How to Create a WhatsApp Shop and Sell on WhatsApp

Most small businesses in India already sell on WhatsApp. Customers send a message, the shop replies with photos and prices, asks for the address, shares a UPI number and waits for a payment screenshot. It works, but it does not scale: orders get missed, payments are hard to match and nobody knows what sold today. A WhatsApp shop fixes this by turning those chats into a proper online store inside WhatsApp.

What is a WhatsApp shop?

A WhatsApp shop is an online store that runs inside WhatsApp. You share one shop link; the customer opens it in WhatsApp, browses your catalogue, adds products to a cart, fills in delivery details and pays, all in the same chat. On your side, every order appears in a dashboard with the customer, items, address and payment status.

You can see a full example on our WhatsApp Shop page, including the customer screens and the order dashboard.

WhatsApp Business app catalogue vs a WhatsApp shop

The free WhatsApp Business app has a basic catalogue. It is a good start, but every order still needs manual work: confirming the items, asking for the address, calculating the total, checking payment and sending updates. It also runs on a single phone or a few linked devices.

A WhatsApp shop built on the WhatsApp Business API adds a cart, delivery forms, in-chat payments, automatic order updates, a shared team inbox and sales reports. That is the difference between taking ten orders a day and taking a hundred without missing any.

How to create a WhatsApp shop, step by step

1. Get the WhatsApp Business API on your business number. A Meta Business Partner such as Vyapar Automation handles the setup and business verification.
2. Prepare your catalogue: product names, clear photos, prices, variants such as size, colour or weight, and categories.
3. Set delivery rules: areas or pincodes you serve, delivery charges, free-delivery limits and expected delivery time.
4. Choose payment options: UPI, cards and net banking through a payment gateway, and decide whether to allow cash on delivery.
5. Switch on automatic messages: order confirmation, payment received, packed, shipped and delivered.
6. Share your shop link and QR code on Instagram, Facebook, Google Business Profile, ads, invoices and at your counter.
7. Manage orders daily from the dashboard and reply to customer questions from the same inbox.

Collecting delivery details without the back-and-forth

Asking for an address in free text leads to missing landmarks and wrong pincodes. WhatsApp forms solve this: after the customer confirms the cart, a short form inside WhatsApp asks for name, phone, address, landmark and pincode. The details are saved against the order and reused for the next purchase.

Taking payments on WhatsApp

Once the order and address are confirmed, the customer gets a secure payment step in the chat and can pay by UPI, card or net banking. Payment status updates the order automatically, so there are no screenshots to check. If you offer cash on delivery, the order is marked COD and moves straight to packing.

Managing orders in one dashboard

Every order lands in your dashboard as New, Paid, Packed, Shipped or Delivered. Changing the status sends the customer a WhatsApp update automatically. You can also see daily orders, revenue, average order value and top products, and export everything to Excel or Google Sheets.

Growing sales after launch

• Send abandoned cart reminders to customers who did not complete payment.
• Broadcast new arrivals and festive offers to opted-in customers with a Shop Now button.
• Use a sequence bot to follow up after delivery with a review request and a repeat-order offer.
• Run click-to-WhatsApp ads that open your shop directly in WhatsApp.

Vyapar Automation sets up WhatsApp shops for retailers, restaurants, boutiques, jewellers and D2C brands. See how WhatsApp Shop works or book a free demo with your own products.