Blog · Growth
Selling from a WhatsApp catalogue and cart, for small shops
Your customers already order on WhatsApp: “1 kg chocolate cake, Saturday ko”, “yeh kurti M size mein hai?”. The trouble is everything happens in loose messages and screenshots. A catalogue and cart inside the chat turns that into clean orders you can actually keep track of.
Who this is for
Bakeries and home bakers, boutiques and clothing stores, sweet shops, gift shops, grocery and kirana stores, cosmetics sellers, plant nurseries. Any shop where customers ask “what do you have and how much?” on WhatsApp and then order in the same chat.
The problem with ordering by screenshots
A typical order today looks like this: the customer asks for photos, you send twenty, they reply with a screenshot of one, ask the price, ask about size, say “ok send 2”, and then ask how to pay. Multiply that by forty customers during Diwali and orders get missed, prices get quoted wrong, and nobody knows which orders are paid.
How an in-chat shop works
GetSetSales has an in-chat shop on the official WhatsApp Business API. You set up catalogs and products, and customers:
- Browse your products inside the WhatsApp chat.
- Add to cart the items and quantities they want.
- Check out inside WhatsApp, and pay by a Razorpay payment link or your own UPI QR code.
You don’t need to set up Meta Commerce Manager for this. The order, with its items and total, shows up in your orders list instead of ten scattered messages.
Setting up your catalogue
Group products into catalogs
Keep catalogs small and obvious, the way a customer thinks:
- Bakery: Cakes, Cupcakes and brownies, Cookies, Festive boxes.
- Boutique: Kurtis, Sarees, Co-ord sets, New arrivals.
- Store: Daily needs, Snacks, Pooja items, Offers.
Write product details that answer the usual questions
Every question a customer has to ask is a delay. Put the answer in the product itself:
- A clear photo on a plain background.
- The price, and what it is for (“per 500 g”, “per piece”, “set of 3”).
- The size, weight or flavour options.
- Anything that changes the order, like “order 24 hours ahead” or “eggless available”.
Taking payment
You have two options at checkout:
| Option | Good for |
|---|---|
| Razorpay payment link | Shops that want card as well as UPI, and a receipt sent automatically when the payment comes in. |
| Your own UPI QR | Small shops and home businesses that already take UPI and don’t want a payment gateway yet. |
With Razorpay, an automation can send a receipt on WhatsApp as soon as the payment comes in and add the order as a row in Google Sheets. The customer moves to Won in your sales pipeline automatically. With your own UPI QR, someone checks the payment in your bank app and confirms the order in the chat.
Order updates
After the order, customers want to know when it is coming. If they wrote to you in the last 24 hours, just reply. After that, use Utility templates, since they are about an order the customer placed:
Order confirmed
“Hi {{1}}, thank you for your order {{2}} from {{3}}. Total: ₹{{4}}. We’ll message you when it is ready.”
Ready for pickup
“Hello {{1}}, your order {{2}} is ready for pickup at {{3}}. We are open until {{4}} today.”
Out for delivery
“Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} is out for delivery and should reach you by {{3}}. Reply here if you need anything.”
Keep offers out of order updates. “Your cake is ready, and 10% off cookies this week” makes it a marketing message, which costs more and may be rejected as utility.
Managing orders as a team
When orders pick up, one phone isn’t enough. The shared team inbox lets several people work on the same shop number: one person handles new orders, another handles delivery questions. Chats are assigned to a person, private notes record things like “write Happy Birthday Riya on the cake”, and quick replies keep answers to common questions the same every time. You can keep using the WhatsApp Business app on your phone on the same number.
Bringing customers back
Every customer who orders is saved as a contact. Tag them by what they bought (“cake-buyer”, “festive-box-2026”), and send a campaign to that tag when you have something new, like a Diwali box or new arrivals. Image headers and carousel templates (2 to 10 cards) show products well. These are Marketing templates; send them only to customers who agreed to hear from you, and anyone who replies STOP is opted out automatically. Read how to send bulk WhatsApp without getting banned before your first big send.
What it costs
There is no monthly subscription. With us, each conversation is ₹0.15, whoever starts it, and replies inside it are free. 400 orders in a month is ₹60 with us. Meta charges its own template rates directly (in India, about ₹0.115 utility and ₹0.86 marketing). Your first 100 are free. See the WhatsApp CRM page or pricing.
Related: festival greetings on WhatsApp Business and Click-to-WhatsApp ads. See the pages for bakeries and boutiques.
Common questions
Do I need Meta Commerce Manager to sell on WhatsApp?
Not with the GetSetSales in-chat shop. You set up catalogs and products in GetSetSales, and customers browse, add to cart and check out inside WhatsApp.
How do customers pay for a WhatsApp order?
By a Razorpay payment link (UPI or card) or by scanning your own UPI QR code. With Razorpay, an automation can send the receipt automatically.
Can I send order updates on WhatsApp?
Yes. Reply in the chat within 24 hours, or use a Utility template for confirmed, ready and out-for-delivery updates after that.