Guide · Selling in the chat · For the shop owner sending product photos one by one

WhatsApp catalogs: showing products and taking orders inside the chat

A WhatsApp catalog is your product list, uploaded once to Meta and attached to your business number. From then on your messages can show a product, a section of products or the whole catalog as a card the customer taps, browses and orders from without leaving the chat. Prices and photos update everywhere when you change them, a sold-out item drops out of carts on its own, and the order arrives as a message your team can act on.

Published 1 October 2026 · Updated 15 October 2026

What a catalog is

Meta's page calls it a structured inventory of products or services uploaded to Meta and connected to your WhatsApp account. Each item carries a name, description, price, images and availability. It holds two kinds of thing.

Products: Physical or digital goods, with a price, a stock code and images.
Services: Appointments, consultations, subscriptions. Anything booked rather than shipped.

The catalog is managed in Meta's Commerce Manager or through its Commerce API. The same catalog can already be the one behind your Facebook or Instagram shop; WhatsApp reads it, it does not need a second copy.

How selling through it works

Meta's page describes four stages.

Upload the inventory. Through Commerce Manager or the API. This is the list every later message draws from.
Set the commerce settings on the number. Two switches matter: whether the catalog is visible on your profile, and whether customers can use a shopping cart.
Share products in the chat. In one of the six ways below.
Receive the response. A question about a product or a submitted order arrives in your system as a message with the product details attached.

Meta's page on sharing products lists six ways to do it.

Catalog message: A header picture taken from a catalog product you choose, your own text and a View catalog button that opens the whole catalog inside WhatsApp. If you name no product for the picture, WhatsApp uses the first product in the catalog. Meta requires the inventory to be uploaded to a catalog connected to your WhatsApp account first.
Catalog link: A link to your whole catalog, built from your business number with its country code, sent inside an ordinary text message. It can show a preview of catalog thumbnails. If the catalog is switched off, the link shows an Invalid catalog link message when tapped.
Single-product message: One product with its image, title and price, your own text and a View button.
Multi-product message: A curated selection of up to 30 products arranged in sections: this week's offers, sizes in stock, the three packages you sell.
Product carousel: One text with up to 10 product cards the customer scrolls sideways through.
Checkout button: A template for India-based businesses, for customers with India numbers only.

Opening the conversation with products

Meta's page says the catalog, single-product, multi-product and carousel messages each also come as a template. Meta's Business Help Center describes the multi-product one, which can start the conversation rather than answer it: up to 30 products from the catalog, which can be filled in from what that customer has bought before, and which they can view, add to a cart and send back for checkout. Meta suggests it for abandoned carts, repeat purchases and tailored offers, in food delivery, groceries, personal care, clothing and electronics. Three conditions come with it: it must be created as a marketing template, it works only on the version of the Platform that Meta hosts, and it needs a catalog. Our reading: the customers it suits are the ones who have already bought, because a selection drawn from their own orders is the easiest one to recognise.

Meta's commerce settings page gives the defaults for the two switches, and one limit:

Shopping cart: on by default: Cart buttons appear in the chat, the catalog and each product's details. Switched off, customers still see the products and their details, with no way to add them to a cart.
Catalog on the profile: hidden by default: Switched on, a storefront icon and catalog buttons appear in the chat, and the business profile shows a preview of the catalog. Meta warns that if the catalog is switched off, links to it and its View catalog button show an invalid catalog link warning.
One catalog per WhatsApp account: Meta allows one catalog per WhatsApp Business account, and it can serve several of the account's numbers. A business that already has a Meta catalog connects that one rather than building another.

The shopping cart, exactly as Meta describes it

One cart per chat, per device: A customer has one cart with your business in a given thread, and it does not follow them from phone to laptop.
It never expires: The cart sits in the thread until the customer sends it. Then it is cleared and they can start another.
Up to 99 of each item, any number of items: Meta's limits. In practice an order larger than that is a conversation, not a cart.
No edits once sent: A sent cart is an order. To change it the customer sends a new cart; your team reconciles the two.
You cannot send a cart: Carts are built by customers. The business sends products; the customer assembles the order.

A limitation Meta states

Messages sent through the platform do not currently show the shopping cart icon in the chat header, unlike product messages sent from the WhatsApp Business app. Customers reach the cart from the product screens instead. Worth knowing before someone compares the two side by side.

What happens when you change a product

Price, title, description or image: Every product message already in a customer's chat updates as soon as their phone learns of the change. You do not resend anything.
Sold out: Mark the item unavailable and it is removed from any cart that holds it, with a notice to the customer that their cart has changed. A product message that has not been added to a cart shows the item as unavailable.

This is the practical reason to keep the catalog as the source of truth rather than a folder of photos: one change in Commerce Manager corrects every chat.

What the customer can do with a product message, and what reaches you

Meta's single-product and multi-product pages give the customer the same three things to do with either message.

View the product: Tapping an item opens a product page with its latest details. The product page shows images only: a video or GIF added to the product is not shown.
Add it to a cart: The latest details are fetched again at that moment, and if anything has changed the customer is told their cart has been updated.
Send the cart: The cart comes to you as an order. Meta says what happens next is yours to decide, such as asking for delivery details or giving payment options.

Meta also states how the messages behave.

