Taking Orders on WhatsApp: The Catalogue Setup Guide

If your customers already message you on WhatsApp — and for most small businesses in Türkiye, sales effectively happen there — there's a cheaper step before a full e-commerce site: the WhatsApp Business catalogue. Products live inside the chat with photos, prices and descriptions; the customer browses, adds to cart, and completes the order by message.

Who is it right for?

Businesses with a bounded product range (up to a few hundred items), customers who already ask by message, and the ability to run payment and shipping themselves: artisan food producers, textile and accessory sellers, spare-parts dealers, wholesalers. It's the WRONG tool in two cases: thousands of products (catalogue management becomes torture), or if you need automated payment, shipping and stock — that's a real e-commerce site. And if you run a restaurant or café where the goal is showing a menu at the table rather than collecting orders, the right tool is a QR menu system — price changes go live instantly from a panel, and printing costs disappear.

How it works

A catalogue attaches to your WhatsApp Business account; each product carries a photo, name, price and description. The customer enters from your profile or a product card you send, adds items to a cart, and sends the cart to you as a message. Payment (bank transfer, cash on delivery, a payment link) and shipping are settled in the chat — the catalogue is the storefront; you are the till and the warehouse.

The traps nobody mentions

From our own setups: attaching a catalogue isn't enough — products pass WhatsApp's own review, rejected items are invisible to customers and the reason is rarely explained (check the prohibited-category list first). Commerce settings default to OFF; catalogue visibility and cart must be explicitly enabled. Product descriptions restrict phone numbers and links. Most importantly: if your account's quality rating drops, both catalogue and messaging get restricted — avoid anything that smells like bulk spam.

Catalogue or e-commerce site?

A simple measure: a few orders a day that already end in chat — the catalogue is enough; when volume hits "I can't keep up on the phone", it's time for the site. They're not rivals: starting with a catalogue and graduating to a site carries less risk than starting cold with a site.

Our number — in the open

Our WhatsApp catalogue setup is a one-time 5,900 TL with no monthly fee. Scope: configuring your WhatsApp Business commerce settings correctly, building the catalogue, loading your products (photos and details from you), shepherding the review process, and a short usage training. Afterwards, adding and removing products is fully in your hands — no dependency on us. Message us and we'll tell you honestly whether you need a catalogue or a site.