Guide · AI agents · For the owner whose shop answers 'do you have this in my size?' all day
Selling products in a WhatsApp chat with Meta's AI agent: what Meta says about the catalog, live stock and recommendations
Meta has published three guides on selling with its AI agent for business over WhatsApp: one on making a sale, one on keeping product information and stock right, and one on recommending products from a described need. Read together, they make one point many times: the agent may describe from the catalog, but anything it promises must come live from the business's own systems.
Published 6 October 2026
The catalog describes, the stock system decides
The agent learns what a business sells from its product catalog in Meta's Commerce Manager. Stock and the current price come from the business's own system at the moment of asking. Meta says that without that connection the agent cannot confirm stock or sell at all.
- One catalog item per size or colour
- Sizes listed inside a description cannot be matched reliably. Each sellable variant gets its own item, with the variants grouped together so the agent knows they are the same product.
- The same product codes everywhere
- Codes in the catalog should match the stock system exactly. Meta warns that an agent asked to convert one code into another will eventually produce one that does not exist.
- Do not drive the catalog from live stock
- Catalog availability lags and contradicts the live check. Meta says to use it for discontinued lines and nothing more.
- Compare the two on a schedule
- When they drift apart, nothing warns you: the agent offers items it cannot sell, or never mentions items you do sell. Meta suggests a regular check that raises an alert.
Live stock, for the right place
- Location first
- Price, stock and delivery all depend on where the customer is. Meta warns that an agent answering before it knows will answer for the wrong place and sound completely certain.
- The quantity actually asked for
- A trade customer asking for twenty needs to know if there are twenty, not whether the item is in stock.
- Leave out what cannot be sold
- If the stock system returns an unavailable item marked as unavailable, the agent may mention it anyway. If the item is simply absent, it cannot.
- Alternatives with the 'no'
- An out-of-stock answer that includes the sizes or colours that are available lets the agent save the sale at once, instead of guessing and checking again while the customer leaves.
- Check again after an address change
- Every earlier answer was for the old place, and nothing in the chat shows the customer that.
- No answer when the system is down
- If the stock system cannot be reached, Meta's agent refuses to state availability rather than guessing.
Recommending from what the customer describes
A customer who writes "something for dry skin in winter" has not named a product. Meta's recommendation guide sets out how the agent narrows that down and shows options as a set of cards the customer taps.
- Two questions at most
- Every question before the first options is a chance for the customer to stop replying. Most narrowing can happen after showing something.
- Checked in the same message it is shown
- A stock check from two messages ago is not a stock check. Only products that can be sold right now are shown.
- One reason per card, in the customer's words
- Meta's contrast: a line tied to the customer's need earns a tap; 'our bestseller' answers a question nobody asked.
- Change one thing when they say no
- Adjust only what the customer objected to. Rebuilding the whole set loses what they already told you.
- Say when nothing fits
- An honest 'we don't have that' keeps trust. A near miss presented as a match produces a return and a complaint.
- No claims the business cannot back
- Meta calls improvised product claims the highest risk for a recommending agent. It should point to the ingredient list and offer a person instead.
Placing the order, and packages sold as one
- Confirm the exact item and the total first. Meta suggests testing with vague replies such as "yeah go on then" and checking that the agent repeats the size, colour and total rather than assuming.
- One unit unless told otherwise. Left open, the agent may read "a couple" as two when the customer meant a couple of options.
- Decide where payment happens before launch. Meta's selling guide creates the order and leaves payment to the business's existing checkout or an invoice. Taking payment inside the chat is a separate piece of work, to be designed before going live, not added afterwards.
- After-sale problems go to the team. Returns already in progress, payment disputes and damaged deliveries are handed to the support team.
Some sales are several parts that only make sense together: a flight, a hotel and a car for one set of dates, an appliance with delivery and fitting, an event pass with workshops and a room. Meta's guide for these adds four rules.
- The total comes from the business, as a set
- A package can carry a discount, supplement or tax rule that only applies when the parts are bought together. If the agent adds up the parts itself, the total the customer agrees to is not the total they are charged.
- Name every part, twice
- When quoting and again when confirming. Meta says the most common complaint is a part the customer thought was included. Travel bookings also need a full name for everyone in the party before booking.
- Decide what happens if one part sells out
- Either nothing is booked, or the parts still available are booked and the agent says exactly which were and the new total. Never a partial booking that succeeds without saying so: the customer finds out at the counter.
- One booking, however many tries
- If a confirmation is sent twice after a delay, the business's system must return the first booking, not make a second. Meta calls this the test teams skip, and the one that charges a customer twice.
Orders with several items, and questions about where an order is, are in the order and basket guide.
Questions
Does Meta's agent take stock levels from our catalog?
No. Meta's guides use the catalog to describe products and the business's own stock system, checked at the moment of asking, for stock and price.
What does the agent say when an item is out of stock?
If the stock system returns what is available alongside the 'no', the agent offers those straight away. If nothing suitable is available, Meta's guide has it say so rather than offering a near miss.
Can the agent recommend products from a description?
Yes. Meta's guide has it ask one or two questions at most, check that each option can be sold right now, and show the options as cards with one reason each.
Can the agent tell customers what a product does for them?
Only what the business can back. Meta says to keep claims it cannot verify out of the agent, point to the ingredient list, and offer a person.
Can the agent sell a package, such as a flight, hotel and car together?
Meta has a guide for it. The business's system prices the parts as a set, the agent names every part when quoting and confirming, and nothing is booked until the customer agrees to that single total.
Can customers pay in the chat?
Meta's selling guide leaves payment to the business's existing checkout or an invoice. Payment inside the conversation is a separate integration to design before launch.
Sources
- Meta's developer documentation: Meta Business Agent, Single item purchase agent, read 6 October 2026.
- Meta's developer documentation: Meta Business Agent, Catalog integration and real-time inventory checks, read 6 October 2026.
- Meta's developer documentation: Meta Business Agent, Smart product recommendations, read 6 October 2026.
- Meta's developer documentation: Meta Business Agent, Multi-component single transaction agent, read 6 October 2026.
More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.
Want sales chats your team can step into?
We set up a business's WhatsApp number on a system its team runs, so when an AI agent hands a customer over, a person can pick the conversation up in one place the business owns. A short call is the easiest way to see how that would work for you.
Book a demo