Getting your shop online with WhatsApp
· 6 min read
Most of your customers already talk to you on WhatsApp. Selling online does not mean leaving that behind: your own website shows the stock and takes the payment, and WhatsApp carries the conversation. Here is how the two fit together — and the rules that keep a business number in good standing.
Two kinds of WhatsApp for business
The free WhatsApp Business app runs on one phone. It is good for chatting, but every message is typed by hand.
The WhatsApp Business Platform lets software send bills, order updates and sign-in codes from your number, through a provider such as MSG91. For that, Meta verifies your business, and every kind of message you send first needs a template Meta has approved.
As VASAH connects it today, the number you connect through MSG91 cannot also stay on the WhatsApp app on a phone. Many shops keep their old number on the app and take a new one for the platform.
The rules that protect your number
WhatsApp's Business Messaging Policy is short, and these are the parts a shop meets every day:
- Message people only if they gave you their number and agreed to hear from you on WhatsApp — the policy calls this opt-in.
- When someone asks you to stop, on WhatsApp or anywhere else, stop.
- When a customer writes to you, you can reply freely for 24 hours from their last message. Outside that window you may send only an approved template.
- Templates come in three kinds: utility (a bill, an order update), marketing (an offer) and authentication (a sign-in code). Meta reviews each one before it can be sent.
Your own website, with WhatsApp beside it
A website of your own lets customers see every design, size and price at any hour, pay by UPI or card, or choose cash on delivery where you allow it. A WhatsApp button on every page keeps the conversation one tap away.
Put the website on your own domain — www.yourshop.com — so the address on your bags and bills is yours, whoever you work with later.
Fewer messages that customers want work better than many they never asked for. A bill, an order update and the occasional offer to people who said yes is plenty.
Getting started, in order
- Start the slow checks first: an MSG91 account with its KYC, and Meta's verification of your business. Meta's checks can take some days.
- Get your stock in: styles, sizes, photos and opening stock.
- Write your policy pages — returns, shipping, privacy — and set your delivery charges and the PIN codes you deliver to.
- Ask at the counter: when a customer gives their number, ask whether they want offers on WhatsApp, and record the answer.
- Open the website, share its link on WhatsApp, and answer what comes back.
Meta changes its rules and prices from time to time; the sources below are the current official pages.
Sources
The official texts this guide relies on. Rules change: check the current version, and your own case with your CA.
- WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy (opens in a new tab) — WhatsApp (Meta)
- Message templates — WhatsApp Business Management API (opens in a new tab) — Meta for Developers