A few years ago, WhatsApp introduced the “Catalogs” feature, which allows business owners to showcase their products and services, and customers to view and purchase them directly within the app.
Overall, over the past couple of years, catalogs have evolved from a modest addition to a business profile into a full-fledged showcase that can replace a website or social media page.
Table of Contents
What are WhatsApp Catalogs and why you need them
Catalogs are a built-in showcase for products and services within WhatsApp Business. Sellers upload product photos, names, prices, descriptions and buyers can view them directly within the chat without having to visit third-party websites or apps. The entire process from discovering a product to placing an order takes place in a single window, where the customer browses images, reads descriptions, clarifies details with the seller and adds items they like to the cart and the order is sent to the seller with a single click.
Catalogs eliminate the need to manually send photos and prices to each customer, bring order to the product lineup, and allow you to use the messenger as a CRM system where orders are tracked and conversations with customers don’t get lost among dozens of other chats.
It’s worth noting that catalogs can be easily set up without any special skills. Another obvious advantage is that WhatsApp catalogs operate around the clock, even when managers aren’t at work.
However, manually managing catalogs in WhatsApp Business works well for a small store with a few dozen products, but can become a problem as the business grows and the product range expands. In such cases, you can consider the WhatsApp Business API and GREEN-API methods, which make working with catalogs easier and more convenient.
GREEN-API methods for working with catalogs
All the methods we will cover in this article are available across all GREEN-API plans, although the “Developer” plan has a monthly limit on the number of calls.
To receive webhooks for new product messages (productMessage) and order messages (orderMessage), you need to enable the catalogsWebhook setting in your instance, as this option is disabled by default.
createCollection: creating a product collection in the WhatsApp Business API Catalog
This method allows you to create a product collection and group products by category, such as “Clothing” or “Accessories.” A collection significantly simplifies navigation through a large catalog. When creating a collection, you specify its name and, if desired, a list of products to include in the collection.
Important: After creating a collection, you can edit it using the editCollection method; its ID will change and the order of collections in the catalog is changed using a different method, moveCollections.
deleteCollection: deleting a product collection
The deleteCollection method deletes a collection, but the products remain in the catalog. After a collection is deleted, its identifier becomes invalid. Deleting a collection cannot be undone.
createProduct: adding a new product
The createProduct method creates a new product in the catalog and replaces the need to add products manually via the “Catalog Manager” in the app. To get started, simply provide the name, price and currency; the description, photo, country of origin, custom product code and visibility can be specified as desired.
The response contains the new product’s ID, which will be needed for all subsequent actions involving it. For a store with a constantly updated product range, this means that new items can be “pulled” directly from your accounting system without having to enter them manually.
editProduct: updating product details
The editProduct method updates any characteristics of an existing product, whether it’s setting a new price before a promotion, editing the description or adding a photo. All you need is the product ID and the fields you want to update.
This method is convenient for businesses with frequently changing prices, where you simply need to update the relevant field without having to recreate the product listing.
deleteProduct: removing a product from the catalog
The deleteProduct method removes one or more products at once; to do this, an array of their IDs is passed in the request.
Note: After deleting, the product is no longer displayed in the catalog and its ID becomes invalid.
getProducts: retrieving a list of products
The getProducts method is used to retrieve a list of all products in the seller’s catalog. This method, like the next one, works without instance authorization via the public GraphQL WhatsApp API. However, if the instance is authorized as a business account, even hidden products or those still pending moderation are visible through it; without authorization, only approved items are displayed.
getProduct: retrieving information about a specific product
The getProduct method works the same way, except it returns information not for the entire catalog, but for a single product, provided its ID and the seller’s chat ID are known. This method is useful when you need to quickly verify the current details for a specific item without loading the entire catalog.
sendProduct: sending a product to chat
The sendProduct method allows you to send a product card from the catalog to a conversation with a customer. The request specifies the recipient, the product and, if necessary, the message to which the product is being sent as a reply.
sendOrder: sending an entire order
The sendOrder method collects multiple products into a single shopping cart and sends it to the customer in a single message. The products included in the order are specified here. This method is useful if a business pre-selects a set of several items for a customer, for example, following a consultation and wants to present them as a single package rather than a series of individual product cards.
getCollections: retrieving a list of collections
The getCollections method is designed to retrieve a list of catalog collections, with support for pagination by collection and limiting the number of products within each collection. The method works without instance authorization via the public WhatsApp GraphQL API. If the instance is authorized as a business account, the data is retrieved via Facebook GraphQL (collections containing hidden or pending-moderation products are visible). If not authorized, only collections containing approved products are visible.
getCollection: retrieving a single collection
The getCollection method returns information about a specific collection, including the products it contains and also supports paginated navigation, but within the collection itself. This is useful for working with large categories.
editCollection: editing a collection
The editCollection method is used to edit an existing collection: changing its name, adding products and removing products. After editing a collection, its ID changes. Use the newCollectionId method from the response for all subsequent operations on this collection.
moveCollections: reordering collections
The moveCollections method is used to reorder (move) collections within the catalog list.
getOrderDetails: viewing order details
The getOrderDetails method provides a complete overview of an order placed by a customer through the catalog: a list of items with prices and quantities and the total purchase amount. It works in conjunction with the orderMessage webhook: as soon as a notification about a new order arrives, the order ID, token and seller ID are retrieved from it and this data is then passed to getOrderDetails to obtain the full details of the shopping cart.
Conclusion
Together, these methods cover the entire product lifecycle in the catalog, from creating and editing to grouping into collections, sending to the customer and retrieving data on completed orders. What used to be done manually through the app can now be transformed into a manageable and scalable process. For businesses that work with a large product range or want to synchronize their WhatsApp catalog with their own accounting system, this opens the door to true automation.
At GREEN-API, we keep track of all WhatsApp updates to provide you with the latest news and solutions for automating your business processes. Stay tuned to stay up to date on all the latest developments!