Commerce
Commerce lets customers see your products and pay you without leaving WhatsApp. It has two parts: a catalog of your products, shown inside a chatbot flow, and WhatsApp payments, which collect money by UPI, cards and net banking through your payment gateway.
The two work on their own. You can show products without taking payment in WhatsApp, and you can take payment without a catalog.
The parts
| Part | What it does | Where you set it up |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog | Shows your products in a chat, one at a time, several together or grouped into categories | Flows |
| WhatsApp payments | Sends a payment request the customer pays inside WhatsApp | WhatsApp Pay |
| Order details template | The message that carries the order summary and the payment option | WhatsApp Pay |
Connect your Facebook catalog and show products in a chatbot flow. See Catalog.
Connect Razorpay or PayU and ask for payment in a broadcast, in Live Chat or in a flow. See WhatsApp payments.
The order summary, taxes, shipping and discount the customer pays for. See Order details.
How a payment reaches the customer
flowchart LR
G["Connect your<br/>payment gateway"] --> T["Create an order<br/>details template"]
T --> B["Broadcast"]
T --> L["Live Chat"]
T --> F["Chatbot flow"]
B --> P["Customer pays<br/>in WhatsApp"]
L --> P
F --> P
P --> D["Status in Live Chat and<br/>WA Pay dashboard → Payments"]
Connecting the gateway and creating the template are done once. After that, every payment request uses the template.
Where payments are used
| Where | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Broadcasts | Asking a group of customers to pay, such as for a pre-order |
| Live Chat | An order agreed in the chat, with the products and prices your agent enters |
| Chatbot flows | Taking payment for a product at the end of a flow, at any hour |
| COD to prepaid | Offering cash on delivery customers the chance to pay online |
When to use it
Use the catalog when customers ask "what do you have?". If your chats start with customers asking to see products, a catalog flow answers them in the chat, with pictures, instead of sending them to your website to look.
Use payments when the order is agreed in the chat. A customer who has settled the product, size and price with your agent should not have to go and find it on your website to pay. A payment request in the same chat closes the sale where it started.
Start with COD to prepaid if you run a COD-heavy store. It uses payments on customers who have already ordered, so every payment it collects is a parcel less likely to come back. See COD to prepaid.
Updated about 1 month ago