WhatsApp orders for a kirana or local shop: price list, confirmation, UPI and delivery slots

Ramesh Agrawal runs Agrawal General Stores in Vijay Nagar, Indore: groceries, household goods and a shelf of personal care, with six staff and two delivery boys on scooters (an invented example). His grocery store takes about 60 WhatsApp orders on a weekday, all on the shop phone. They look like “atta 5 kg, toor dal 1 kg, 2 packet doodh, washing powder 1 kg, jaldi bhejna”. Shabnam Qureshi, who runs the order desk, reads each one, shouts it to the packing table, types back a total and asks for UPI. By 7 pm there are fourteen chats where nobody remembers whether the customer paid.

Taking WhatsApp orders for a grocery store, a kirana or any local shop works well up to a point. This playbook is about getting past that point: a price list customers can order from, one confirmation per order, payment in the same chat, a delivery slot, an “out for delivery” message, and offers only for the regulars who asked. If you sell jewellery or clothes from reels, the jewellery and boutique playbook is the better fit; this one is for the shop people order from every week.

Is the free WhatsApp Business app enough?

For many neighbourhood stores, yes. The app is free, and if one or two people answer and your regulars have saved the shop’s number, it does the job.

Its edges are specific. WhatsApp’s help centre says the app runs on “up to four linked devices and one phone at a time”, and linked devices log out if the phone goes unused for 14 days. Broadcast lists hold 256 contacts, and only people who have saved your number receive them. There is no record of which staff member promised which slot.

What the store needs	Free Business app	WhatsApp Business Platform, through a provider
Meta’s charges	None for ordinary chats and broadcast lists	Per delivered message: service replies after 1,000 a month per number, templates always
Who can reply	One phone plus up to four linked devices	A team in a shared inbox, each chat assigned to a person
Offers to regulars	Broadcast lists of 256, saved contacts only	Approved templates to anyone who opted in
”Out for delivery”	Typed by hand	An approved template, sent from the order

Our rule of thumb, not Meta’s: past two people typing or about 30 orders a day, the app starts costing you orders. Below that, stay on it and spend the money on another delivery boy. Our comparison of the app and the Platform has the full list of signs, and what WhatsApp Business costs explains which parts are free.

Step 1: a price list or a WhatsApp catalogue for the shop

Most kirana customers will keep typing their list, and that is fine. What they need from you is a current price list, so the total doesn’t surprise them.

There are three ways to give them one:

• A price list image or PDF, refreshed every Monday. Meta’s media page allows images up to 5 MB and PDFs up to 100 MB. One clear photo of the week’s rate board beats a 40-page PDF nobody opens.
• A list message with up to 10 rows, such as Atta and rice, Dal and pulses, Oil and ghee, Cleaning, Snacks. A tap tells you what they’re after, and the reply is a photo of that shelf with prices.
• A WhatsApp catalogue. Meta describes it as “a structured inventory of products or services that you upload to Meta”, with name, price, images and availability, and customers can send a cart from the chat. Our catalog guide covers the message types, limits and the order that comes back.

For a grocery store with 2,000 items and weekly price changes, the catalogue is more upkeep than it’s worth. For an electronics shop with 150 models it’s the right tool: “32 inch TV under 15,000?” gets a product message with four options instead of four forwarded photos.

Step 2: confirm the order in one message

Every order gets one confirmation, with the items, anything you substituted, the total and the delivery slot. Three messages (“ok”, “wait checking”, “total 1,240”) cost you more and confuse the customer more.

RC Regular customer, Vijay Nagar talking to Agrawal General Stores

1. Regular customer, Vijay Nagar:
   atta 5 kg, toor dal 1 kg, 2 packet doodh, washing powder 1 kg 10:05 am
2. Agrawal General Stores:
   Namaste ji, order noted: atta 5 kg ₹245, toor dal 1 kg ₹160, doodh 2 x ₹34, washing powder 1 kg ₹135. Total ₹608. When should we deliver? 10:07 am
   • Before 12 pm
   • 4 to 6 pm
   • I will pick up
3. Regular customer, Vijay Nagar:
   Before 12 pm 10:08 am
4. Agrawal General Stores:
   Done, before 12 pm. Pay ₹608 to our UPI ID below or on delivery. 10:08 am
5. Tagged: order · slot 12 pm · unpaid · assigned to Shabnam

Because the customer wrote first, the confirmation is a service message inside the 24-hour customer service window, so no template is needed. From 1 October 2026 each business number gets 1,000 free service messages a month, then pays ₹0.1150 each to an Indian number, before GST. (Terms such as customer service window and utility template are in our glossary.)

When an order comes by phone call and you want to confirm on WhatsApp, the window isn’t open, so you need an approved utility template:

Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} from Agrawal General Stores is confirmed. Total ₹{{3}}, delivery {{4}}. Reply here if anything needs changing before we pack it.

