WhatsApp Business Catalog Ultimate Guide

A WhatsApp catalogue is a powerful tool for e-commerce businesses. It allows you to showcase your products in a virtual storefront, streamlining the purchasing process for your customers. This leads to increased sales and customer satisfaction.

Let’s explore how the WhatsApp catalogue and Wassenger can take your e-commerce business to the next level once you understand the steps to create it.

Table of Content

The WhatsApp catalog features
WhatsApp catalogue benefits for e-commerce
How to create a WhatsApp catalogue
How to view and share a catalog
Get your catalogue information using the API

Examine the following features

Product categorization: you can categorize your products effectively, making it easier for customers to find what they need. The Catalog feature allows businesses to create multiple categories and organize products with specific details, creating a more user-friendly shopping experience. With Wassenger API you can get all the required information in just a couple lines of code
Real-time updates: You will benefit from automatic inventory management and real-time customer updates as you sync your online shop’s catalogue to WhatsApp. It will eliminate the hassle of manual management and provide accurate info.
Rich content: you can add product descriptions that include any technical information, measurements, size, etc., alongside high-quality images. You can also include the product price with your country’s designated currency. It contains all that a customer needs to make a purchasing decision.
Ease of use: you can easily share the catalogue with customers. You can share it in chat when a customer is talking to agents or add it to your chatbot flow as a call to action button. In contrast, you can only share it manually from your WhatsApp business account.

WhatsApp catalogue benefits for e-commerce

The WhatsApp catalogue eliminates the repeated and overwhelming tasks of providing customers with relevant product information and sending images again and again to each customer individually. Moreover, the tool helps achieve the following:

Improved customer engagement: Providing customers with all the necessary product information can increase their likelihood of purchasing. Relevant information and details can enhance a user’s experience, rather than waiting to connect with customer service for product descriptions.
Track customer response rate: for instance, the WhatsApp inbox provides an exportable catalogue report that tracks gained revenue and orders created.
Information hub: catalogues are full of information about your products. Technical information can be hard to remember; thus, a catalogue would come in handy for your employees when helping a customer.
Reduced sales cycle: sales representatives and teams would save time gathering information on hundreds of products. An organized catalogue accounting for all necessary details will be great and easy to hand out to inquiring customers or refer to when necessary. This will significantly reduce the time necessary to close a deal or sell a product.

Sounds just like what you need, right? Let’s dive right in to answer the age-old question of how do I make my catalogue.

How to create a WhatsApp catalogue

Once you create a catalogue, you must wait for the products to be approved per the WhatsApp commerce policy. You will notice a red exclamation mark next to the picture if something gets rejected.

If you are a small business using the WhatsApp Business App to connect with your customers, you can create a catalogue in simple steps.

🤩 🤖 Wassenger is a complete API solution for WhatsApp. Sign up for a 7-day free trial and get started in minutes!

Open the WhatsApp Business app > More options > Settings > Business tools

Click on Catalog

Click Add new items.
Enter a product or service name and any optional details like price, description, website link, and product or service

Click Gallery to upload images from your Photos or Camera to take new images. You can upload up to 10 images.

Click on SAVE.

‍You can share it in chat by clicking the paper click icon and choosing catalogue. Otherwise, your customers can browse the products by clicking the storefront icon.

A WhatsApp Business App catalogue has to be manually managed, which calls for repeated efforts and attention. That’s why WhatsApp API is a great alternative, especially if you have much on your plate.

🤩 🤖 Wassenger is a complete API solution for WhatsApp. Sign up for a 7-day free trial and get started in minutes!

How to view and share a catalog

From the WhatsApp business app‍

Customers can easily check your catalogue from your business profile. They can browse through all items, send you a cart message, and complete the purchase directly from the app.

Go to the WhatsApp Business profile.
Tap Catalog.
Tap on a product or service.
Tap Forward item.
Search for or select groups or individual chats.
Tap Send

Get your catalogue information using the API

Requirements

To have a WhatsApp number already linked to the platform and online.

API endpoint

We will use the following API endpoint to get the Catalogue information:

Catalogue

Prepare the request

Target API URL using the POST method

https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/{deviceId}/catalog

Required HTTPS headers > Obtain your API key here

Content-Type: application/json
Token: $API_TOKEN

🖥️ Looking for a code example? Go to the API live tester and get ready-to-use code examples in 15+ programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, PHP, C#, Java, Ruby, Go, Powershell, cURL and more.

🤩 🤖 Wassenger is a complete API solution for WhatsApp. Sign up for a 7-day free trial and get started in minutes!

Get your catalogue using code

Explore how to use the code in your browser without installing any software.

Also, you can find different languages you can test on Replit.com:

Python

# Examples requires to have installed requests Python package.
# Install it by running: pip install requests
import requests
url = "https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog"
payload = {
"kind": "video", 
"message": "Sample call purpose description for your internal reference, up to 500 characters"
}
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json", 
"Token": "API TOKEN GOES HERE"
}
response = requests.get(url, json=payload, headers=headers, params=querystring)
print(response.json())

PHP (cURL)

<?php
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'GET',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'kind' => 'video',
    'message' =>
      'Sample call purpose description for your internal reference, up to 500 characters',
  ]),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    'Content-Type: application/json',
    'Token: API TOKEN GOES HERE',
  ],
]);
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);
curl_close($curl);
if ($err) {
  echo 'cURL Error #:' . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

🤩 🤖 Wassenger is a complete API solution for WhatsApp. Sign up for a 7-day free trial and get started in minutes!

