WhatsApp Business for Orders: Catalogue, Quick Replies, Limits

The WhatsApp Business app gives small sellers a business profile, a product catalogue and simple automatic messages. It works well for a modest number of orders, but it has clear limits on team use, broadcasts and automation.

What the app gives you

WhatsApp describes the Business app as offering a business profile with a description, contact details, store address and website link. It also has three smart messaging tools: quick replies for frequently asked questions, a greeting message for first contact and an away message for when you are unavailable. Simple statistics, such as message read rates, show how your messages perform.

Set up your profile

Fill in every field. Use the same business name, address and phone number that you use on your Business Profile and website, so customers see one identity.

Build a catalogue

WhatsApp describes catalogues as a mobile storefront where customers can browse your goods inside WhatsApp, instead of you sending individual photos. Each item can carry a price, a description, a product code and images. WhatsApp hosts the catalogue, so it does not use storage on your customers' phones.

Practical tips:

Give every item a clear name and a product code that matches your stock sheet.

Write the unit and pack size in the name or description, for example "500 g pack".

Use clean photos taken in daylight.

Keep prices current. Remove items when they are out of stock.

WhatsApp limits the number of items, photos per item, image size and length of names and descriptions, and these limits can change. I am not quoting numbers for that reason. Check the WhatsApp Help Center for the current figures.

If an item is rejected, a red exclamation icon appears. You can open the item, choose "Request another review" and explain. WhatsApp points sellers to its Commerce Policy for the reasons.

Quick replies for orders

Save short messages you send every day: how to place an order, payment details, delivery areas and timelines, return policy and business hours. Add the greeting and away messages so a customer who writes at night knows when to expect an answer.

A useful order-confirmation reply asks for four things: item and quantity, delivery address with pin code, preferred payment method and contact number.

The limits to know

One third-party guide to the app lists these limits. Check them in your app, since features change.

You can link up to four extra devices to the same number, so five screens in all.

A broadcast list holds a maximum of 256 recipients, and messages reach only contacts who have saved your number.

There are no approved message templates, and you cannot start a conversation with someone who has not contacted you first.

There is no team inbox. You cannot assign a chat to a colleague.

The greeting and away message are the only automatic messages.

There is no link to your accounting software, webshop or other systems.

There are no customer segments or campaign statistics.

When these limits start to hurt

Signs are chats nobody owns, orders typed into Excel by hand, and stock sold twice. That is the point to move orders into a shared system. The next article in this series covers that move step by step.