A WhatsApp catalog turns your chat into a storefront — customers browse products, see prices and photos, and send you an order without ever leaving the app. For Indian D2C sellers who get most of their inbound on WhatsApp anyway, it's one of the highest-leverage features in the free app, and most sellers only use half of it. Here's how to set one up properly, what its real limits are, and where it stops being enough.
What a WhatsApp catalog actually does
A catalog is a product listing attached to your WhatsApp Business profile — visible to anyone who opens a chat with you, whether or not they message first. Each item shows a photo, name, price, and description. Customers can browse the whole catalog, tap into individual items for detail, and (in supported regions) add items to a cart and send you the whole selection as a single order message.
It works on both the free WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business API — the difference is scale and automation, covered below.
How to create a WhatsApp catalog
Open WhatsApp Business and go to Settings → Business tools → Catalog.
Tap Add new item.
Upload photos — up to 10 images per item.
Enter the product or service name (the only required field).
Fill in the optional fields that matter for conversion: price, sale price, description, website link, and product code.
Tap Add to catalog.
Repeat per product. Every image you upload goes through an automatic review against WhatsApp's commerce policies — approved items appear immediately, and a rejected item shows a red exclamation mark with the option to request another review if you think it was flagged in error.
What you can and can't put in a catalog
Name — required, everything else is optional but affects conversion.
Price and sale price — showing a strikethrough sale price next to the regular price works as well on WhatsApp as it does anywhere else.
Description — this is your only real sales copy space; use it, don't leave it blank.
Website link — send traffic back to a full product page if you have one.
Product/service code — useful for your own SKU tracking, or if you run inventory across other channels too.
There's no separate "category" filter built into the base catalog view, but you can group related items into collections so a browsing customer isn't scrolling through everything you sell to find one category.
Catalog limits you should know before you build one
500 products maximum per catalog on the free Business app.
10 images per item, all subject to review.
Every image must comply with WhatsApp's Commerce Policy — no watermarks that look like contact info, no pricing tricks, no restricted categories (a common rejection reason sellers don't expect).
If you're carrying more than 500 SKUs, or you already run a Facebook/Instagram Shop, the practical path is syncing your existing Meta Commerce Manager catalog rather than rebuilding it by hand inside WhatsApp — this is the same catalog infrastructure Meta uses for Facebook and Instagram Shops, and it scales past what the manual entry screen is built for.
Sharing your catalog with customers
You don't have to wait for someone to ask "what do you sell" — three ways to put the catalog in front of people:
Chat button — every conversation with your business profile shows a "View catalog" option, visible even before the customer sends a first message.
Share as a message — open the catalog, tap the share icon, and send the whole thing (or a single item) into any chat, exactly like sharing a document.
Catalog link in your bio/ads — share your business profile link (or a click-to-chat link pre-filled with "Hi, can I see your catalog?") anywhere you'd put a storefront link — Instagram bio, packaging, a WhatsApp Status post.
How customers order from your catalog
The customer taps into a product, and in supported regions can add it directly to a cart, keep browsing, and add more items before sending everything as one order message. Where the cart feature isn't available, customers simply message you the item name or forward the product card, and you confirm manually.
Either way, WhatsApp's free app doesn't process payment — an order lands in your chat as a request, and you take it from there: confirm availability, share a UPI payment link or COD terms, and update the customer once it's shipped. If you're doing meaningful order volume, this manual confirm-and-follow-up loop is exactly where sellers start losing track of orders in a crowded chat list — worth knowing before it becomes your bottleneck, not after.
Editing, hiding, and removing items
Edit — open the item from your catalog, update any field, save.
Hide — toggle "Hide item" on an item you're temporarily out of stock on, without deleting your descriptions and photos.
Delete — open the item, scroll to the bottom, tap Delete Item. This is permanent; there's no catalog-level undo.
Keep the catalog current. A customer who lands on an out-of-stock or discontinued item and messages you about it is a lead you're about to lose to a slow reply, not a sale.
Where the free catalog stops being enough
The catalog itself scales fine up to its limits. What doesn't scale is everything around it on the free app:
No catalog analytics — you can't see which items get viewed, added to cart, or abandoned.
No automated order confirmations — every order needs a manual reply, on one device, one chat at a time.
No inventory sync — updating stock across a catalog with dozens of SKUs is manual, item by item.
One device, one number — if more than one person handles orders, you're all working out of the same phone.
This is the gap the WhatsApp Business API closes: catalog messages can trigger automated flows (order confirmation, payment link, shipping updates) without a human typing each one, multiple team members can work the same number from a shared inbox, and catalog performance shows up as real numbers instead of a guess.
Frequently asked questions
How many products can I add to a WhatsApp catalog?
Up to 500 products or services in a single catalog on the WhatsApp Business app, with up to 10 images per item.
Is a WhatsApp catalog free?
Yes. Creating and maintaining a catalog is a free feature of the WhatsApp Business app — no separate cost to list products.
Can customers pay directly through a WhatsApp catalog?
No. The catalog lets customers browse and send you an order as a message; WhatsApp's free app doesn't include built-in payment processing, so you confirm and collect payment separately (commonly a UPI link or COD in India).
Why was my catalog item rejected?
Every image is reviewed against WhatsApp's Commerce Policy. Common rejection reasons include images that look like they contain contact details, misleading pricing, or restricted product categories. You can request another review from the item's detail screen if you believe it was flagged incorrectly.
Can I sync my Facebook or Instagram Shop catalog to WhatsApp?
Yes, if your catalog is managed through Meta Commerce Manager, it can be connected to your WhatsApp Business account instead of rebuilding your product list manually — the more practical route once you're past a small handful of SKUs.
Can I hide an out-of-stock item without deleting it?
Yes. Edit the item and toggle "Hide item." It stays saved with all its details and photos, ready to unhide once it's back in stock.
The bottom line
A catalog costs nothing and takes an afternoon to set up properly — photos, prices, and descriptions filled in, not left blank. That alone turns a chat-only WhatsApp presence into something a customer can actually browse. The ceiling shows up once orders start coming in faster than one person can confirm them by hand on one phone — that's the point to look at the API side rather than adding a second phone to the counter.
Ready to move past manual order confirmations? Splashify Pro connects your catalog to automated order flows, payment links, and a shared team inbox — built for sellers who've outgrown one phone. Free for 14 days.
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