How to Set Up a WhatsApp Store: Catalog, Cart and Payments

What a WhatsApp store is made of

Part	WhatsApp Business app	WhatsApp Business API with Wabot
Catalog	Tools → Catalog on the phone; up to 500 items	A Meta Commerce Manager catalog linked to your account, managed from Commerce → Products
Cart and order	The customer sends the cart; you read it in the chat	The order arrives as data: it shows on the Orders page and can start a workflow
Payment	You type your UPI ID or paste a link	A payment request with a Review and Pay button, sent automatically
Messages before checkout	Greeting message, quick replies you type	Auto-reply with a catalog button, catalog on request, an AI agent for product questions
Messages after checkout	Typed by hand	Thank-you on payment, tags, shipping and review templates, reorder campaigns

If you reply to customers from the app on your phone, the left column is you; if you want the right column, you need an API number (WhatsApp Business app vs API explains the switch, and the rest of this guide assumes the API).

Step 1: the catalog

On the API, the catalog lives in Meta Commerce Manager and is connected to your WhatsApp Business Account; on the app you build it under Tools → Catalog, and Meta’s WhatsApp Business site says it can hold up to 500 items. Every item is reviewed against the Meta Commerce Policy: no prohibited categories (alcohol, medical products, weapons and similar), no misleading photos or prices, and sellers based in India must follow online selling rules. The full walkthrough of both methods is in how to create a WhatsApp catalog; here is the Wabot side.

In Wabot: Commerce → Products

1. Pick the WhatsApp number at the top of the page. The setup checklist below it has four steps: Connect Meta business, Select a catalog, Configure payments and Add products.
2. Connect Meta business: click Connect with Facebook and choose the business portfolio that owns (or will own) your catalog.
3. Select a catalog: pick the Meta catalog customers will browse on this number and click Link catalog. Meta allows one catalog per WhatsApp Business Account, and that catalog serves every number on it.
4. Add products: click Add product to add items one at a time, or Import from CSV or Excel. The file can be up to 5 MB and 5,000 rows and needs columns for the name, price and image URL; a sale price and description are optional. Already have products in Commerce Manager? Sync with Meta catalog brings them in.
5. Check each product’s status. Synced means it’s live in your Meta catalog and visible on WhatsApp; Wabot only means it’s saved but not published yet, so click Publish to Meta. Set the availability (In stock, Out of stock, Preorder, Available for order, Discontinued); variants such as sizes and colours nest under the parent product.

Step 2: the cart and the order

Once the catalog is linked, customers shop from the messages you send: a catalog message with a View catalog button, a single product, a multi-product message of up to 30 items in sections, or a product carousel. Inside the catalog they add items to a cart. Meta’s sell products and services guide sets the rules: the cart has to be enabled in your number’s commerce settings; each cart belongs to one chat on one device; carts don’t expire; a customer can add up to 99 units of each item, with no limit on the number of different items; and a sent cart can’t be edited, so a customer who changes their mind sends a new cart. If an item becomes unavailable, WhatsApp removes it and tells the customer the cart was updated. You can’t send a cart to a customer; only they can send one to you.

The sent cart reaches you as an order message listing the items, quantities and prices. In Wabot it does two things at once: it appears under Commerce → Orders with the status Awaiting payment, and it can start a workflow step whose trigger is Customer sends a message with the message type Order. That step is where the store starts to run itself: the next two sections use it to send the payment request and the acknowledgement.

Step 3: payment inside the chat

In India, Meta’s Payments API documentation describes three ways a business can take payment in WhatsApp: UPI intent and payment links through any gateway that can generate them, where the customer pays in the UPI app on their phone; a deep gateway integration with Razorpay, PayU, Billdesk or Zaakpay, where cards, net banking and wallets also work natively and the payment status comes back to WhatsApp by webhook; and enhanced payment links with Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree, which show a payment card in the chat and open the gateway’s checkout in an in-app browser for other methods. Whichever mode, the customer sees an order summary and a Review and Pay button. Outside India, check Meta’s documentation for your country; where in-chat payment isn’t offered, a payment link from your gateway inside a message does the job.

In Wabot: Configure payments

1. In WhatsApp Manager, under Account tools → Payment configurations, create a payment configuration with your gateway and note its name.
2. In Wabot, open Commerce → Products and click Configure next to Configure payments. Enter the Configuration name exactly as it appears in WhatsApp Manager and pick the Payment provider: Razorpay, Cashfree or UPI.
3. To have payment requests sent automatically when an order arrives, use Razorpay. The workflow’s Payment message uses Catalog Payment → Payment Gateway → Razorpay with the products set to Customer Orders, so the request covers exactly what the customer ordered, in INR (the step-by-step build).
4. To charge by hand, open the chat in the inbox and go to Attach → Interactive: Payment for catalog items charges the items in an order, and Payment request or Custom payment asks for an amount you type, such as a deposit or a custom quote. Every payment shows on the order under Commerce → Orders with its status, method and time.

