--- title: "Sell from a WhatsApp Catalogue and Track Orders | Karobar" url: https://karobar.io/guides/whatsapp-catalogue-orders language: en description: "Set up a WhatsApp catalogue, keep it in step with your product list, and turn carts customers send into orders you can confirm and ship." --- Guide # How to sell from a WhatsApp catalogue and keep orders in order Put your products in WhatsApp, let customers send carts, and turn every cart into an order you can confirm and ship. Updated 3 October 2026 · 6 min read A WhatsApp catalogue lets a customer browse your products inside the chat, add them to a cart and send you the cart as a message. For a shop that already sells over WhatsApp, it replaces the screenshots, the "send me the price of the blue one" messages and the typing out of an order from memory. The catch is that a cart arrives as a WhatsApp message, and a message is not an order until somebody turns it into one. This guide explains how the catalogue stays in step with your product list in [Karobar](https://karobar.io/features/products-catalog), how products and product sets reach Meta, how to send products to a customer in a chat, and what happens when a cart comes back. The short version: every cart becomes a pending order linked to the chat, ready for you to confirm. Nothing is shipped, charged or promised until a person decides. ## How a WhatsApp catalogue works The catalogue itself lives with Meta. It is a product catalogue attached to your WhatsApp Business account, the same kind used for Facebook and Instagram shops. Customers see it from your business profile, or in a chat when you send them products. When they add items and press send, WhatsApp delivers an **order message** that lists each product, its quantity and its price. Karobar sits on both sides of that. It keeps the Meta catalogue and your own product list in step, and it reads the order message when it arrives. You do not retype a single line. ## Keeping Meta and your product list in step Sync in Karobar goes in both directions, so you can start from whichever side already has your products. - **Import from Meta.** When you connect, Karobar finds the catalogues on your WhatsApp Business account and pulls their products into your product list, including photos. You can run **Sync now** at any time, and Karobar also reconciles every hour, because Meta does not tell Karobar when you edit a catalogue in its own tools. - **Push to Meta.** Each product has a **sync to WhatsApp** switch, which is off until you turn it on. Products with it on are created or updated in the Meta catalogue. If nothing changed since the last push, Karobar skips it. - **Unpublish.** You can take a product off WhatsApp without deleting it from your list. When both sides have changed, the rules are simple. Meta decides review status and availability, because it has the final say on whether an item may be shown. For content such as name, price, description and images, the **latest edit wins**: a change you made locally after the last Meta sync is not overwritten by the next import. Items removed in Meta are kept, not erased If someone deletes an item in Meta's own tools, Karobar keeps the product in your list, flags it as removed from Meta and stops pushing it. Your orders and history stay intact. Photos from Meta are copied into your own storage, because the links Meta gives out expire. Your product list needs the same care as your catalogue, so see [products and catalogue](https://karobar.io/features/products-catalog) for how variants and categories work. ## Product sets for focused messages A **product set** is a named group of products inside the catalogue, such as "Eid collection" or "Under 2,000 rupees". Sets are useful because sending a customer your full catalogue is rarely what they asked for. - Create a set by choosing products. Karobar creates it in Meta, matching products by their retailer ID. - Rename it, change its products or delete it later, and Meta is updated. - Sets that you or a teammate made in Meta's own tools are listed in Karobar after a sync. When commerce is switched on for the number, the cart button and catalogue visibility are enabled so that customers can actually add items. Karobar turns these on once a catalogue exists. ## Sending products to a customer in a chat From a chat you can send products in three ways, all through WhatsApp's own interactive messages: | What you send | What the customer sees | When to use it | | --- | --- | --- | | One product | A single product card with a price and a button to view it | The customer asked about one item | | A product list | A short list of items, grouped under a heading you write | The customer wants options in one category | | The catalogue | A message that opens your whole catalogue | The customer wants to look around | Only products that are live in Meta can be sent this way, so a product that is still unpublished or flagged as removed will not appear. Like any ordinary message, these follow WhatsApp's 24-hour rule, which is explained in [the 24-hour window guide](https://karobar.io/guides/whatsapp-auto-reply-24-hour-window). ## What a customer's cart becomes When a customer sends a cart, Karobar creates an order in [Sales Desk](https://karobar.io/features/sales-desk) straight away. It is built to be safe by default: 1. **The order is pending and unconfirmed.