How to start shopping and paying via WhatsApp?

WhatsApp seems is busy launch-binging. Just last week, the company got a nod from NCPI to set up WhatsApp pay in India. Now, it has rolled out a new shopping button on its business accounts. This feature will allow you to directly open the catalogue of products and start shopping within the app. This new shopping button is available across the world and will replace the voice call button. Meanwhile, the voice and video call button just got merged. Tap on the call button to select either a voice or video call.

Earlier, you needed to click into the business’ profile to see if the business had a catalogue. But now, you will see the shopping button so that you can directly browse products and start shopping. This will help businesses to have their products discovered and increase sales. With this new shopping button, the company wants to make the shopping experience easier for WhatsApp users and help businesses to connect with more customers. Moreover, this feature is exclusive to WhatsApp Business accounts only.

Shopping in WhatsApp just got easier. The company in its blog stated that they were building a new payment feature for India that enabled people to easily send money to each other via WhatsApp. The feature is live but available to very few people. If you wish to use it with the ease of shopping now enabled in WhatsApp business, you can do the literal action of "ek haath do, ek haath lo".

Here is what you can do to enable the WhatsApp Pay feature:

The first thing you can try and do is update the app. In case, you have not received the Payments feature despite updating the app, look for someone who has the feature. Then, ask the user to send you a “payment notification” in your chat. They can send it by tapping on "Payments" in the chat sharing options. When you receive the notification from the contact, WhatsApp will ask you to set up your payment account. Set up the account and you are good to go.

In India, WhatsApp has partnered with five leading banks to enable UPI Payments. This includes ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank. The messaging app has also rolled out the feature in Brazil and India. Further, the feature would be available in Mexico, the UK, Spain and Europe in near future.