// Examples requires to have installed pecl_http package, a simple and elegant HTTP client for PHP.
// Install it by running: pecl install pecl_http
// More information: https://pecl.php.net/package/pecl_http/3.2.0
<?php
$client = new http\Client();
$request = new http\Client\Request();
$body = new http\Message\Body();
$body->append(
  json_encode([
    'kind' => 'video',
    'message' =>
      'Sample call purpose description for your internal reference, up to 500 characters',
  ])
);
$request->setRequestUrl(
  'https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog'
);
$request->setRequestMethod('GET');
$request->setBody($body);
$request->setHeaders([
  'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
  'Token' => 'API TOKEN GOES HERE',
]);
$client->enqueue($request)->send();
$response = $client->getResponse();
echo $response->getBody();

Java

// This code requires you to have installed Unirest package.
// Documentation: https://kong.github.io/unirest-java/#requests
// Installation: http://kong.github.io/unirest-java/
HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.get("https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog")
.header("Content-Type", "application/json")
.header("Token", "API TOKEN GOES HERE")
.body("{\"kind\":\"video\", \"message\":\"Sample call purpose description for your internal reference, up to 500 characters\"}")
.asString();

🤩 🤖 Wassenger is a complete communication platform and API solution for WhatsApp. Explore more than 100+ API use cases and automate anything on WhatsApp by signing up for a free trial and getting started in minutes!

Live testing using the API

Explore our API live tester

Query WhatsApp Business catalog for any WhatsApp Business number using code

Explore how to use the code in your browser without installing any software.

Also, you can find different languages you can test on Replit.com:

Python

# Examples requires to have installed requests Python package.
# Install it by running: pip install requests
import requests
url = "https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog"
payload = { "phone": "+12345678909" }
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json", 
"Token": "API TOKEN GOES HERE"
}
response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers, params=querystring)
print(response.json())

PHP (cURL)

<?php
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'phone' => '+12345678909',
  ]),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    'Content-Type: application/json',
    'Token: API TOKEN GOES HERE',
  ],
]);
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);
curl_close($curl);
if ($err) {
  echo 'cURL Error #:' . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

🤩 🤖 Wassenger is a complete API solution for WhatsApp. Sign up for a 7-day free trial and get started in minutes!

// Examples requires to have installed pecl_http package, a simple and elegant HTTP client for PHP.
// Install it by running: pecl install pecl_http
// More information: https://pecl.php.net/package/pecl_http/3.2.0
<?php
$client = new http\Client();
$request = new http\Client\Request();
$body = new http\Message\Body();
$body->append(
  json_encode([
    'phone' => '+12345678909',
  ])
);
$request->setRequestUrl(
  'https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog'
);
$request->setRequestMethod('POST');
$request->setBody($body);
$request->setHeaders([
  'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
  'Token' => 'API TOKEN GOES HERE',
]);
$client->enqueue($request)->send();
$response = $client->getResponse();
echo $response->getBody();

Java

// This code requires you to have installed Unirest package.
// Documentation: https://kong.github.io/unirest-java/#requests
// Installation: http://kong.github.io/unirest-java/
HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://api.wassenger.com/v1/devices/$DEVICE_ID/catalog")
.header("Content-Type", "application/json")
.header("Token", "API TOKEN GOES HERE")
.body("{\"phone\":\"+12345678909\"}")
.asString();

🤩 🤖 Wassenger is a complete communication platform and API solution for WhatsApp. Explore more than 100+ API use cases and automate anything on WhatsApp by signing up for a free trial and getting started in minutes!

Live testing using the API

Explore our API live tester

FAQs

What happens if I query a WhatsApp Business catalogue for a number that does not exist or does not have a catalogue?

If the WhatsApp Business number does not exist or if the catalogue is unavailable, the query will return an error indicating that the catalogue could not be retrieved for that number.

What are the query limits for WhatsApp Business catalogue information based on my subscription plan?

The query limits for WhatsApp Business catalogue information are as follows:

Professional Plan: 2000 queries per month
Business Plan: 5000 queries per month
Enterprise Plan: 10,000 queries per month

Note: This API endpoint is not available for the Gateway Plan.

How to validate if a phone number can receive WhatsApp messages

You can validate if a given phone number is linked to a WhatsApp account and can receive messages.

The API provides an endpoint that can validate whether a given phone number exists in WhatsApp or not.

The only requirement is to have at least one WhatsApp number connected to the platform in your current account.

For more details, please check out the API endpoint documentation here.

Before you check if a phone number exists on WhatsApp, you can also validate and normalize the format of a list of phone numbers by using the numbers validator API endpoint. This endpoint only validates the correct E164 format, but it does not check whether the phone number effectively exists on WhatsApp.

Note: The number of WhatsApp check validations is limited per month based on your subscription plan. Please check out the pricing table for more details about the limits.

Further useful resources

API Documentation

For more details about the endpoint API, please check the documentation where you will find all the details about the accepted request params, possible success or error responses and ready-to-use code examples in multiple programming languages:

http://app.wassenger.com/docs/#tag/Business-catalog/operation/getCatalog