How Do You Create A Product Catalog On A Business Messaging App

The short version: On WhatsApp Business (the platform most small businesses mean when they say "messaging app catalog"), you build your catalog inside Settings, add up to 500 items with photos, prices and descriptions, then share individual products or the whole catalog link straight into chats. It takes about 30 to 60 minutes for a first go at 20 to 30 products, and the part everyone skips, writing proper descriptions with prices included, is the part that decides whether it sells anything.

What a "catalog" on a messaging app is

People picture something like an online shop when they hear "catalog." It isn't. On WhatsApp Business it's closer to a scrollable lookbook that lives inside your chat app. Customers open your profile, tap Catalog, scroll through your products or services with photos and prices, then tap one to send you a message about it. There's no cart, no checkout, no automatic payment (unless you're on WhatsApp Pay in a market where that's live, which rules out most of the UK). The whole thing is designed to start a conversation that ends in you taking payment manually, by bank transfer, card link, or in person.

That sounds basic next to Shopify. It is basic. But for service businesses, boutique sellers, and anyone whose customers already message them to ask "how much is the blue one," a catalog cuts out about half of the back and forth. I've watched a candle seller in Leeds go from typing out the same six prices forty times a week to just sending a catalog link and letting people browse.

Before you build one: get the right setup

You need the WhatsApp Business app or WhatsApp Business Platform, not the standard consumer WhatsApp. If you haven't sorted that yet, I've written a full walkthrough on how to download and set up WhatsApp Business, and a separate guide on what a WhatsApp Business account gives you and how to set one up if you're still deciding whether it's worth the switch. Short answer, if you sell anything and use WhatsApp to talk to customers, it's worth it, and it's free at the app level.

You'll also need to know whether you're using the free WhatsApp Business app (fine for one person managing catalogues on one phone) or WhatsApp Business through Meta's platform, which is what you need if you want multiple team members, a shared inbox, or automation later. I've covered how to set up WhatsApp Business through Meta step by step if you're planning to grow past a one-person operation. The catalog feature exists on both, but who can edit it and how it connects to Facebook and Instagram Shops depends on which one you're on.

Step-by-step: building the catalog

1. Open WhatsApp Business and go to Settings. Tap the three dots (Android) or Settings (iPhone), then tap "Business tools."
2. Tap "Catalog." If this is your first time, you'll see an empty screen and an "Add new item" button.
3. Add your first product. Tap it, choose a photo from your gallery or take one on the spot (up to 10 images per item, first one becomes the cover), give it a name, price, description, and an optional website link or product code.
4. Fill in the price field. Don't leave this blank and put "message for price" in the description. I'll come back to why this is the single biggest mistake I see.
5. Save and repeat. You can add up to 500 items in one catalog. Most small businesses I work with sit comfortably at 15 to 80.
6. Organise into collections (optional but useful). Under Catalog, tap the plus next to Collections to group items, for example "Autumn range," "Under £30," "Bestsellers." Customers browsing on their phone will thank you for this once you're past 25 items.
7. Share it. On your chat list, tap the attachment icon, then Catalog, and pick which item or items to send. You can also share the whole catalog link on Instagram bio, email signature, or a WhatsApp click-to-chat link.

File limits to know: images should be under 5MB each (WhatsApp will compress bigger files anyway, sometimes badly, so start with a smaller file yourself), and the description field caps at 4096 characters, though nobody reads past the first two lines on a phone screen, so write for that.

A real example from a client catalog rebuild

I worked with a jewellery maker who'd had a WhatsApp catalog live for eight months and had made exactly two sales through it. Her products were beautiful, the photos were fine, but every single description said something like "Handmade silver ring, message for pricing and sizing." Nobody messaged. We rebuilt the whole thing in an afternoon: 34 products, every one with an actual price, actual size range in the description, and a one-line story ("hand-forged in Cornwall, ships in 3 days"). Within three weeks she had eleven catalog-driven enquiries and six sales. Nothing about the product changed. The catalog just stopped hiding the one piece of information every browser needs before they'll bother typing a message.

