WhatsApp Business catalogue or a website?

What the WhatsApp catalogue does well

The WhatsApp Business catalogue lets you upload products or services with a photo, price, description and link, and customers see them from your profile or when you share one in the conversation. They can add several items to a cart and send it to you as an order. All without leaving WhatsApp, and at no cost.

• It's free and you can set it up yourself from your phone in an afternoon.
• Your customers already use WhatsApp every day: there's nothing to learn.
• It saves you sending the same photos over and over: you share the product and it already carries its photo and price.
• For repeat customers, ordering from the chat is quick and convenient.

Where it falls short

The problem isn't what the catalogue does but who sees it. It only reaches people who already have your number and have opened a chat with you. The person searching Google this afternoon for what you sell will never see your catalogue, and will end up buying from whoever does show up.

• It doesn't appear on Google. Nobody finds you through your catalogue unless they already knew you.
• It only works properly inside the app. You can't show it on a big screen, and customers can't look through it calmly on a computer before deciding.
• With many products it gets awkward: there's no real search, no filters by size or price, and customers end up asking you anyway.
• It isn't entirely yours. Meta's commerce rules decide what you can list, and items are sometimes rejected without a clear explanation.
• In Spain payment doesn't happen inside WhatsApp: the cart reaches you as a message and you take payment some other way.

When the catalogue is enough

• You sell to a regular clientele who already have your number: a bakery with weekly orders, a greengrocer delivering around the neighbourhood.
• You have few products and they rarely change.
• You don't need anyone new to find you right now, because you can barely keep up with the customers you have.

When you need a website

• You want customers who don't know you yet, in your city or beyond.
• People keep messaging with the same questions: opening hours, prices, whether you deliver, where you are. A website answers before they ask.
• You have a large catalogue, with variants, sizes or categories that need order.
• You invest in ads or social media and need somewhere to send people other than a profile where they get lost.
• You want to look like an established business when someone looks you up before buying, which is exactly what almost everyone does.

How the two work together

You don't have to choose. The split that works best is simple: the website is the shop window that puts you in front of new people, on Google and on your social media; WhatsApp is the counter where the sale is closed.

1. The customer finds you on Google

   They search for what you sell in your area, land on your website and see photos, prices, hours and how you work. They reach you already knowing what they want.

2. They tap the WhatsApp button

   A button on each product opens the chat with a pre-written message: «Hi, I'm interested in this product». You know what they're asking about from the first message, with no back and forth.

3. You close the sale in the chat

   You confirm availability, delivery and payment method, as you do now. The difference is that the customer arrives convinced, not asking for the price.

4. Repeat customers go to the catalogue

   A regular customer already has your number, and for them the WhatsApp catalogue is the quickest way to order again.

To avoid double work, use the same photos and prices in both places. When you change a price, change it in both: a customer who sees one figure on the website and another in the catalogue stops trusting either.