A WhatsApp ordering bot
for the app your customers already have open
In Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil and much of Latin America, WhatsApp is where a customer already is, not an app they would need to install. An ordering bot meets them there: a menu, a cart, a confirmation, built on the official API so the number never gets banned for a workaround.
What it is and who needs it
A WhatsApp ordering bot shows a menu or catalogue, takes an order and confirms it, inside the app a huge share of customers in Southeast Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe already have open all day. It suits a restaurant, a local shop, a service business, anywhere a customer currently sends a text message to order and a staff member types a reply by hand, slowly, during busy hours, when speed matters most.
It depends on being built on WhatsApp’s official Business Cloud API rather than an unofficial automation tool. Unofficial tools can get a number permanently banned with no appeal, which for a business running orders through that number is not a risk worth taking to save a setup step.
What is inside
A customer messages your WhatsApp number, sees a menu or catalogue, builds an order and confirms it, with payment handled through whatever your market actually uses: PromptPay, cash on delivery, a card processor, or a local gateway. Every order triggers a staff alert so nothing sits unseen, and a confirmation goes back to the customer automatically so they are not left wondering if the order went through.
We have built this exact combination of local payments and delivery for a sports nutrition brand’s store in Thailand: PromptPay and cash on delivery, Thai address handling, delivery integration through Shippop, and a mobile-first build with 106 backend tests covering the order and payment paths specifically, because a payment bug on a live store is the kind of mistake that costs real money immediately, not eventually.
How we build it
We start from your actual order volume and menu complexity, because a bot for a ten-item menu and a bot for a changing daily special list need different approaches to keeping the catalogue current. Payment integration gets built and tested against your market’s actual provider, PromptPay’s flow is not LiqPay’s flow is not a card processor’s flow, each has its own edge cases around failed payments and confirmation timing that we test specifically rather than assume away.
Hand-off to a staff member is built in for anything outside the standard order flow, a custom request, a complaint, a question the bot was not built to answer, because forcing every conversation into a rigid flow loses the exact customers who needed a human in the first place. We deploy on the official Cloud API with monitoring so a webhook failure gets caught immediately, since a WhatsApp order that silently never arrives is worse than the bot not existing at all.
We also build in a simple reconciliation check: every order the bot confirms gets compared against what the payment provider actually received, on a schedule, with any mismatch flagged to staff rather than discovered when a customer calls asking where their order went.
Timeline and price
| Tier | Price | Timeline | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MVP | from $1,100 | 2 to 3 weeks | One core flow, one channel, enough to go live and test demand |
| Production | from $2,600 | 3 to 5 weeks | Full flow, admin tools, integrations, monitoring, ready for real volume |
| Full control, handover-ready | from $4,420 | 5 to 7 weeks | Same build, plus documentation, test coverage and a handover package so any developer can take over, not just us |
Running cost is typically $20 to $50 a month in WhatsApp API usage plus hosting, depending on message volume.
What you own at the end
The verified WhatsApp Business account, the order database, and the full source code. Nothing runs through a shared or unofficial number that could be suspended without warning.
Related
Pairs with a WhatsApp appointment bot for service businesses that also take bookings, and with a WhatsApp support bot with AI for the questions that come in before an order. See SMS and WhatsApp notifications for the messaging layer. For a real store built with this exact payment and delivery combination, see the D2C store Thailand case study.
Still taking WhatsApp orders by hand? Get in touch and we will look at your actual order volume.
FAQ
How much does a WhatsApp ordering bot cost?
A menu, cart and checkout on one payment method starts at $1,100 and is live in two to three weeks. Multiple payment methods, delivery integration and an admin panel run $2,200 to $4,000.
Is this the official WhatsApp API or a risky workaround?
Official, always. We build on the WhatsApp Business Cloud API through a verified business account. Unofficial automation tools risk the number getting banned with no appeal, which is a risk we will not put a client's business on.
What local payment methods can it support?
Depends on your market: PromptPay in Thailand, cash on delivery almost everywhere, card processors, or a local gateway specific to your country. We have integrated PromptPay, LiqPay and COD flows with idempotency in past builds.
Who owns the WhatsApp Business account and order data?
You do. The WhatsApp Business account is registered in your name, order data lives in a database you control, and the bot's code is yours from the first commit.
Can it hand off to a human for a complex order?
Yes, any order or question outside the standard flow, a custom request, a complaint, routes to a staff member with the full conversation attached, rather than forcing a rigid flow on something that needs a person.