How to build a product catalog to sell on WhatsApp
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A catalog for selling on WhatsApp is a page with your products, prices and photos that you share with a link. The customer picks what they want, taps send, and the order lands in your WhatsApp already written out. It's set up in a few minutes and needs neither an online store nor a payment gateway.
It's the format most small businesses in Latin America and Spain use when selling on social media: the conversation is already happening on WhatsApp, so the order ends up where the customer already is instead of forcing them to register on a store.
The four steps
1. Create the catalog and choose your link
The first thing is the address: something like yourcatalog.app/s/your-store. Choose it knowing it's meant to last, because changing it breaks every link you've already shared. Use your business name, without odd hyphens or numbers.
2. Upload the first product now, not tomorrow
A catalog with no products doesn't sell anything, obvious as that sounds. And most people who give up don't do it over price or features: they get stuck waiting to have every photo ready. With a single product you already have something to share.
With one photo, one name and one price you already have something to show. Don't wait to have the whole catalog done or the photos perfect: waiting for everything to be perfect is the most common reason a catalog never comes to exist.
3. Set up how you get paid
Add your country's payment methods with the detail where you receive the money: a Yape number in Peru, a Pago Móvil number in Venezuela, Nequi in Colombia, Bizum in Spain. The buyer sees them when the order is placed, transfers from their app and pastes the transaction code. You confirm once you see it land in your account. We cover it in detail in how to get paid without a payment gateway.
4. Put the link where people can see it
Your Instagram and TikTok bio, your Facebook description, your WhatsApp status and your email signature. If you have a physical store, a QR code printed at the counter works surprisingly well: the customer takes the catalog home on their phone as they leave.
What to have ready before you start
- Product photos. Taken with your phone are fine. A clean background and daylight is the whole secret.
- Prices decided. A catalog with no prices generates more questions than sales.
- Your WhatsApp number with the country code. That's where orders will arrive.
- The details where you get paid. Your wallet's phone number or bank account.
Mistakes that keep repeating
- Waiting to have everything ready. It's the number one reason a catalog never comes to exist. Publish with three products.
- Hiding the prices. "Price by DM" makes most people move on without asking.
- Showing the payment method without the actual detail. Writing "we accept Yape" without the number forces the customer to ask for it, and that's where the sale falls through.
- Changing the link. Every change breaks whatever you've already shared, and there's no way to notify whoever saved it.
Set yours up now
Creating the catalog and uploading the first product takes a few minutes. It's free and orders arrive on your WhatsApp.