Forwarded and reopened: A customer can forward a product message to someone else and reopen it later in the same chat.
Never as a notification: Sent inside a chat without a template, a product message cannot go out as a notification; its template version is the way to start a conversation.
Phone and laptop: The message appears on every device linked to the customer's account, but the cart stays on the one device where it was built.
An outdated WhatsApp: A customer whose app is too old gets a notice that they could not receive the message, and you are told it was not delivered.
No template, no approval: Sent inside an existing chat, these messages need no template or pre-approval, and always show the current details, price and stock from your catalog.
A product that is not in the catalog: If none of the products named match the catalog, nothing is sent. In a multi-product message where only some match, the rest are dropped and Meta asks for the catalog to be updated.

A product carousel takes at least 2 cards and at most 10, all from the same catalog. It carries body text only, with no header, footer or buttons, and each card offers the same actions as a single-product message: view, add to cart and send the cart.

Meta suggests a single product for answering a specific request, making a recommendation or reordering an item. It suggests a multi-product message for shopping inside the conversation, opening one category, a personal offer, or reordering a usual order of fewer than 30 items. Meta adds that a staff member can send these from inside a chat only if someone builds the tool for it.

Our reading

For a team member writing replies by hand, the catalog link is the realistic start: it is an ordinary text message. Product messages and carousels suit a connected system that builds them for your team.

What comes back to you, according to Meta's page on receiving responses:

A question about a product: The customer can type a question in the chat, or tap Message business or Message while viewing a product. Meta says a message sent from one of those buttons reaches you tagged with the product they were looking at.
An order: A sent cart arrives as an order with its contents, and Meta says to fulfil the order from those contents.

Our reading

The order arrives as a list of items your team can act on, not a photo someone has to read back and retype.

Rules, money and what the catalog does not do

Meta reviews the items: Products added to a connected catalog are checked automatically against the WhatsApp Commerce Policies. A violating item is flagged, and customers can report a product they receive. Disapproved items are appealed in Commerce Manager.
What a product message costs: A product message is a message like any other: inside a customer's 24-hour window it costs nothing within Meta's allowance, and outside it a template is needed. The guide to how Meta charges has the detail; nothing about the catalog itself is charged.
Payment is yours to arrange: Meta's catalogs overview says nothing about taking money. The order arrives as a message; you confirm, invoice and deliver as you do today. Meta's documentation lists in-chat payment features for India and Brazil only.

The window rules are in the 24-hour window guide and the charges in the guide to how Meta charges. A product sent to someone who did not ask for it is marketing, and needs the permission the opt-in guide describes.

BitByteCore is a verified Meta Tech Provider (since 9 September 2026). This guide repeats Meta's developer documentation and Business Help Center as we read them, and is not legal advice.

Questions

Can we send a selection of products to a customer who has not messaged us today?

Yes, as a template. Meta's Business Help Center describes multi-product message templates that start a conversation with up to 30 catalog products, for things like an abandoned cart or a repeat order. They must be created in the marketing category, so they are charged as marketing and need the customer's permission to receive marketing, and they work only on the version of the Platform that Meta hosts.

We already send product photos on WhatsApp. What does a catalog add?

The customer can browse and order without you typing anything, the price and photo update everywhere when you change them, a sold-out item leaves carts on its own, and the order arrives as structured data instead of a photo and a message to read back. It also puts the catalog on your profile for people who have not messaged yet.

Can a customer pay inside WhatsApp?

Outside India, not through the catalog as Meta's pages describe it. The cart becomes an order message and payment is arranged by you. Meta's share-products page lists a checkout button template only for India-based businesses selling to customers with India numbers, and Meta's documentation lists in-chat payments only for India and Brazil.

How many products can one message show?

A multi-product message carries up to 30 products in sections. A product carousel carries 2 to 10 cards from the same catalog. A catalog message or catalog link opens the whole catalog. A single-product message shows one.

Can a customer ask about one product without typing its name?

Yes. Meta's page on receiving responses says a customer viewing a product can tap Message business or Message, and the message that reaches you carries the product they were looking at.

Customers tap our catalog link and see an invalid catalog link warning. Why?

Meta's settings page says that is what customers see when the catalog is switched off for the business number. Ask whoever runs your WhatsApp setup to switch catalog visibility on for that number.

Does the catalog need its own list for WhatsApp?

No. It is a Commerce Manager catalog connected to your WhatsApp account, and the same catalog can serve a Facebook or Instagram shop.

Who is BitByteCore?

BitByteCore is a verified Meta Tech Provider (since 9 September 2026). This guide repeats Meta's developer documentation and Business Help Center, and is not legal advice.

Sources

Meta's developer documentation: Catalogs overview, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Catalogs overview, read 7 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Set commerce settings, read 7 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Upload inventory to Meta, read 7 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: about multi-product message templates on WhatsApp, read 8 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Share products with WhatsApp users, read 15 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Catalog messages, read 15 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Catalog link messages, read 15 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Single-product messages, read 15 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Multi-product messages, read 15 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Interactive product carousel messages, read 15 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Receive responses from customers, read 15 October 2026.

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

Want your product list in the chat, and orders landing as orders?

We set up a business's WhatsApp number on a proper system with the catalog connected, the right products sent at the right moment, and every cart arriving as an order your team can confirm. A short call is the easiest way to see whether it fits your business.

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