WhatsApp Business Platform > Cloud API > Guides

Share Products With Customers

You have multiple ways to share products with your customers:

Catalog Messages — Free-form messages containing a button that, when tapped, displays your product catalog within WhatsApp.
Catalog Template Messages — Template messages containing a button that, when tapped, displays your product catalog within WhatsApp.
Catalog Link Messages — Free-form messages containing catalog thumbnails and a link to your entire product catalog.
Product Messages — Free-form messages containing information about a single product or up to 30 products from your product catalog.
Multi-Product Template Messages — Template messages containing information about up to 30 products from your ecommerce catalog, organized in up to 10 sections, in a single message.

Catalog Messages

Catalog messages are free-form messages that allow you to showcase your product catalog entirely within WhatsApp.

Catalog messages display a product thumbnail header image of your choice, custom body text, a fixed text header, a fixed text sub-header, and a View catalog button.

When a customer taps the View catalog button, your product catalog appears within WhatsApp.

Requirements

You must have inventory uploaded to Meta in an ecommerce catalog connected to your WhatsApp Business Account.

Request Syntax

Use the WhatsApp Business Phone Number > Messages endpoint to send a catalog message.

POST /<WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/messages

Post Body

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "<TO>",
  "type": "interactive",
  "interactive" : {
    "type" : "catalog_message",
    "body" : {
      "text": "<BODY_TEXT>"
    },
    "action": {
      "name": "catalog_message",
      
      /* Parameters object is optional */
      "parameters": {
        "thumbnail_product_retailer_id": "<THUMBNAIL_PRODUCT_RETAILER_ID>"
      }
    },

    /* Footer object is optional */
    "footer": {
      "text": "<FOOTER_TEXT>"
  }
}

Properties

Placeholder	Description	Sample Value
`<BODY_TEXT>` String	Required. Text to appear in the message body. Maximum 1024 characters.	`Hello! Thanks for your interest. Ordering is easy. Just visit our catalog and add items to purchase.`
`<FOOTER_TEXT>` String	Optional. Text to appear in the message footer. Maximum 60 characters.	`Best grocery deals on WhatsApp!`
`<THUMBNAIL_PRODUCT_RETAILER_ID>` String	Optional. Item SKU number. Labeled as Content ID in the Commerce Manager. The thumbnail of this item will be used as the message's header image. If the `parameters` object is omitted, the product image of the first item in your catalog will be used.	`2lc20305pt`
`<TO>` String	Customer phone number.	`+16505551234`

Sample Request

curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/v17.0/106540352242922/messages' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer EAAJB...' \
-d '
{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "+16505551234",
  "type": "interactive",
  "interactive": {
    "type": "catalog_message",
    "body": {
      "text": "Hello! Thanks for your interest. Ordering is easy. Just visit our catalog and add items to purchase."
    },
    "action": {
      "name": "catalog_message",
      "parameters": {
        "thumbnail_product_retailer_id": "2lc20305pt"
      }
    },
    "footer": {
      "text": "Best grocery deals on WhatsApp!"
    }
  }
}'

Sample Response

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "contacts": [
    {
      "input": "+16505551234",
      "wa_id": "16505551234"
    }
  ],
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": "wamid.HBgLMTY1MDM4Nzk0MzkVAgARGBI0ODVEREUwQzEzQkVBRjQ1RUUA"
    }
  ]
}

Catalog Template Messages

Catalog template messages are template messages containing a button that, when tapped, displays your product catalog within WhatsApp.

To send a catalog template message you need a catalog template. See our Catalog Templates document to learn how to create these templates and how to send them in a template message.

Catalog Link Messages

You can send a link to your entire product catalog by assembling a wa.me link and including it in a standard text message. When sending a text message, you can use the optional preview_url set to true to have the message render a set of product catalog thumbnails of any URL in the message body string.

Note that if you disable the catalog, wa.me links and the View Catalog button in catalog link messages will display a Invalid catalog link message when tapped.

To assemble wa.me link, append your business phone number, including country code, to the end of the following string:

https://wa.me/c/

For example:

https://wa.me/c/15555455657

Product Messages

Both Multi-Product Messages and Single Product Messages are types of interactive messages.

Multi-Product message example:	Single-Product message example:

Menu triggered when user clicks on Start Shopping:	Product Detail Page example:

Overview

Customers that receive Multi- and Single-Product Messages can perform 3 main actions:

View products: Customers can see a list of products or just one product. Whenever a customer clicks on a specific item, we fetch the product's latest info and display the product in a Product Detail Page (PDP) format. Currently, PDPs only support product images — any videos and/or GIFs added to the product won’t be displayed in the PDP.
Add products to a cart: Whenever a user adds a product to the shopping cart, we fetch the item’s latest info. If there has been a state change on any of the items, we display a dialog saying "One or more items in your cart have been updated" — See Product Updates for more information. A cart persists in a chat thread between you and your customer until the cart is sent to you — See Shopping Cart Experience for details.
Send a shopping cart to you: After adding all needed items, customers can send their cart to you. After that, you can define the next steps, such as requesting delivery info or giving payment options.

