Products & Catalogs
Learn how to build and send messages with single and multiple products
Businesses can enable Catalogs to share products with customers using Multi and Single-Product messages or showcase their products and services to their customers in the WhatsApp App, allowing them to browse through and add items to their cart without leaving the conversation, providing a seamless and convenient shopping experience.
See below how to use Catalogs in your WhatsApp Business Account.
Ways to share Products with Customers
After the Catalog is created and linked to the WABA, businesses have three options to share products when chatting with their customers:
Single and Multi Product Messages: Interactive messages containing a selection of up to a single or 30 items from a business’ inventory.
Multi-Product Template Messages: Template messages containing information about up to 30 products from your ecommerce catalog, organized in up to 10 sections, in a single message.
Catalog Links: Messages containing catalog thumbnails and a link to their entire product catalog.
Catalog Messages: Free-form messages containing a button that, when tapped, displays your product catalog within WhatsApp.
Catalog Template Messages: Template messages containing a button that, when tapped, displays your product catalog within WhatsApp.
Single and Multi Product Messages
Both Multi-Product Messages and Single Product Messages are types of interactive messages.
Catalog Messages
Catalog Messages is not available in India.
Catalog messages are free-form messages that allow you to showcase your product catalog entirely within WhatsApp. Catalog messages display a product thumbnail header image of your choice, custom body text, a fixed text header, a fixed text sub-header, and a View catalog button.
Once you have your inventory connected, use the WABA API to send this type of message. Use the /messages endpoint with the following parameters:
Properties
<BODY_TEXT>
String
Required.
Text to appear in the message body.
Maximum 1024 characters.
Hello! Thanks for your interest. Ordering is easy. Just visit our catalog and add items to purchase.
<FOOTER_TEXT>
String
Optional.
Text to appear in the message footer.
Maximum 60 characters.
Best grocery deals on WhatsApp!
<THUMBNAIL_PRODUCT_RETAILER_ID>
String
Required.
Item SKU number. Labeled as Content ID in the Commerce Manager.
The thumbnail of this item will be used as the message's header image.
If the parameters object is omitted, the product image of the first item in your catalog will be used.
2lc20305pt
Sample Request
{
"messaging_product": "whatsapp",
"recipient_type": "individual",
"to": "16505551234",
"type": "interactive",
"interactive": {
"type": "catalog_message",
"body": {
"text": "Hello! Thanks for your interest. Ordering is easy. Just visit our catalog and add items to purchase."
},
"action": {
"name": "catalog_message",
"parameters": {
"thumbnail_product_retailer_id": "2lc20305pt"
}
},
"footer": {
"text": "Best grocery deals on WhatsApp!"
}
}
}Multi-Product Template Messages
Multi-Product Message templates can be used to open marketing conversations, meaning you can start a conversation using this template. See Multi-Product Template Messages.
Catalog Link Messages
Businesses can send a link to their entire product catalog by assembling a wa.me link and including it in a standard text message.
When sending a text message, businesses can use the optional preview_url set to true to have the message render a set of product catalog thumbnails of any URL in the message body string.
To assemble wa.me link, append the business's business phone number, including country code, to the end of the following string:
https://wa.me/c/For example:
https://wa.me/c/15555455657If you disable the catalog, wa.me links to your catalog, as well as the View catalog button that appears when you send your catalog link in a message will display an Invalid catalog link warning when tapped.
Catalogs
When enabled, the catalog storefront icon and catalog-related buttons appear in conversation and business profile views:
When the catalog is disabled, the storefront icon and catalog-related buttons will not appear in any views and the catalog preview with thumbnails will not appear in the business profile view.
By default, the catalog will be off. To turn on the visibility of your catalog within the WhatsApp chat thread and your business profile to showcase your products, you can enable it directly from the Manage WABA in the 360Dialog Hub, or, your Partner can enable it using the Partner API.
Carts
By default, customers can add a product to their cart, or amend quantities directly from the list or product details page. When enabled, cart-related buttons appear in the conversation, catalog, and product details views.
When it is disabled, customers can see products and their details, but all cart-related buttons will not appear in any view.
Shopping Cart Experience
After viewing products, a customer can add them to their shopping cart and send that cart to a business. For the purposes of commerce on WhatsApp, a shopping cart:
Is unique to a person/business chat thread in a specific device: Only one cart is created per chat thread between customer and business and carts do not persist across multiple devices. Once a cart is sent, the customer can open another cart with the business and start the process again.
Has no expiration date: The cart persists in the chat thread until it is sent to the business. Once sent, the cart is cleared.
Customers can add up to 99 units of each single catalog item to a shopping cart, but there is no limit on the number of distinct items that can be added to a cart.
Once a cart has been sent, no edits can be made. Customers can send a new cart if they need new items, or would like to change their order. Businesses cannot send carts to customers.
FAQ
Next:
How to create your CatalogLast updated
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