WhatsApp adds 'carts' feature to improve in-app shopping experience

WhatsApp on Tuesday said it is adding 'carts' feature to make it easier for businesses to conduct transactions through the platform.

Last month, the Facebook-owned company had started rolling out a shopping button on its app to make it easier for people to discover a business' catalog to get information about the goods and services offered by the firm.

"WhatsApp is fast becoming a store counter to discuss products and coordinate sales. Catalogs have allowed people to quickly see what's available and helped businesses organise their chats around particular items. With more and more shopping happening through chats, we want to make buying and selling even easier," WhatsApp said in a blog post on Tuesday.

WhatsApp said the 'Catalogs' feature has allowed buyers to quickly see what's available while helping businesses organise their chats around particular items.

"Starting today, we're excited to bring carts to WhatsApp. Carts are great when messaging businesses that typically sell multiple items at once, like a local restaurant or clothing store...This will make it simpler for businesses to keep track of order inquiries, manage requests from customers and close sales," the blog said.

It added that 'carts' feature is going live around the world on Tuesday, just in time for the holiday season.

With carts, people can browse a catalog, select multiple products and send the order as one message to the business.

Previously, WhatsApp has stated that more than 175 million people message a WhatsApp Business account every day and more than 40 million people view a business' catalog each month including more than 3 million in India.