If your customer has multiple devices linked to their account, the Multi-Product and Single-Product Messages will be synced between devices. However, the shopping cart is local to each specific device. See Shopping Cart Experience for details.

Currently, these types of messages can be received in the following platforms:

iOS: 2.21.100 (Multi-Product Messages) and 2.21.210 (Single-Product Messages).
Android: 2.21.9.15 (Multi-Product Messages) and 2.21.19 (Single-Product Messages).
Web: The web client that supports these features has been launched.

If the customer's app version does not support Multi- or Single-Product Messages, they will instead receive a message explaining that they were unable to receive a message because they are using an outdated version of WhatsApp. We will also send you a webhook notification indicating the message was unable to be delivered due to the customer using an outdated version of WhatsApp.

Expected Behavior for Messages

Multi-Product Messages and Single-Product Messages can be:

Forwarded by one user to another.
Reopened by a user within the same conversation.

Multi-Product Messages and Single-Product Messages cannot be:

Sent as notifications. They can only be sent as part of existing conversations.

Limitations

Unlike product messages sent via the WhatsApp Business app, messages sent via the Cloud API currently do not display a shopping cart icon in the chat thread header.

Product Updates

You may need to update properties of items in your catalog. Depending on the updated property, this is how we handle any messages mentioning that product:

Updated Property	Update Process
Product's price, title, description, and image.	You send a Multi or Single-Product Message containing product A. You update product A's properties on their catalog. The screens that display that product are updated as soon as the customer client learns about the change from the server.
Availability change	You send a customer a Multi- or Single-Product Message containing product B. You sell all units of product B available. Then, you update your catalog saying that product B is no longer available If a customer has already added product B to a cart, the item will be removed from the cart. The shopping cart displays a dialog saying "One or more items in your cart have been updated". If a customer has not added product B to the cart, the Multi- or Single-Product Message now shows the item as unavailable.

Updated Property

Update Process

Product's price, title, description, and image.

You send a Multi or Single-Product Message containing product A.
You update product A's properties on their catalog.
The screens that display that product are updated as soon as the customer client learns about the change from the server.

Availability change

You send a customer a Multi- or Single-Product Message containing product B.
You sell all units of product B available. Then, you update your catalog saying that product B is no longer available
If a customer has already added product B to a cart, the item will be removed from the cart. The shopping cart displays a dialog saying "One or more items in your cart have been updated".
If a customer has not added product B to the cart, the Multi- or Single-Product Message now shows the item as unavailable.

Shopping Cart Experience

After viewing products, a customer can add them to their shopping cart and send that cart to you. For the purposes of commerce on WhatsApp, a shopping cart:

Is unique to a customer/business chat thread in a specific device: Only one cart is created per chat thread between you and a customer, and carts do not persist across multiple devices. Once a cart is sent, the customer can open another cart with you and start the process again.
Has no expiration date: The cart persists in the chat thread until it is sent to you. Once sent, the cart is cleared.

Customers can add up to 99 units of each single catalog item to a shopping cart, but there is no limit on the number of distinct items that can be added to a cart.

Once a cart has been sent, no edits can be made. Customers can send a new cart if they need new items, or would like to change their order. You cannot send carts to customers.

Shopping cart experience example and expected behavior for item state change.

Why You Should Use It

Both Multi- and Single-Product Messages lend themselves best to user experiences that are simple and personalized, where it's a better experience to guide the customer to a subset of items most relevant to them, rather than browsing your full inventory.

Simple and Efficient

Combining the features with navigation tools like NLP, text search or List Messages and Reply Buttons to get to what the customer is looking for fast.

Personal

Populated dynamically so can be personalized to the customer or situation. For example, you can show a Multi-Product Message of a customer’s most frequently ordered items.

Business Outcomes

A performant channel for driving orders, during testing businesses had an average 7% conversion of Multi-Product Messages sent to carts received.

No Templates

Interactive messages do not require templates or pre-approvals. They are generated in real-time and will always reflect the latest item details, pricing and stock levels from your inventory.

When You Should Use It

Multi-Product Messages are best for guiding customers to a specific subset of your inventory, such as:

Shopping in a conversational way. For example, using search functionality to allow customers to type a shopping list and send back a Multi-Product Message in response.
Navigating to a specific category. For example, fitness apparel.
Personalized offers or recommendations.
Re-ordering previously ordered items. For example, a user can re-order their regular take-out order of less than 30 items.

