Online Shop and Product Catalogue
How do I make an online product catalogue for my shop?
Describe your products, prices and categories in plain Bangla and the builder makes a catalogue page with room for photos. Under each product sits a WhatsApp order button: one tap opens the buyer's WhatsApp with the product name and price already written, and they just hit send. There is no online payment inside the page, orders reach you as messages.
What you are building
Your products sit on one page with photos and prices. A buyer opens the link on their phone, likes something, taps the button under it, and their WhatsApp opens with a message to your number already written, with the product name and price filled in. All they do is press send.
One thing is worth saying up front. Built for free, this page is not like a large e-commerce site. On a free page the buyer cannot pay by card or bKash inside it, and orders are not stored anywhere. Orders reach you by message or phone call, and you take the money as cash on delivery or over bKash. That is how most small shops in Bangladesh already work, so it is plenty to start with.
If you do want orders stored, that is available. With lifetime hosting the site's forms really work, with no domain of your own needed: orders and messages land in your site dashboard inbox, an email tells you, and you can build a full checkout page with a cart and cash on delivery; Business and Commerce take more orders a day. For what it costs and what you get, see banglacodes.com/docs/business-hosting. The rest of this guide is written for the free page and applies to both.
Step by step
Step 1: Open the Builder tab, give the app a name such as Rahim Store Catalogue, and press Start building.
Step 2: Before you start, write the list out on paper. Each product needs three things: a name, a price, and which category it belongs to. Categories mean groups like sarees, three piece sets, children's clothes. Keep your phone number handy too.
Step 3: Type what you want in the box, in plain Bangla. The clearer you are, the closer the first result will be.
Build a product catalogue page for my clothing shop Rahim Store. Three categories: sarees, three piece sets, children's clothes. Four products in each category, each with a place for a photo, a name and a price with the ৳ sign. Under every product put a WhatsApp order button that opens a message to 017xxxxxxxx with the product name and price already written. Shop name at the top, address and opening hours at the bottom. Green and white, and it must look good on a phone.
Step 4: Press Send. The AI first says in Bangla what it is doing, then the page appears on the right. Narrow the preview to phone width and look again, because phones are where your buyers will see it.
Step 5: Now put the real photos in. The first build already puts a Pexels photo, picked to match, in every product slot, so the page never looks empty; but buyers buy from seeing your goods, so give your own photos. You can upload up to 60 a day, and to swap them one by one later the site manager's "Text and images" tab is the easy way. If you have none of your own, the Find images button gives you other free ones, or you can describe a picture in Bangla and have one made. Just remember that Bangla words cannot be drawn inside a made-up picture, so keep names and prices in the page text rather than inside the image.
Step 6: Polish it in small steps. One request at a time gives the best result.
Under the price add small text saying delivery charge is extra, and put a search box at the top so a buyer can find a product by typing its name.
Step 7: Press Share. The link is copied for you, so post it on your Facebook page, in WhatsApp groups or in an advert. You also get a QR code: print it, keep it on the shop counter, and a customer who points a camera at it lands straight on the page.
Ways to make it better
- When a price changes, just say so, for example make the saree 1250. One line is enough.
- For a product that has run out, do not delete it. Ask for a red Out of stock stamp across it instead, so buyers learn that you normally carry it.
- Ask for a short code beside the product name in the WhatsApp message, such as SH-03. On a phone call you both know instantly which item is being discussed.
- For customers who prefer to talk, put a Call us button at the top that dials your number when tapped.
- Ask for it to be built so it can sit on the home screen, and a buyer can keep the page on their phone like an app that opens even without internet.
Mistakes many people make
- Pouring fifty products into one prompt. Start with four or five, get the look right, then add the rest in batches.
- Leaving a wrong phone number in place. When it is built, tap the order button yourself once and check the message goes to the right number.
- Asking the buyer to pay inside the page. That does not happen here, so write on the page how you take money, for example cash on delivery, or agreed over a message.
- Forgetting to press Publish again after using your own domain. Later edits do not reach the live site until you press Publish once more.
What to do next
After a few days of real orders you will see what buyers keep asking. Put those answers on the page: how long delivery takes, whether you ship outside Dhaka, whether items can be exchanged. Every answer on the page is one message you no longer have to type. After that you can build a receipt page or an income and expense book for the same shop, both covered step by step in their own chapters.
Beginner questions
Does an online shop mean big costs?
Here it starts at zero. Free site, free link, orders arrive in your WhatsApp. The only cost is optional, if you want the site on your own domain: the one-time lifetime hosting fee, plus the domain's own yearly fee at your registrar.
Do price changes mean rebuilding?
No, "make that saree 2,500" changes it in place, the link stays the same.
How will buyers pay?
The way they do now: in person, or to your bKash or Nagad number. The order message carries the details, the money stays in your hands.