If you sell anything in India today, whether it is home baked cakes, handmade jewellery, tailoring services, or salon appointments, chances are most of your orders already come in through WhatsApp. A customer messages "do you have this in blue," you reply with a photo, they ask the price, you type it out, they ask about sizes, and twenty minutes later you have one order and a very tired thumb. A WhatsApp catalog fixes most of this by turning your chat into something closer to a small storefront, without needing a developer or a monthly fee.
This guide walks through setting one up properly, from your first product listing to the details that trip most small business owners up.
What a WhatsApp catalog actually is
A catalog is a built-in feature inside the free WhatsApp Business app (not regular WhatsApp) that lets you list products or services with a photo, name, price, description, and a product code. Customers can browse your catalog from your business profile, tap an item, and message you directly about it with the product already attached to the conversation. There is no cart or checkout inside WhatsApp itself, the catalog's job is to answer "what do you sell and how much is it" so you are not retyping the same information all day.
If you have not moved to the WhatsApp Business app yet, our earlier guide on WhatsApp Business tips for small business covers the basics of setting up the profile, quick replies, and labels. This post assumes that part is done and focuses purely on the catalog itself.
Step 1: Turn on the catalog feature
Open WhatsApp Business, go to Settings, then Business Tools, and tap Catalog. If you do not see this option, update the app first, it is occasionally hidden behind an app update on older installs. Once enabled, you will see an empty catalog screen with an option to add your first item.
Step 2: Add products with photos that actually sell
For each item, WhatsApp asks for a photo, name, price, description, and an optional website link and product code. A few things matter more than people expect here.
Use natural light photos, not screenshots pulled from a supplier's website. A phone photo taken near a window of your actual product, cake, or workspace tends to convert better than a stock image, because it signals you genuinely have the item in hand. If you sell services rather than products, such as a haircut, a tuition class, or a photography package, list each service as an item with the price or a starting price, and a short line on what is included.
Write prices in plain rupees, not vague terms like "price on request," unless your pricing genuinely varies by customer (custom furniture, bulk orders). Most people abandon a chat the moment they sense they will have to negotiate just to learn a starting price.
Keep descriptions short, two or three lines. Mention size, material, or duration where relevant, and any limitation upfront, like "makes to order, needs two days" for a bakery. This cuts down the back and forth questions considerably.
Step 3: Organise into categories
If you have more than eight or ten items, group them into categories such as "Cakes," "Cookies," or "Hampers" for a bakery, or "Facials," "Hair," "Bridal" for a salon. Categories appear as tabs at the top of your catalog and make it far easier for a customer to browse on a small phone screen instead of scrolling through everything. Businesses with a large or frequently changing catalog, like a boutique or a jeweller, benefit the most from this step since it prevents the catalog from feeling like a dumped product list.
Step 4: Share your catalog link everywhere
Once your catalog has a handful of items, WhatsApp gives you a shareable link (wa.me/c/your-number). This link opens your catalog directly, even for someone who does not have your number saved. Put this link in your Instagram bio, your Google Business Profile "website" or "appointment" field if you do not have a separate link, your email signature, and any offline material like a shop card or a delivery box sticker.
A QR code pointing to this same link works well printed near a shop counter or on a flyer. Our QR code generator is a quick free way to create one if you do not already have a design tool for it.
Step 5: Keep it updated
A catalog that shows items you stopped selling six months ago, or a price that has since gone up, does more damage than having no catalog at all, because customers act on what they see. Set a reminder, even a monthly one, to review pricing and remove out of stock items. If you run seasonal offers, such as festive hampers or a wedding season photography package, add and remove those items around the relevant dates rather than leaving stale entries sitting there year round.
Where a WhatsApp catalog falls short
A catalog solves the "what do you sell" question well, but it has real limits worth knowing before you rely on it as your only online presence.
There is no actual checkout or payment collection inside the catalog itself, every order still needs a manual conversation to confirm quantity, address, and payment, usually over UPI. Our guide on accepting UPI payments on your website is useful once you want to add a "buy now" style flow that does not depend entirely on manual chat confirmation.
A catalog also does not show up in a Google search. If someone searches your business name or "bakery near me," your catalog link will not surface there the way a proper webpage can, because WhatsApp catalogs are not indexed by search engines the way a website is. This is the gap a basic website closes, it gives you a page that shows up in search results, works as a permanent home for your product range, and can carry your full pricing, policies, and reviews in one place, something a chat based catalog was never built to do. Our post on selling products online in India covers how a website and a WhatsApp catalog can work together rather than as a choice between one or the other.
For a business at the stage of setting up online ordering more seriously, a tool like Neweb combines a website, a custom domain, and Google Business Profile management in one plan starting at Rs 249 a month, which pairs naturally with a WhatsApp catalog instead of replacing it. Customers who find you on Google land on the website, and the ones already chatting with you use the catalog, both pointing back to the same business.
A simple routine to follow
Set up the catalog once, properly, with real photos and honest pricing. Share the link in every place your customers already look, your bio, your listing, your packaging. Review it monthly. And treat it as one part of your online presence rather than the whole thing, since the businesses that grow fastest in India right now tend to be the ones showing up consistently across WhatsApp, Google, and their own website, not just one of the three.