The bit most guides leave out: your catalog is public, and that has a cost

Here's the uncomfortable part nobody mentions when they're telling you catalogs are a free win. Once your catalog is live and linked from your business profile, anyone who finds your number, including competitors, wholesalers you'd rather not undercut yourself in front of, and customers comparing three suppliers in the same chat thread, can see your full price list. I've had clients get quietly annoyed to discover a rival had screenshotted their entire catalog and matched prices within a day. If you run a business where pricing is custom, quote-based, or margin-sensitive, a public catalog with prices attached might cost you more in undercutting than it saves you in admin time. The workaround some sellers use is publishing a "from" price or a curated selection of entry-level items publicly, and keeping full custom pricing for direct conversation. It's a trade-off, not a free upgrade, and most articles about catalogs skip straight past it.

Getting your catalog seen, not just built

Building the catalog is the easy 20%. The part that drives sales is where you put it:

• Pin your catalog link at the top of your Instagram bio and Facebook page if you're using WhatsApp Business through Meta, since the two connect naturally.
• Add it to your email signature and website footer as a "browse our range on WhatsApp" link.
• Send individual product cards, not just the whole catalog, mid-conversation. When someone asks "do you have this in green," send the specific item card, not a link and a "scroll down."
• Use it in your greeting message. WhatsApp Business lets you set an automated greeting for new chats. Mention the catalog there so first-time messagers know it exists before they ask you to type out prices manually.

If you're wondering whether it's worth checking that your whole WhatsApp Business number set-up is even correct before you invest time in a catalog, it's worth reading whether WhatsApp Business is a separate app from regular WhatsApp, because catalogs, greeting messages and quick replies only exist on the business side, and I still meet people running their shop from the consumer app by mistake.

Keeping it updated (the part people abandon after month one)

The failure mode I see most isn't a badly built catalog, it's an abandoned one. Someone spends an evening adding 40 products, feels great about it, and never touches it again. Six months later half the items are sold out, prices are wrong, and a customer messages asking about something discontinued in March. Set a recurring 15-minute slot, I'd suggest the first Monday of the month, to go through and remove sold-out items, update seasonal pricing, and add anything new. A stale catalog does more damage than no catalog, because it actively wastes a customer's time and makes you look disorganised right at the point they were about to buy.

What if you have more than 500 products or need it linked across platforms

If you're bumping against the 500-item cap, or you want the same catalog to show up on your Facebook Shop and Instagram Shop as well as WhatsApp, you need to build it in Meta Commerce Manager instead of directly in the app, then connect your WhatsApp Business account to it. This is also the route to take if more than one person needs to manage the catalog, since editing rights sit at the Meta Business Suite level rather than on a single phone. It's more setup work upfront, roughly an hour the first time versus twenty minutes doing it phone-side, but it saves you rebuilding the same catalog three times across three apps.

For businesses running WhatsApp on more than one device, say a shop assistant answering enquiries on a second phone while the owner manages the catalog from the main one, catalog visibility carries across automatically once you're set up through the Meta platform. I've covered the device side of this separately in how to link a WhatsApp Business account to a second phone if that's the setup you're trying to build.

What a catalog will not do for you

It won't chase people up. It won't answer "is this in stock" while you're asleep. It won't stop someone messaging four other sellers at the same time as you and picking whoever replies first. A catalog is a display case, not a shop assistant, and treating it as the finished job rather than the starting point is why so many small business catalogs sit half-used. If you want the fuller picture of what the platform can do beyond product listings, quick replies, labels, automated away messages, it's worth reading what WhatsApp Business really offers small business owners, because the catalog is one feature in a toolkit, not the whole toolkit.

Related: the shopify page.

Frequently asked questions

Is a WhatsApp Business catalog free to set up?

Yes. Building and hosting a catalog inside WhatsApp Business is free with no item fee and no monthly cost, whether you're using the standalone app or WhatsApp Business through Meta. The only costs come in if you later use paid Meta advertising to promote catalog items.

How many products can you add to a WhatsApp Business catalog?

Up to 500 items per catalog. Most small sellers I work with run 15 to 80 items comfortably, and use collections to keep a larger catalog easy to browse on a phone screen rather than one long scroll.

Can customers buy directly through a WhatsApp catalog?

Not directly in most markets. Tapping a product opens a chat where the customer asks about it or requests it, and you then take payment separately by bank transfer, a payment link, or card in person. WhatsApp Pay allows in-chat payment in a small number of countries, but it isn't live for UK businesses.

Do I need a website to have a WhatsApp product catalog?

No. The catalog lives entirely inside WhatsApp Business and needs no website at all, though you can add a website link to individual product entries if you have one, for customers who want more detail before messaging you.