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How to create a catalog in WhatsApp Business

Published on October 12, 2026

The WhatsApp Business app catalog is a storefront inside your own number.

Customers open your profile, see what you sell and message you without leaving WhatsApp.

It is a built-in app feature, with items, prices, photos and sharing.

What the catalog solves

For a small shop, a salon that sells products, a pet store or anyone selling services as fixed packages, the catalog cuts out the back-and-forth of “send me a photo” and “how much is it”.

Customers browse on their own, pick an item and ask only what is left: availability, delivery, timing.

According to the official WhatsApp for Business page on the catalog, you can upload up to 500 items, and each one can have up to 10 photos and/or videos.

Your profile then shows the storefront, and you can share an item, a collection or the whole catalog in a chat and in your status.

The app’s cart lets customers gather items and send the order as a summary.

That speeds up the buying conversation, but payment, shipping and stock updates are still on you.

How to create the catalog in the app

The official steps are in the WhatsApp Help Center: how to create and manage a catalog:

  1. On the Tools tab, tap Catalog.
  2. Tap Add item.
  3. Add photos and videos (from your gallery or camera).
  4. Enter the product or service name.
  5. Choose the country of origin (required when creating or editing).
  6. Fill in whatever helps: price, sale price, description, website link and code.
  7. Save.

The same Help Center page lists the media limits: up to 10 images or videos per item, and videos up to 50 MB.

Video thumbnails are created automatically on upload, and for now you can’t edit them.

What happens after you save

The item doesn’t show up for customers right away.

The Help Center explains that images, videos and the product itself are reviewed against the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy.

While it is under review, or if it is rejected, customers can’t see it.

The item only appears in the visible catalog once approved.

If Meta rejects an item and you think it was a mistake, the Help Center explains how to request another review.

Read the policy before uploading photos with unreadable text, third-party complaints or products that aren’t allowed.

Collections, hiding and sharing

You can group items into collections (bestsellers, sale, seasonal) so customers find them faster.

You can hide sold-out items without deleting them, and show them again when they’re back.

And you can delete them for good.

All of this is on the same create and manage catalog page and in the linked articles on collections and sharing.

Sharing an item or the catalog link in a chat saves you from sending ten separate photos.

The customer opens it, picks and replies with the product name or code.

Where the built-in catalog stops

The feature handles the storefront and the start of a sale.

It doesn’t handle the rest of customer service:

  • It doesn’t calculate shipping by ZIP code, update stock in real time or issue invoices.
  • It doesn’t split the queue among agents: everyone sees the same chat on the same number.
  • It doesn’t reply on its own when a customer asks “do you have it in blue?” at 11 p.m. Someone has to read and type, or the customer waits.
  • It doesn’t book appointments, send no-show reminders or keep history in a dashboard with an owner for each chat.

If you don’t sell much and can reply right away, the app catalog is often enough.

As volume grows, the chat becomes the bottleneck again: photos and prices are already in the catalog, but the next question is still waiting for a person.

When a custom assistant comes in

The assistant we build doesn’t replace the built-in catalog.

It uses what you already have on file (a folder, a spreadsheet or your own business flow) and brings that into the chat: sends the right photo, confirms the price, says when something is sold out and hands over to a person when the case goes off script.

They do different jobs.

The app catalog is the storefront on your profile.

The assistant sustains the conversation when the storefront alone doesn’t close the sale.

Many shops use both: customers browse the catalog and, if they ask something, the assistant already has the product details, so your team doesn’t have to dig up the photo again.

If you are still at “I need a storefront on WhatsApp”, start with the app catalog and the official limits above.

If you are already at “the storefront exists and nobody can keep up with the queue”, the topic shifts from catalog to customer service.

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