Products and catalog

Your products live in Products & catalog. Your checkout Flow offers them with live stock, and you can publish them to WhatsApp's own catalog so customers can browse and send a cart.

Products and the WhatsApp catalog

• Products is your list in i-Connect. It's where you add, import and change things.
• WhatsApp catalog is Meta's copy. i-Connect sends your products there, and Meta reviews each one.
• You can sell through a checkout Flow with no catalog at all. The catalog adds the shop icon on your profile and the cart.

Add a product

1. Open Products & catalog and press New product.
2. Enter a SKU, a name and a price. The SKU is your own code: letters, digits, - and _, up to 40 characters, and it can't repeat.
3. Add sizes or colours if it has them, up to 20. For a product with both, choose Size and colour, up to 100 combinations. Stock is then kept for each one.
4. Add a category if you want to group products, for example "Kurtas".
5. Add an MRP if your price is lower than it. The catalog shows the MRP struck through, and customers pay your price.
6. Add photos, then press Save.

Photos

A product can have up to 10 photos. The first is the main photo: use Make main to change it. Every item in the WhatsApp catalog needs at least one. Press Upload photos and choose JPG or PNG files up to 5 MB and at least 500 × 500 pixels, or add a public https:// link. All the photos are sent to Meta with the product.

Uploaded product photos are public, because Meta has to fetch them. Their address can't be guessed, but anyone who has the link can open one, so use only product photos. To change a photo at Meta, upload a new one.

How stock works

• Where it's kept: for each product, or for each size, colour or combination of the two. Leave Count stock off if you don't track it, and the product never runs out.
• When it goes down: when an order is placed, not when someone adds to a cart. A cart holds nothing, so the last piece goes to whoever orders first.
• When it comes back: when an order is cancelled, including an unpaid one that cancels itself.
• Sold out: the product or size disappears from your checkout Flow and shows as out of stock in the catalog at the next sync. In the list, filter Stock by Sold out.
• What Meta sees: in stock or out of stock, and the number left if you track it. i-Connect is the record: orders here reduce it, so change stock here and not in Commerce Manager.
• In a single order: up to 10 of an item through a checkout Flow.

Change stock and see its history

1. In the product list, press Stock next to the product.
2. Enter the change, not the new total: +5 for a delivery, -2 for damaged pieces. If the product has sizes or colours, choose which one.
3. Add a note if you want to, and press Apply.

• Because you enter a change, an order placed while you type still counts. Stock can't go below zero.
• Editing a product doesn't change a count that's already being kept. In the product, turn Count stock on to start counting from a number, or off to stop.
• History in the same window lists every change: when, how many, how many were left, why and who. The reason is an order, a cancelled order, a change by hand, an import or a store sync.
• Stock that isn't counted has no history. For a product from Shopify or WooCommerce you can see the history here, and change the stock in the store.

Low stock

• An item is low at 5 or fewer unless you change it. Set your own default under Orders → Payment settings → Alerts.
• A product can have its own Low stock at number, which applies to each of its sizes or colours. 0 means only when it runs out.
• The product list shows Low next to the stock and a note above the list. Filter Stock by Low stock to see only those.
• The 9 AM orders email lists them too, the emptiest first, up to 10. It goes out on a day with no orders if something is low, and repeats each morning until you restock it, change the number or turn it off.
• Only stock you count can run low, and only for products that are on.

Size and colour together

1. In the product, press Add one and set These are to Size and colour.
2. Enter your sizes and colours, separated by commas, and press Add every combination.
3. Fill in a starting stock for each one, remove any you don't make, and press Save.

• Each size and colour needs at least one English letter or digit.
• In your checkout Flow: the size question lists each combination that's in stock, such as "M / Red". You don't need to change or publish the Flow again.
• To ask size first and colour after: add a question on a later screen, choose Colours of the size chosen earlier, set it as the colour in the checkout card and publish the Flow again. A product without both then shows one choice, Standard, on that screen.
• In the WhatsApp catalog: each combination is one item with its own size and colour, grouped under the product.
• When you turn sizes into size and colour, each row keeps its stock. Something you remove from a product is deleted from the catalog at the next sync.
• Products from Shopify or WooCommerce keep their options as one list, such as "M / Red".

Import from a spreadsheet

1. Press Import CSV and paste your CSV or choose the file. The window has a sample to start from.
2. Check the preview. It shows what's new, what changes and any problem by line. Nothing is saved yet.
3. Confirm the import.

• Products are matched by SKU. An import never deletes anything: use active = no to turn a product off.
• Columns: sku, title, price in rupees, compare_at_price for the MRP, description, stock, sizes such as S:10|M:5 (add :off to one that is turned off), variant_type as size, colour, or size and colour, low_stock_at, category, image_url, more_images as links separated by |, active.
• For size and colour, write each combination in sizes, such as M / Red:4|M / Navy:2.
• A stock number in a file replaces the count. The preview shows each change, such as 8 → 10, so check it if you've sold anything since you made the file.
• Up to 2,000 products and 2 MB per file.
• From Excel, save as CSV first. Or publish a Google Sheet and paste its link in the same window: it's read now and again every hour. A sheet doesn't hear about your sales, so its stock number only counts when you change it in the sheet.
• Rows with problems are reported, and the other rows still import.

Find and change products

• Search by name or SKU, and filter by category, by on or off, by stock and by catalog status.
• Tick several products to turn them on or off, or give them a category, all at once. Up to 500 at a time.
• Turning a product off removes it from your checkout Flow and marks it out of stock in the catalog.
• A product with orders can't be deleted. Turn it off instead.

Export your products

Press Export CSV. The file has the same columns as the import, so you can edit it in a spreadsheet and import it back, matched by SKU. It doesn't contain customer data.

Publish to your WhatsApp catalog

1. Open the WhatsApp catalog tab, choose your number and press Find its catalog.
2. Choose a catalog or make a new one, and press Connect. Meta allows one catalog per WhatsApp account.
3. Press Send changes now. Active products with a photo are sent, and after that changes go automatically every few minutes unless you turn that off.
4. Check Approved by Meta, In review and Rejected. Anything to fix is listed under To fix.

To check out carts customers send, choose a Flow under Checkout for carts. See Orders and payments.

Send products as cards

A product card template is a marketing message with 2 to 10 of your products that customers scroll sideways. Each card shows the product's photo, name and price from your WhatsApp catalog, with one button. You choose the products each time you send, in a broadcast, a sequence step, the inbox or a test.

• You need: a connected WhatsApp catalog with your products in it.
• A product can be a card when it's turned on, in stock and approved by Meta. Other products stay in the list with the reason. If Meta has approved something i-Connect still shows as in review, press Check Meta's review.
• Sizes and colours: the card shows the first one that's on, in stock and approved.
• View button: the customer opens the product in WhatsApp, adds it to the cart and sends the cart. They then get your checkout Flow, as with any cart, and the order appears in Orders. Keep the cart on and choose a Flow under Checkout for carts; without a Flow your team finishes the order by hand.
• Link button: the customer goes to your website and orders there, so that order doesn't reach i-Connect.
• Sold out later: a scheduled broadcast or a sequence step leaves out a product that has since gone off or sold out. With fewer than 2 products left, the broadcast stops and shows why, and the sequence contact takes the failed exit.

Shopify and WooCommerce

Connect your store in the Shopify & WooCommerce tab and its products sync here. You change their name, price, sizes, stock and photo in the store. Here you can turn them on or off for WhatsApp and give them a category and a low-stock number. See Orders and payments.