Step 4: pre-checkout messages

Everything the customer receives before they pay is a reply to someone who has just written to you, so it falls inside WhatsApp’s 24-hour customer service window: normal messages, no template approval, and Meta’s pricing page charges these as service conversations, of which the first 1,000 a month are free per number (India rates and examples). Six messages do most of the work.

1. The welcome, with a catalog button

Set an auto-reply for new chats with quick-reply buttons such as See catalog, Track my order and Talk to us (menu buttons for WhatsApp Business; auto-reply setup).

Welcome to Anvi Boutique 👋 Tap See catalog to browse this week's collection, Track my order for an update, or Talk to us and a person will reply.

2. The catalog on request

A workflow step triggered when the message contains catalog, or when the quick-reply button See catalog is tapped, sends the Catalogue message: the whole catalog with a thumbnail product, or Multi Product for a chosen set such as new arrivals.

Here's our catalog 🛍️ Tap View catalog, add what you like to the cart and send the order. The payment link arrives right here in the chat.

3. Product questions

Sizes, fabric, delivery to a pin code, “is this the same as in the photo?”: the questions that decide whether the cart gets sent. Answer them from a shared inbox, or let an AI agent trained on your website, prices and FAQs take the routine ones at any hour, with a person a tap away.

The Kanjivaram comes in blue, maroon and bottle green, 6.3 m with a running blouse. We deliver to 682030 in 2 to 3 days. Want me to add it to the catalog message so you can order?

4. The order acknowledgement and the payment request

The Order step runs the moment the cart arrives. Give it two actions, which run in order: a Send a message → Text only that confirms what you received, then the Payment message. The order message itself doesn’t hand its items and total to your text as variables, so keep the acknowledgement general; the payment request that follows carries the order summary.

Got your order, thank you! 🙏 Tap Review and Pay below to confirm it. We dispatch within 24 hours of payment and send the tracking number here.

5. The address and notes

If the customer adds a note when sending the cart, it appears on the order in Wabot under Customer message / notes, next to the shipping details. If you don’t have a delivery address yet, ask for it in the acknowledgement, or collect it with a WhatsApp Flow form that opens inside the chat (WhatsApp Flows explained).

One more thing: please send the delivery address and a landmark, or tap Add address to fill it in.

6. The unpaid order

Some carts are sent and never paid. Under Commerce → Orders, filter by Awaiting payment and open the chat. Within 24 hours of their last message a plain reminder is fine; after that it has to be an approved utility template about their own order, with no discount attached, or Meta classes it as marketing (14 payment reminder templates; how Meta categorises templates).

Hi Asha, your order from Anvi Boutique is still waiting for payment. Tap Review and Pay in the message above, or reply HELP if something went wrong. We hold the items until tomorrow evening.

Cash on delivery instead of payment

For COD, replace the payment request with a confirmation: a message with Confirm and Cancel quick-reply buttons, and a step triggered by Interactive quick reply buttons where the title is exactly Confirm that adds the tag cod-confirmed and assigns the chat to whoever packs orders. Unconfirmed orders aren’t shipped.

Cash on delivery for ₹1,398, to be paid to the courier. Tap Confirm to place the order or Cancel to change it.

Step 5: post-checkout messages

After the payment, the window changes. The thank-you goes out seconds after the customer paid, so it’s still a normal message; the shipping update a day later usually isn’t, and needs a Meta-approved template. What you send after the sale also decides its category and price. Meta’s India rates from 1 October 2026, per delivered message, excluding 18% GST, billed by Meta directly:

Message	When	Meta category	Rate in India
Payment received, order confirmed	Seconds after the payment	Service (inside the 24-hour window)	First 1,000 a month free per number, then ₹0.115
Shipped, with tracking	When you dispatch, often a day or more later	Utility template	₹0.115
Delivered, how did it go? (review request tied to the order)	A few days after dispatch	Utility template	₹0.115
Payment reminder for an unpaid order, no offer	A day after the cart	Utility template	₹0.115
Back in stock, new collection, reorder with an offer	Opted-in customers only	Marketing template	₹0.8631

Paid: thank them and tag the chat

A step triggered by Customer sends a message with the message type Payment fires when the payment result comes back and adds a variable called status. With the condition {{status}} is success, it sends the thank-you and uses Add to groups or tags to tag the contact paid, so packing and shipping updates can be filtered by tag. A second step with {{status}} is failed assigns the chat to a teammate and tells the customer nothing was charged (both branches, step by step).

Payment received, thank you! 🙏 Your order is confirmed. We'll pack it today and send the tracking number here within 2 days.

