Overview
With the catalog ready and synced, you can send products to the customer inside the conversation and receive their order back as a structured card. Instead of describing prices in text, you send the right item; when the customer builds a cart on WhatsApp, the order arrives organized, with items, quantities and a total β plus shortcuts to generate the charge.
There are three ways to show products: single product, product list and open the catalog. And one way to receive: the order that becomes a card in the conversation.
Prerequisites
- A native catalog with products and, for native WhatsApp features, active sync with the WhatsApp Business Catalog.
- A WhatsApp (Cloud API) Inbox β the native product, list and order formats work on the Cloud API.
- An active storefront on the number, in the inbox's Catalog & Storefront tab. Meta creates every number with the storefront turned off: without activating it, sending a product fails with error #131008. See Catalog & Storefront in the WhatsApp inbox.
- For an interactive single-product send over WhatsApp Web, an active Web inbox is enough; the native cart and order remain exclusive to the Cloud API.
- To charge the order: the Payments module configured.
Step by step
- Open the conversation with the customer.
- In the composer, choose send product and select an item (single product) or build a product list. When there is more than one variation, choose the right one; when that variation has prices in more than one currency, choose the currency too. You can also open the catalog for the customer to browse.
- On the Cloud API, the customer can add items to the cart. On WhatsApp Web, they use I'm interested or View product on the interactive card.
- When the customer completes the cart, the order arrives in the conversation as an order card with items, quantities and the total.
- On the order card, use Create charge or Create subscription to bill exactly what was ordered β the amount is pre-filled with the order total.
- Track the payment in the Payments module; once confirmed, the customer receives the confirmation.
Settings & options
- Single product: sends a specific item from the catalog.
- Variation and currency: the card uses the chosen variation and its registered price for the chosen currency; the selection never silently returns to the first variation.
- Product list: sends several items grouped into one message while preserving each product's chosen variation and currency.
- Open catalog: invites the customer to browse the catalog on WhatsApp.
- Order card: shows items, quantities, total and the customer's notes.
- Order shortcuts: Create charge (one-off payment) and Create subscription (recurring), already pre-filled with the order amount.
- Referred product: when the customer replies quoting a product, an indicator of the quoted item appears next to the message.
Use cases
- A customer asks about a specific item β you send the single product with photo and price.
- Consultative support β you send a list with the best options for the customer to choose from.
- The customer builds the cart themselves β the order arrives ready and you bill in seconds.
- A recurring sale (subscription/plan) β the order becomes a subscription with the agreed amount.
Tips, limits & best practices
- Charge what was ordered: the card uses the order total agreed with the customer; the amount is not recalculated from the current catalog prices. Billing the order respects exactly what the customer built.
- Major-unit amounts: the total is the sum of
price Γ quantity(4.97 = R$4.97), without dividing by 100. - Cloud API: the native format is used only when the chosen variation is published with its own
retailer_idand uses the published currency. Otherwise, the platform sends the enriched card with the exact variation and price instead of substituting an item. - WhatsApp Web: a single product is sent as an interactive card with an I'm interested button and, when the record has a public link, View product. This send requires no additional license.
- Review the order before charging: items, quantities and total.
Troubleshooting
- The send failed with error #131008: the storefront is not usable on the number β either the catalog is not linked to the WhatsApp Business Account or the storefront is turned off. Open the inbox's Catalog & Storefront tab, select the catalog and click Turn on storefront for this number. Details in Catalog & Storefront in the WhatsApp inbox.
- The customer didn't receive the native product/list: confirm the inbox is WhatsApp Cloud API and
that the catalog is synced. Also check whether the selected variation has its own
retailer_id; without it, receiving the enriched card is the expected fallback. - The order didn't become a card: check that the order came from the WhatsApp cart; orders from outside WhatsApp follow the e-commerce lifecycle.
- Wrong amount when charging: the card pre-fills the order total; if you edit it manually, remember major units (don't divide by 100).