How to sell on WhatsApp with CartWhizz, step by step

Short answer: with WhatsApp Shop, the WhatsApp Business number you already give customers becomes a place to sell. Customers message it to browse your categories, search, build a cart and check their orders, and your team answers from one shared inbox when a person is needed. Customers check out through a secure link to your own CartWhizz store, or order in the chat itself: cash on delivery and bank transfer are confirmed right there, and online payments open your store's secure payment page with a Pay now button. Setting it up takes four things: a connected number, the module switched on, a look at the bot, and a way for customers to find you.

This guide walks through every step in your admin. For the full reference, see the WhatsApp Shop merchant guide, and for an overview of what it does, the WhatsApp Shop page.

What you need before you start

• A CartWhizz store. WhatsApp Shop is a module inside your store's admin.
• A WhatsApp Business number on Meta's WhatsApp Cloud API, in your own Meta Business account, and the Meta app it belongs to. The number, its conversations and what Meta charges for them stay in your Meta account.
• Five values from Meta: a permanent access token with the whatsapp_business_messaging permission, the phone number ID (an ID, not the phone number itself), your app secret, a webhook verify token (any word you make up) and, if you want native forms or to manage templates, your WhatsApp Business Account ID.

WhatsApp Shop shares its connection with WhatsApp Notifications, the module that sends order updates on WhatsApp. If you already send order updates through another provider, they keep working, but the bot and the inbox need Meta's Cloud API.

Step 1: Connect your number in Messaging

1. Open Settings → Modules and switch on WhatsApp Notifications if it is not on yet.
2. Open Settings → Messaging and click Set up on the WhatsApp card.
3. Choose WhatsApp Cloud API (Meta) as the provider and fill in the access token, phone number ID, app secret and webhook verify token. Secret values are stored encrypted and never shown again.
4. Switch on Send WhatsApp messages and click Save changes.

Step 2: Add the webhook in your Meta app

The webhook is how Meta delivers your customers' messages, and the delivery reports of everything you send, to your store.

1. On the WhatsApp channel page in Settings → Messaging, click Copy webhook URL. Each store has its own.
2. In your Meta app, open WhatsApp → Configuration, paste the URL as the Callback URL, enter the same verify token and click Verify and save.
3. Under Webhook fields, subscribe to messages. That one field carries both customer messages and delivery reports.

Meta checks the address once with your verify token. The check passes only while the channel is saved with sending switched on and the Meta provider selected.

Step 3: Switch WhatsApp Shop on

Open Settings → Modules and find WhatsApp Shop. Click Enable if it is installed, or Install on the Browse tab. A WhatsApp Shop group appears in the menu under Customers, with the inbox, contacts, quick replies, metrics, settings and the bot simulator.

Switching it off later stops the bot and the inbox but keeps your conversations, so switching it back on picks up where you left off.

Step 4: Check the connection and send a test

Open Customers → WhatsApp Shop → WhatsApp Shop settings. The WhatsApp connection card reads your Messaging setup and shows Ready or Needs attention, one line per check, and Open Messaging settings takes you back to fix anything missing.

WhatsApp only delivers a business message to someone who wrote in the last 24 hours, so send hi to your store's number from your own phone first. Then enter your number under Send a test message. Your hi also reached the bot: open the Inbox and you will see your own conversation with the bot's welcome message.

Step 5: Make the bot sound like you

The bot greets customers with your welcome message and three buttons: Browse, Search and My orders. In the settings you can change:

• the welcome message and the menu button labels (up to 20 characters each);
• the talk to a person keywords (agent, human, help and support by default) and what the bot says when it connects a customer to your team;
• opening hours, with an after-hours message sent once per chat per day while the bot keeps helping customers shop;
• how long a checkout link stays valid (72 hours by default).

You can write your own messages in any language. The bot's other replies, such as product pages, the cart and orders, are fixed English text.

Step 6: Try it in the simulator

Open Bot simulator and chat with your bot the way a customer would: tap the buttons, browse a category, add something to the cart and open the checkout link in a new tab. Nothing is sent to WhatsApp, and your tests never appear in the inbox or the metrics. Reset chat starts again from the welcome.

Step 7: Turn on starter content

Once WhatsApp Shop is on, a starter set is copied into your store as drafts: 25 FAQs (24 if you do not offer cash on delivery), 7 store pages, 2 WhatsApp forms and 7 short chat flows. They are filled in with your own store name, contact details, shipping methods and rates, payment methods and opening hours. Where a fact cannot come from your store, such as a return window, the draft uses a common default and tells you to check it. Nothing answers a customer until you turn it on, one item at a time or all at once.

Step 8: Enter Meta's rates and a budget

Meta charges your own Meta account per delivered message, priced by the message's category and your customer's country. Under Message costs, enter Meta's rates for marketing, utility, authentication and service messages, and WhatsApp Shop shows what this month has cost so far. Set a monthly budget and your team is told at 80% and again at 100%; switch on the hard cap and the bot stops its optional messages once the budget is used, while your team can still reply.

Step 9: Tell customers where to find you

• The chat button. Switch on the floating WhatsApp button on your store, choose its corner and its first message.
• Ask about this product. With the button on, every product page offers a chat that opens on that product's card.
• Entry links and QR codes. Make a link for a flyer, a shelf or your social profile, choose where the bot opens it (the menu, a product, a category or your team) and download its QR code as PNG or SVG. Each link's chats, checkout links and orders are counted on the Metrics page.
• Click-to-WhatsApp ads. When a chat starts from a Facebook or Instagram ad, the ad is recorded on the conversation with nothing to set up.

Frequently asked questions

Do my customers need anything new?

No. They message your number in WhatsApp as they do today. Shoppers without WhatsApp keep shopping on your website.

Can I keep my current provider for order updates?

Yes. Order updates keep going out through your existing WhatsApp Notifications provider; the bot and the inbox need the WhatsApp Cloud API (Meta) provider.

What if a customer wants a person?

Typing Talk to us or one of your keywords hands the chat to your team in the inbox. If nobody replies in time, the bot tells the customer your team is busy and helps them in the meantime.

See everything WhatsApp Shop does on the WhatsApp Shop page, or start your store.