Single-Product Messages are best for guiding customers to one specific item from your inventory, offering quick responses from a limited set of options, such as:

Responding to a customer’s specific request.
Providing a recommendation.
Reordering a previous item.

Both features can also be used as part of a human agent flow, however you need to build the tooling to allow the human agent to generate a Multi-Product Message or Single-Product Message in thread.

Get Started

Before sending product messages, follow the get started best suited for your needs:

All API calls mentioned in this guide must be authenticated with an access token. Developers can authenticate their API calls with the access token generated in the App Dashboard > WhatsApp > API Setup panel. Solution Partners must authenticate themselves with an access token with the whatsapp_business_messaging permission.

Step 1: Assemble the Interactive Object

Single-Product Messages

To send a Single-Product Message, assemble an interactive object of type product with the following components:

Required Components	Optional Components
Action Object — Must include both catalog_id and product_retailer_id.	Body Object Footer Object

See Messages, Interactive Object for full information. By the end of the process, the interactive object should look something like this:

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "PHONE_NUMBER",
  "type": "interactive",
  "interactive": {
    "type": "product",
    "body": {
      "text": "BODY_TEXT"
    },
    "footer": {
      "text": "FOOTER_TEXT"
    },
    "action": {
      "catalog_id": "CATALOG_ID",
      "product_retailer_id": "ID_TEST_ITEM_1"
    }
  }
}

Multi-Product Messages

To send a Multi-Product Message, assemble an interactive object of type product_list with the following components:

Required Components	Optional Components
Header Object — Header’s type must be set to text. Remember to add a text object with the desired content. Body Object Action Object - Must include catalog_id and sections. Sections must be an array of objects describing each section using title and product_items. Each section's product_items value must be an array describing each product in the section using product_retailer_id and the product's SKU number.	Footer Object

Required Components

Optional Components

Header Object — Header’s type must be set to text. Remember to add a text object with the desired content.
Body Object
Action Object - Must include catalog_id and sections.
- Sections must be an array of objects describing each section using title and product_items.
  - Each section's product_items value must be an array describing each product in the section using product_retailer_id and the product's SKU number.

Footer Object

See Messages, Interactive Object for full information. By the end of the process, the interactive object should look something like this:

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "PHONE_NUMBER",
  "type": "interactive",
  "interactive": {
    "type": "product_list",
    "header":{
      "type": "text",
      "text": "HEADER_CONTENT"
    },
    "body": {
      "text": "BODY_CONTENT"
    },
    "footer": {
      "text": "FOOTER_CONTENT"
    },
    "action": {
      "catalog_id": "CATALOG_ID",
      "sections": [
        {
          "title": "SECTION_TITLE",
          "product_items": [
            { "product_retailer_id": "PRODUCT-SKU" },
            { "product_retailer_id": "PRODUCT-SKU" },
            ...
          ]

        },
        {
          "title": "SECTION_TITLE",
          "product_items": [
            { "product_retailer_id": "PRODUCT-SKU" },
            { "product_retailer_id": "PRODUCT-SKU" },
            ...
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Missing Items

If none of the items provided in the API calls above matches a product from your product catalog, an error message is sent and the Multi- or Single-Product Message is not sent to the user.

For Multi-Product Message, at least one item from the products list must match an item from your product catalog. In this case:

Messages are sent successfully
Items without a match are dropped
You receive an error message asking for a catalog update

Step 2: Add Common Message Parameters

Once the interactive object is complete, append the other parameters that make a message: recipient_type, to, messaging_product, and type. Remember to set the type to interactive.

curl -X  POST https://graph.facebook.com/v19.0/FROM_PHONE_NUMBER/messages \
 -H 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \
 - d '{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "PHONE_NUMBER",
  "type": "interactive",
  "interactive": {
  // INTERACTIVE OBJECT GOES HERE    
}'

For all available parameters, see Reference, Messages.

Step 3: Send a Request to the Messages Endpoint

Send a POST request to the /PHONE_NUMBER_ID/messages endpoint with the JSON object you have assembled in steps 1 and 2. If your message is sent successfully, you get the following response:

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "contacts": [{
      "input": "PHONE_NUMBER",
      "wa_id": "WHATSAPP_ID",
    }]
  "messages": [{
      "id": "wamid.ID",
    }]
}

Multi-Product Template Messages

To send a multi-product template message you need a multi-product message template. See our Multi-Product Message Templates document to learn how to create these templates and how to send them in a template message.

WhatsApp Business Platform | Cloud API | Business Management API