The payment didn't go through, and nothing was charged. Reply RETRY for a fresh payment link, or tell us if you'd prefer UPI and our team will help.

Shipped: the tracking message

Send an approved utility template with the order number and tracking link, from the inbox or from a template campaign to everyone tagged paid today. If your orders actually come from a Shopify store rather than the WhatsApp cart, the Shopify integration’s Order Fulfillment switch sends this automatically when the order is fulfilled (Shopify order notifications on WhatsApp). More wording in 30+ template examples.

Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} has shipped with {{3}}. Track it here: {{4}}. Expected delivery: {{5}}.

Delivered: the review request

A few days after dispatch, ask how it went with two buttons and a link to your Google review page. Ask everyone, not only happy customers, and make sure an unhappy reply reaches a person (the review request flow).

Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} should have reached you by now. Is everything as you expected?

Repeat orders: opted-in only

Back-in-stock alerts, new collections and “it’s been a while” messages are marketing: only to customers who agreed to offers, with an opt-out line, sent to a segment rather than everyone (how to collect WhatsApp opt-in). Tag customers by what they bought, send each offer as a template campaign with a per-contact report (how a broadcast campaign works), and give customers who’ve gone quiet a short sequence with stop rules (win back inactive customers).

Hi {{1}}, the {{2}} you asked about is back in stock. We've held one aside for 24 hours; order here: {{3}}. Reply STOP to opt out.

How Wabot handles this

• Catalog and products. Under Commerce → Products, connect with Facebook, link your Meta catalog, add products one by one or by CSV or Excel import, and publish them to Meta; Synced and Wabot only show what customers can see (commerce guide).
• Payments. A payment configuration named as in WhatsApp Manager, with Razorpay, Cashfree or UPI as the provider. Workflows send Razorpay payment requests for catalog orders automatically; the inbox sends catalog, product, payment and custom payment messages by hand.
• Orders. Commerce → Orders shows revenue collected and the count of paid, awaiting-payment and failed orders for the last 7, 30 or 90 days, all time or a custom range; search by customer, phone, reference or transaction ID, and open an order for its items, payment, shipping and the customer’s notes.
• Workflows. Steps triggered by a text that contains catalog, by a quick-reply button, by an Order message and by a Payment result, with actions to send messages, request payment, tag contacts, assign teammates and create follow-ups. Send a test sends a step’s messages to your own WhatsApp, and each step’s Runs list shows who it ran for (workflows guide).
• Templates and campaigns. Shipping, review and reorder templates are created under Settings → Templates with Meta’s category shown; campaigns go to the contacts, groups or tags you pick, now or scheduled, with sent, delivered, read and failed per contact. The wider store playbook, from ads to win-back, is in WhatsApp for e-commerce.

The shared inbox, templates and campaigns are on the Starter plan (₹840/month + GST); workflows and the commerce automations are on the Base Plan (₹9,240/year + GST). Connecting your number on the Free plan starts a 15-day Base Plan trial. Meta’s per-message charges are billed by Meta directly, with no Wabot markup. Setup help: WhatsApp +91 91889 12767 or hello@wabot.shop.

Frequently asked questions

Can I open a WhatsApp store without a website?

Yes. The catalog, cart and payment all live inside WhatsApp (and Meta Commerce Manager for API numbers). A website link is an optional field on each product. Many small sellers run the whole store from the chat and add a website later.

How do customers pay in a WhatsApp store in India?

They order from your catalog and receive an order summary with a Review and Pay button. Depending on the payment configuration, they pay in their UPI app or with a card, net banking or wallet through a gateway such as Razorpay, PayU, Billdesk, Zaakpay or Cashfree, as listed in Meta’s Payments API documentation for India. In Wabot, a workflow sends that request automatically through Razorpay when the order arrives.

Is a WhatsApp store free?

On the WhatsApp Business app, yes: the catalog and cart cost nothing, and you handle payment by hand. On the API, Meta charges per message (in India, replies inside the 24-hour window are service conversations with the first 1,000 a month free, utility templates ₹0.115 and marketing templates ₹0.8631 plus GST), and a platform such as Wabot charges a plan fee for the inbox, workflows and commerce tools.

What happens if a customer wants to change the order after sending the cart?

A sent cart can’t be edited, per Meta’s documentation. The customer sends a new cart with the right items, and you ignore or cancel the first order. If a payment request was already sent for the first cart, tell them to pay the new one instead.

Do I need the customer’s permission to send order and shipping updates?

Messages about an order the customer placed are utility messages and need no marketing opt-in, though Meta’s policy still expects the customer to have given you their number for this purpose. Offers, back-in-stock alerts and reorder reminders with a discount are marketing and need an explicit opt-in.