What does a WhatsApp Business account actually let you do?
A verified WhatsApp Business (or Business Platform / API) account supports a product catalog, payment links and automated order updates — but the features split across a free tier and a paid one, so it’s easy to assume you have access to something you don’t.
- A product catalog customers can browse and add to a cart inside the chat
- Payment links — UPI (Unified Payments Interface), card or netbanking — sent directly in a conversation
- Automated order confirmations and shipping updates, once a customer has messaged you
- Click-to-WhatsApp ads that open a chat pre-filled with a specific product or offer
- Bulk template messages for order updates and promotions, sent through the Business Platform API — not through the regular consumer app
What is WhatsApp’s opt-in rule for business messaging?
A business can only send a customer-initiated promotional message — a sale, a restock alert, a festive offer — if that customer has explicitly opted in first, and the message goes through an approved template. Replying to a customer who messaged you first is different and open, with no opt-in required; starting the conversation yourself is what triggers the rule.
This isn’t a minor technicality. Sending unsolicited promotional messages to numbers that never opted in is the most common reason business accounts get restricted or banned outright, and it happens to accounts that meant no harm — they just imported an old customer list and started broadcasting.
What gets WhatsApp business numbers banned most often?
Broadcasting to a saved contact list that never explicitly opted in is the single most common cause — a short list beyond that accounts for nearly every other WhatsApp compliance problem retailers run into.
- Broadcasting a sale to a saved contact list that never explicitly agreed to receive marketing messages
- Using a personal WhatsApp number with a bulk-sending tool — against WhatsApp’s terms, and the fastest way to get a number banned
- No visible way for a customer to opt out, which most consent frameworks (and WhatsApp’s own commerce policy) require
- Assuming an old “customer replied once” conversation gives standing permission for future promotions — it doesn’t
How do you run WhatsApp marketing without risking a ban?
Build campaigns on real, tracked opt-in instead of an imported contact list. Storely’s marketing tools track who has actually opted in and build campaign segments from real order history, so a win-back message or restock alert only ever reaches customers who agreed to hear from you — the exact distinction WhatsApp is checking for.