Guide · 9 October 2026

WhatsApp Business for a small business in Pakistan

How to set it up properly, the features almost nobody switches on, and the point at which a chat thread stops being a good enough record

In Pakistan, WhatsApp is not a marketing channel — it is where the business actually happens. Orders arrive there, prices are negotiated there, payment screenshots land there, and complaints start there. Almost every business reading this already uses it. What most are using is the ordinary app on a personal number, with none of the features that make it workable at volume. This guide covers the setup worth doing, and the point where a chat thread stops being enough.

The short version

  • Use WhatsApp Business, not the normal app. It is free and it adds the profile, catalogue, quick replies and labels.
  • Get the business off a personal number. Mixing family messages with orders loses both.
  • Fill in the business profile. Address, hours, website and description appear before anyone messages you.
  • Turn on quick replies and away messages. Most businesses never do, and they answer the same questions by hand forever.
  • A chat is not a record. Once orders pass a few a day, you need them somewhere searchable.

The app you should be using

There are three WhatsApp products and the difference matters:

  • WhatsApp Messenger — the personal app. No business profile, no catalogue, no labels. Most small businesses in Pakistan are running on this.
  • WhatsApp Business — free, a separate app, for one person or a small team. Business profile, catalogue, quick replies, labels, automatic greeting and away messages. This is what almost every business reading this should use.
  • WhatsApp Business Platform (the API) — paid, for larger operations that need many agents, a help desk or automation. It is not an app you install, and it is overkill until you have a support team.

You can run WhatsApp Business and personal WhatsApp on the same phone with two numbers, which is the usual arrangement.

Get the business off your personal number

  • This is the change people resist and later wish they had made sooner.
  • You cannot hand over a personal number when you hire someone or take leave. The business stops when you do.
  • Customers message at midnight because it is a personal number and they know you are there.
  • Your family photos sit beside your order history. The status you post for friends is seen by every customer.
  • You cannot share access. Two people cannot sensibly run one personal account.

The move is simple: a second SIM or a landline number registered to WhatsApp Business, then announce the new number everywhere and set an away message on the old one pointing at it for a few months.

Fill in the business profile

  • This is what a new customer sees before they type anything, and most profiles are blank.
  • Business name exactly as it appears on your signboard and your Google listing.
  • Category.
  • A one-line description of what you do and who you serve.
  • Address, or the areas you deliver to if you have no shopfront.
  • Opening hours, including Eid and Ramadan changes.
  • Email and website link.
  • A profile photo that is your logo or your shopfront, not a personal picture.

Keep every detail identical to your website and your Google Business Profile. Customers cross-check, and so do search engines.

The catalogue

WhatsApp Business lets you publish products or services with a photo, a name, a price and a description, inside the app. Customers browse it without leaving the chat, and you can send an item straight into a conversation.

It is genuinely useful for a small range, and it stops you re-sending the same photo and price twenty times a week.

Its limits are real though: there is no stock control, no order history, no checkout and no search beyond a short list. It is a price list with pictures, not a shop.

The sensible arrangement is both — the catalogue for quick answers in chat, and a real store for the ordering, the record and the search traffic. Our guide to starting an online store covers that side.

The features almost nobody switches on

  • Quick replies. Save your most-typed messages behind a shortcut — delivery charges, bank details, timings, the size chart. If you type something more than twice a week, it should be a quick reply.
  • Labels. Tag chats as new enquiry, quoted, paid, dispatched, complaint. It turns an endless list into something you can work through, and it is the closest the app gets to a pipeline.
  • Greeting message. Sent automatically to a first-time customer. Use it to answer the two questions you always get, not to say "thanks for contacting us".
  • Away message. Set your real hours and say when you will reply. A customer who knows they will hear back at 9am waits; one who hears nothing messages a competitor.
  • Short link. WhatsApp gives you a wa.me link that opens a chat with you. Put it on your website, your Instagram bio and your invoices.

