description, and product URL
  • Stored in Meta Commerce Manager, linked to your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA)
  • Rendered natively inside WhatsApp — no external site or login required to browse
  • Shared with Instagram and Facebook Shops from the same catalog

Why it matters for Indian businesses

In a market where WhatsApp is often the primary way customers reach a business, reducing friction between interest and enquiry is decisive. A catalog collapses the distance between "I saw your ad" and "I want this item" — a shopper can browse, tap a product, and reply with a question in the same thread, on the same low-bandwidth connection, without being bounced to a website. That continuity lifts response quality and shortens sales cycles for everything from D2C brands and boutiques to clinics listing packages and restaurants showing a menu. It also pairs naturally with paid acquisition: a Click-to-WhatsApp ad can drop a customer straight into a chat where your catalog is one tap away, turning ad spend into a guided browsing session rather than a cold link.

How it works on the WhatsApp Business API

On the API, the catalog becomes programmable. You build and maintain products in Commerce Manager — manually, by uploading a feed, or by syncing a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce — and then reference those products by ID when you send interactive messages. A single-product message spotlights one item, ideal for answering "do you have this?" or featuring a hero product in a campaign. A multi-product message groups several items into named sections, functioning like an in-chat mini-menu the customer can add to a cart. When a shopper submits a cart, your platform receives it as a structured message you can act on — confirm stock, share a payment link, or continue with WhatsApp Flows for a guided checkout. InfiQ handles the WABA-to-catalog linking during onboarding so these message types work from day one.

  • Build products in Commerce Manager or sync from Shopify, WooCommerce, or a feed
  • Send single-product messages for focused offers and direct answers
  • Send multi-product messages as curated, sectioned mini-menus
  • Receive submitted carts as structured messages for follow-up or checkout

Common mistakes to avoid

Most catalog problems trace back to a handful of avoidable errors. The biggest is ownership mismatch: the catalog and the WhatsApp number must sit under the same business entity in Meta Business Manager, or the link silently fails. The second is policy — Meta's commerce policies prohibit certain categories, and a single non-compliant listing can get a catalog restricted, taking your product messages down with it. Thin or inconsistent product data (missing images, vague titles, wrong currency) makes the storefront look untrustworthy and hurts conversion. Finally, teams often confuse browsing with buying: the catalog drives discovery and enquiry, but you still need a deliberate path to payment, whether that is a link, a Flow, or a human handoff. Planning that last step upfront prevents a catalog that looks great but never closes a sale.

  • Ownership mismatch — keep catalog and number under the same business entity
  • Policy violations — one restricted listing can suspend the whole catalog
  • Weak product data — missing images or wrong currency erodes trust
  • No checkout path — decide how browsing turns into payment before you launch

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Frequently asked questions

Is a WhatsApp Catalog the same as a WhatsApp Shop?+
They are closely related but not identical. The catalog is the underlying list of products stored in Meta Commerce Manager. The Shop (or storefront) is the browsable surface customers see when they tap the storefront icon on your profile. One catalog powers your storefront and also feeds the product messages you send from the API.
Can I sell and take payment directly inside a WhatsApp Catalog?+
The catalog handles browsing and adding items to a cart, but it is primarily an enquiry and discovery layer. To complete a sale you typically pair it with WhatsApp Flows for structured checkout, a payment link, or a handoff to your team. Availability of native in-chat checkout depends on your market and Meta's rollout.
Do customers pay anything to browse my catalog?+
No. Browsing your catalog and viewing products is free for customers, and it does not incur messaging fees for you either. You are only billed when you send messages — for example, a marketing message featuring a product — under Meta's per-delivered-message category pricing.
How do I add products to my WhatsApp Catalog?+
You add them in Meta Commerce Manager, not in the chat app. You can enter products manually, bulk-upload a spreadsheet or product feed, or connect a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce to sync automatically. Once the catalog is linked to your WhatsApp Business Account, those products become available to send as interactive messages.
What is the difference between a single-product and multi-product message?+
A single-product message shows one item from your catalog and is ideal for a focused offer or a direct answer to a customer's question. A multi-product message shows a curated set of items grouped into named sections, working like a mini-menu — useful for showing a range or a category during a conversation.
Why did my WhatsApp Catalog get rejected or stop working?+
The most common causes are listings that violate Meta's commerce policies (restricted or prohibited items), a catalog that is not properly linked to your WhatsApp Business Account, or the catalog and number being owned by different business entities. Fixing the policy issue or re-establishing the link usually restores your product messages.
Can one catalog serve WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook?+
Yes. Because the catalog lives in Meta Commerce Manager, the same product set can power your WhatsApp storefront and product messages as well as Instagram and Facebook Shops, so you maintain one source of truth instead of duplicating listings across channels.
How does InfiQ help with WhatsApp Catalog setup?+
InfiQ connects your Commerce Manager catalog to your WhatsApp Business Account during onboarding, so your first single- or multi-product message can go out cleanly. As an official Meta Business Partner, InfiQ also gives you transparent ₹ pricing (ex-GST) and full BSUID ownership of your setup.

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Related

Click-to-WhatsApp Ads (CTWA)Click-to-ChatWhatsApp FlowsWhatsApp Business APIGlossaryPricing