** Nothing has been accepted yet. The payment method is cash on delivery and payment is marked pending, so you can change those before you confirm. 2. **It is linked to the chat.** The order carries the customer's name and phone number and opens back in the conversation, so you can ask for an address or a size without searching. 3. **Lines are matched by retailer ID.** Each cart line is matched to the product in your list that has the same retailer ID, so name, price and photo come from your product list. 4. **Unmatched lines are kept as text.** If a line does not match any product, perhaps because it was only added in Meta, it still appears as "Catalog item" followed by its ID, with the price from the cart. Nothing a customer ordered is dropped. 5. **A customer's note is kept.** Any text they typed with the cart is saved on the order. 6. **No duplicates.** If WhatsApp delivers the same cart message twice, Karobar returns the order it already made instead of creating a second one. The order shows as coming from WhatsApp, with a line such as the number of items and the total. Sale credit goes to whoever confirms the order, not to the customer, which matters if you track which teammate closes sales. ## From pending order to shipped parcel A pending order is a draft the customer started, not a promise. The usual path is short: - **Check the cart.** Look at quantities, sizes and the address. If something is missing, ask in the same chat. - **Confirm with the customer.** Because the order is cash on delivery by default, a confirmation message is how you catch wrong numbers and mistaken orders before a parcel goes out. See [confirming cash on delivery orders on WhatsApp](https://karobar.io/ur-Latn/guides/cod-order-confirmation-whatsapp). - **Confirm the order in Sales Desk.** Only then does it count as a confirmed order. - **Update the customer.** Automatic order updates over WhatsApp are off until you switch them on, and an update that falls outside the 24-hour window goes out only if you have chosen an approved template for it. Stock is yours to check. Look at [inventory](https://karobar.io/features/inventory) when you confirm, because an item that sat in a cart overnight may have sold out through another channel. ## Common mistakes to avoid - **Forgetting to switch on sync for a product.** Products are not pushed to WhatsApp until sync to WhatsApp is on for them. - **Changing a retailer ID after products are live.** Cart lines are matched on it, so a changed ID turns later cart lines into plain text lines. - **Treating a cart as a paid order.** A cart is a request. Confirm the details first. - **Sending the whole catalogue when one product was asked about.** Use a single product or a set. - **Editing in Meta and in Karobar at once.** Latest edit wins for content, so agree who edits where. ## Sources Facts about other companies and platforms come from their own pages, checked on the dates shown. Plans and prices change; check the source before you decide. 1. [Meta: WhatsApp Business Platform pricing (messages and charges)](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/pricing) (checked 2026-10-03) FAQ ## Questions? Answers. Any other questions? [Ask support](https://karobar.io/support). ### Does a customer's cart become an order automatically? Yes, as a pending order in Sales Desk linked to the chat. It is unconfirmed, cash on delivery and payment pending until you check it and confirm it yourself. ### What if a cart contains a product that is not in my product list? The line is kept as text, shown as a catalogue item with its ID and the price from the cart, so nothing the customer ordered is lost. You can then add or link the product. ### Can I edit the catalogue in Meta and in Karobar? Yes. Karobar imports from Meta and pushes products that have sync to WhatsApp on. Meta decides review status and availability, and for name, price, description and images the latest edit wins. ### Will the same cart ever create two orders? No. Orders are tied to the WhatsApp message they came from, so if the same cart is delivered twice, the existing order is returned. ### Does a WhatsApp cart take payment? No. The order is created as cash on delivery with payment pending. Karobar does not collect payment inside the chat. Keep going ## What to look at next [One product catalogue for AI replies and your WhatsApp catalog Your product listing gives the AI and your team their context. When a customer asks, the answer comes from you… Learn more](https://karobar.io/features/products-catalog)[Order management, right inside the chat Leads, orders, bookings: persistent tabs mean you never lose context. Record an order from a chat; the same in… Learn more](https://karobar.io/features/sales-desk)[Inventory in sync: clear stock, fewer oversells Stock levels feed straight into AI drafts, so there are fewer wrong "sold out" promises and less overselling.… Learn more](https://karobar.io/features/inventory) ## Try it on your own shop 7 days free, no card needed. Connect Instagram, TikTok or WhatsApp and see your own messages in one inbox. [Start free trial](https://karobar.io/login?trial=1&login=1)