WhatsApp Business: Ghost catalogues and three alternatives for your venture

A little over a week ago, several businesses established in Cuba reported a malfunction in their WhatsApp Business applications: it is no longer possible to access the product catalogs.

The problem has only been identified among users with Cuban phone numbers (+53), be it clients or those businesses that have registered this function with a number from Cuba. Using a VPN does not make a difference. However, those accessing the catalogs from another country or using WhatsApp Business with an international phone number continue to enjoy all the benefits of the messaging application.

So far, neither the official Meta accounts, nor WhatsApp itself have issued a statement on the matter, but everything indicates that this is a very specific restriction.

Faced with these difficulties, today Online Entrepreneurship brings you three alternatives to continue to share your catalogs efficiently.

Firstly, you can always resort to “good old-fashioned” methods: design a PDF that includes your logo, identifying colors, product photos and respective descriptions. Once you feel it’s ready, upload it to a cloud and share the link on your social networks. You can also add it to a brand linktree, or generate a QR code and share it in other formats. If you have doubts on how to do this, you can check our article Linktree: A quick and complete answer to your brand’s multiple links.

In addition, there are a variety of tools on the market that allow you to create digital catalogs for free, and then share them on other platforms through a link.

MeSirve is another Cuban application with which you can create catalogs and connect with your customers. According to a thread posted on Twitter by the brand, it does not limit the number of administrators or businesses, and you are free to define your own exchange rate between CUP, USD, MLC or whatever currency you use. Although they currently point out that it is only available from browsers, they announce that they will soon have a mobile application available.

https://twitter.com/mesirveapp/status/1580972469514485760?t=POVRr-vJI_JBCz0DUQQwmw&s=08

Catalog Maker is another option used to register your products or services, including photos, descriptions, prices and specifics such as the quantities available. Once finished, it creates a PDF format you can share on your digital spaces.

This list will continue to grow, and it is possible to adjust to each and every option according to the type of service or product you offer. For now, we leave you with the above, as they seemed comfortable, friendly and useful to us.