The order comes in where they already write to you
You connect your WhatsApp Business account and your shop steps into the conversation: a menu with the order, the previous ones and the opening days, the link to your menu and, once the order is put together, its pay button. You reply from the panel, with everything that customer has already ordered beside you.
- From the Basic plan
- A WhatsApp Business account
- The contact and their history are yours
Hi, do you do takeaway?
Start an order
The summary and the pay button, inside the conversation
While an order is running, the customer sees it in the chat with its lines and its total, and a button underneath to manage it. Nobody has to be sent to an app or asked to register anywhere.
- The summary carries the products, the quantities and the final price
- Manage order: cancel it and, if it is unpaid, pay it
- The payment link arrives in the same chat and charges into your own Stripe account
- See my orders opens the whole list with a link valid for one hour
- If you have not connected a payment gateway, the pay button answers that there is none instead of charging
Meta's 24 hours, said upfront and not afterwards
WhatsApp belongs to Meta, and Meta sets a rule that is not ours to change: a business can only write freely within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Outside that window you need a template they have approved, and that part is still half-built here.
- Within the 24 hours you reply like in any chat, with photos and files
- After that, the panel stops letting you write and says so with a notice above the conversation
- Templates can be created and deleted from the panel, with their language, and Meta approves or rejects them
- Sending a template does not work yet: it leaves the panel as a template and the server sends it as a normal message, so outside the 24 hours it does not arrive
- The «your order is ready» notice can fall just outside the window if the customer ordered yesterday
A business account, a paid plan and five minutes
It is connected from the panel, through Meta's authorisation. It is the only one of the three networks that needs a paid plan, and also the only one where the number stops being where it was: it becomes a Meta business account.
- A WhatsApp Business account and the Basic plan or above: on the free one the connect button is switched off
- Each connected account takes a slot in your plan, and shares it with Stripe: one on free, four on Basic and eight on Pro
- You can connect several numbers and they all land in the same inbox
- Your shop shows a button to write to you on WhatsApp, and the customer walks into the chat without registering
- The catalogue is not shared with WhatsApp: importing and exporting products exists on Instagram and Facebook, not here
What people ask before connecting a number
Can I carry on using the WhatsApp Business app with that number?
Do not count on it. Connecting it registers the number on Meta's API, and that is exactly what takes it out of the phone app. If you want to keep the app as it is, connect a different number: it is the safe option and the one we recommend.
Is it included in the free plan?
No. WhatsApp starts on the Basic plan; on the free one the connect button is switched off. Instagram and Facebook do work on the free plan, and they are a cheap way to try the same flow before paying.
Does the customer have to word things correctly to be understood?
They don't need to: the normal path is to open the menu and tap. If they write free text, the message lands in your inbox and you answer it; nothing here tries to guess what they meant.
Can I send promotions to my whole list?
No. There is no bulk sending here, and outside the 24 hours Meta only accepts templates, which for now can be created but not sent. What does work is replying to and selling to whoever writes to you.
Does the customer find out when their order is ready?
If you mark it, yes: changing the state offers a box to tell them through the same chat. With the 24-hour rule in the way, the notice arrives if the customer has written to you within that window.
Who owns the contacts?
You do. The contact list and the order history stay with you and can be taken away, just like the product catalogue.
Connect your WhatsApp and see what Friday looks like
WhatsApp starts on the Basic plan. Instagram and Facebook work on the free one, with the same shop and the same menu.