Rules worth knowing

  • WhatsApp is stricter than most people assume, and accounts do get banned.
  • Do not message people who did not contact you. Buying a number list and broadcasting to it is the fastest route to a ban, and it is the thing most "WhatsApp marketing" services sell.
  • Broadcast lists only reach people who saved your number. That is by design, not a bug.
  • Blocks and reports accumulate. A burst of complaints from strangers is what triggers a review.
  • Ask before adding anyone to a group. Adding customers to a promotional group without asking is the most resented thing a business does on WhatsApp in this market.
  • Payment screenshots are not proof. They are trivially edited. Confirm receipt in your own account before dispatching, which our payments guide covers.

Where WhatsApp stops being enough

WhatsApp is excellent at conversation and poor at memory. The signs you have outgrown it as a system:

  • You cannot find what a customer ordered three months ago without scrolling.
  • Two people answer the same customer because neither can see the other's chat.
  • An enquiry arrives during leave and is found weeks later.
  • You cannot say how many enquiries you got last month.
  • Someone leaves and the chat history goes with their phone.

None of that means stop using WhatsApp. It means the conversation stays there while the record lives somewhere you can search — which is what a website form feeding a list is for.

Using it alongside a website, properly

The two work together when each does what it is good at:

  • The website answers the repeated questions — prices, timings, what is included, delivery areas — so the chat starts further along.
  • WhatsApp handles the conversation and the confirmation.
  • The website form captures the order details in a structured way, so you have the address and the item written down rather than scattered across fourteen messages.
  • Put the wa.me link on every page, and the website link in your WhatsApp profile, so a customer can move between them.

A business doing only WhatsApp answers the same questions forever. One doing only a website loses the customers who want to ask a person first.

What it costs

WhatsApp Business is free. A second SIM costs very little. The paid API is a different product and not worth considering until you have a support team.

The cost is the setup hour nobody spends: filling in the profile, writing the quick replies, setting the away message. Our website cost guide covers the other side of the equation.

Where WebNewBiz fits

You describe the business once and WebNewBiz builds the site around it, with your WhatsApp link on every page, an enquiry form that captures the details before the chat starts, and the same name, hours and address as your WhatsApp profile and your Google listing.

The site comes out of the website builder, enquiries land in the CRM instead of a chat thread you have to scroll, and the pricing page shows the running cost.

Quick answers

What is the difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business?

WhatsApp Business is a separate free app that adds a business profile with your address, hours and website, a product catalogue, quick replies, labels and automatic greeting and away messages. The ordinary app has none of these. There is also a paid API for larger operations, which is overkill for most small businesses.

Should I use my personal number for business WhatsApp?

No. You cannot hand a personal number over when you hire someone or take leave, your family photos and status sit beside your order history, and two people cannot share the account. A second SIM registered to WhatsApp Business solves all three.

Can I send marketing messages on WhatsApp?

Only to people who contacted you first. Buying a number list and broadcasting to it is the fastest way to get banned, and broadcast lists only reach people who saved your number anyway. Adding customers to a promotional group without asking is the most resented thing a business does on WhatsApp here.

Is the WhatsApp catalogue enough instead of a website?

For a very small range it answers quick questions well, but it has no stock control, no order history, no checkout and no search traffic — it is a price list with pictures. Most businesses use both: the catalogue in chat, and a real store for ordering and the record.

Is a payment screenshot on WhatsApp proof of payment?

No. Screenshots are trivially edited, and this is a common way small businesses lose goods. Confirm the money has arrived in your own account before dispatching, and ask customers to use an order number as the transfer reference so you can match it quickly.

Related guides

Everything else is on the blog.

Get started

Register a business number, fill in the profile, write your five most-typed messages as quick replies, then start for $1 and describe the business so the website answers the questions before the chat starts. More guides are on the blog.

More guides like this

Every guide is listed on the blog.