It refers to the customer’s own order and sells nothing, which is Meta’s test for utility. Add “and 10% off detergents this week” and Meta will treat the whole template as marketing.

Step 3: UPI in the same chat

Send the shop’s UPI ID, a UPI QR image or a gateway payment link in the confirmation thread. It works on every phone and needs no setup with Meta.

Meta’s Payments API for India puts the bill and a pay button inside the chat, but it needs a gateway account and a provider that has built it; our WhatsApp payments guide covers each mode. At 60 orders a day we’d send the link and skip the integration.

The step that matters is the one after. Mark an order paid when the credit shows in your bank or UPI merchant app, not when a screenshot arrives. Screenshots are easy to fake and easy to send twice. A “paid” tag on the chat, added by whoever checked the account, is the record the delivery boy reads before he leaves.

Step 4: delivery slots and “out for delivery”

Offer slots as buttons, at most three to a message, because that’s Meta’s limit for reply buttons. If you run five slots, use a list message.

When the scooter leaves, send one line. If the customer messaged within the last 24 hours, a plain reply does it. For a slot booked yesterday, use a utility template:

Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} is out for delivery with {{3}} and should reach you by {{4}}. Reply here if nobody will be home.

Meta’s own utility examples include Your package from order {{order_number}} is on its way. Since 1 October 2026 utility templates are charged even inside the window, at ₹0.1150 to an Indian number, so the cost is the same either way. What it saves is the “kahan pahuncha?” call while your delivery boy is riding.

Step 5: weekly offers, only to regulars who said yes

The Thursday offer (“sunflower oil ₹10 off, Diwali dry fruit boxes in stock”) is a marketing message. Meta’s categorisation page lists promotional offers, coupons and “content intended to drive sales” as marketing, at ₹0.8631 per delivered message to an Indian number before GST.

Ask for the yes where it’s natural: at the counter, and in the message after a delivery. “Shall we send you our weekly offers on WhatsApp? Reply YES.” Record the answer on the contact. Someone who ordered once has not agreed to offers. The opt-in guide has wording and what to keep as proof.

Hi {{1}}, this week at Agrawal General Stores: {{2}}. Offers valid till {{3}}. Reply with your list to order, or tap Stop offers.

Buttons: Order now, Stop offers. Honour Stop offers the same day, and keep sending that customer’s order updates, which are a different category.

Send weekly at most, to regulars who ordered in the last 60 days. WhatsApp also limits how many marketing messages one person receives from all businesses combined; a held-back send fails with error 131049, and resending the same day makes it worse.

Step 6: a QR code at the counter

Put a QR code on the counter, the bill and the delivery bag, each with its own pre-filled sentence: “Hi, I’m at the counter and want home delivery”, “Hi, I have a question about my bill”. Meta’s documentation allows a business number up to 2,000 QR codes and short links, each with a pre-filled message of up to 140 characters. Our QR code guide has the link format and placement table.

A scan opens a chat, not an opt-in. Answer the question first and ask about offers afterwards.

What it costs for a store doing 60 orders a day

Illustrative numbers for Ramesh’s shop, 30 days at 60 orders a day, so 1,800 orders. We assume three replies per order (prices or list, confirmation with slot, payment received) and one “out for delivery” template, plus a weekly offer to 500 opted-in regulars. Customers’ own messages are free.

Message	Category	Volume a month	Meta cost before GST
Replies inside the window	Service	5,400	1,000 free, then 4,400 × ₹0.1150 = ₹506
Out for delivery	Utility	1,800	1,800 × ₹0.1150 = ₹207
Weekly offer, 4 sends to 500 regulars	Marketing	2,000	2,000 × ₹0.8631 = ₹1,726.20

That’s about ₹2,440 a month before GST, on Meta’s India rate card effective 1 October 2026, plus your provider’s plan. Conecxt’s plans are ₹2,499, ₹4,299 and ₹8,499 a month, and Basic caps messages at 10,000 a month; by this count the store sends 9,200, which is close. A store that sends the offer fortnightly instead saves about ₹860. One order kept from the shop down the road covers a lot of that, but only if the confirmation is fast.

Checklist before you switch on

• Decide app or Platform honestly: how many people type, how many orders a day
• A price list image refreshed every Monday, or a catalogue for an electronics range
• One confirmation per order with items, total and slot buttons
• A utility template for orders confirmed outside the window
• UPI ID or payment link in the thread; “paid” only after the credit shows
• An “out for delivery” utility template with the delivery person’s name
• Opt-in asked at the counter and after delivery, recorded on the contact
• One weekly offer template with a Stop offers button that works
• QR codes on counter, bill and bag, each with its own sentence
• Medicines kept out of the catalogue and offers

Start with the confirmation message. If tomorrow’s 60 orders each get one clear reply with a total and a slot, the 7 pm list of “did they pay?” chats gets much shorter.