A WhatsApp ordering system, by message or by call.
A WhatsApp ordering system lets your customers see the menu, order, pay and get their receipt without leaving WhatsApp. We have built it two ways: a café ordering flow with buttons and lists, and an AI voice agent that takes the order when the customer calls your WhatsApp number.
What exists today
- Message ordering
- Sales demo for cafés, East Africa
- Voice ordering
- Prototype over a WhatsApp call
- Payment
- Stripe payment links; mobile money simulated in the demo
- Runs on
- The official WhatsApp Business Platform
Ordering in a few taps, no typing
The café demo we built and show to restaurant and café groups. Every step uses WhatsApp's own buttons and lists, so the customer taps rather than types.
- 01
Hello
Any message gets a greeting and three buttons: the menu, order, or the customer's loyalty stamps.
- 02
Menu
A button opens the hosted menu; the order is then built from a list of the items.
- 03
Checkout
The basket and its total, then a payment button. In the demo the mobile-money payment is simulated and labelled as such on screen.
- 04
Receipt and stamp
A receipt with an order code, and a stamp added to the customer's loyalty card.
- 05
Same as last time?
The next time the customer writes, the bot offers to repeat their last order in one tap.
Ordering by calling your WhatsApp number
Our voice ordering prototype: the customer taps call in WhatsApp and talks to an AI voice agent.
- 01
Recognised
The agent greets a returning customer by name and offers the orders they placed before.
- 02
Order taken
The customer picks or changes an order by speaking; the agent confirms it.
- 03
Payment link
A WhatsApp message arrives with a payment button pointing to a Stripe payment link.
- 04
Tracking
Once paid, a second message carries the tracking link.
The details that decide whether it works
These come from building and testing both flows on real phones.
- Answer first, work after. WhatsApp redelivers a message when the server answers slowly. We acknowledge at once and ignore duplicates, otherwise a retry can charge a loyalty card twice.
- Buttons have limits. A reply-buttons message carries at most three choices, and a link button cannot sit next to reply buttons in the same message. The menu step therefore sends two messages: the menu link, then the order buttons.
- Outside the window, templates only. When the customer has not written or called in the last 24 hours, a business can only send pre-approved templates. Payment and tracking messages are written as templates from the start and submitted early.
- Voice needs a bridge. WhatsApp calls and AI voice platforms do not speak the same audio formats, so the prototype runs a calling platform in between that converts the audio both ways.
- Point payment buttons at a stable address. The address prefix of a template's link button is fixed when Meta approves it. A payment provider's link never moves; our own servers might.
- Label anything simulated. In a demo, a simulated payment says so on the receipt, twice. Nobody should mistake a demo for a real charge.
The two ordering projects
- Hospitality · East AfricaSales demo
QR menus, table ordering and a WhatsApp assistant for cafés
A hospitality platform shown to café and restaurant groups: every dish with a photo and a video behind a QR code, ordering from the table, loyalty, and a WhatsApp assistant that answers questions about each shop — opening hours, locations, contacts.
- Branded menus where every dish has a photo and a video
- Ordering, loyalty and frequently asked questions on WhatsApp, with mobile-money payment simulated in the demo
- Hospitality · prototypePrototype
Voice ordering over a WhatsApp call
A customer calls the business on WhatsApp and orders by voice; an AI voice agent takes the order, then the payment link and the tracking link arrive as WhatsApp messages.
Read the case study
Around the order
WhatsApp loyalty
The stamp card from the café demo, and shared points between shops.
Video menus
The menu as short dish videos behind a QR code, in the guest's language.
Bookings
Restaurant bookings, a live floor plan, guest profiles and WhatsApp confirmations.
Related
Sources (checked 29 October 2026)
- Meta for Developers — Interactive reply buttons messages — Up to three predefined replies per message.
- Meta for Developers — Send messages — The 24-hour customer service window; templates outside it.
- Meta for Developers — Cloud API Calling — Voice calls between WhatsApp users and businesses.
- Meta for Developers — Template components
Frequently asked questions
What is a WhatsApp ordering system?
A WhatsApp number that takes orders itself: the customer sees the menu, builds an order with buttons and lists, pays through a link and gets a receipt, all inside WhatsApp, with the order landing in your system.
Can customers order by calling on WhatsApp?
Yes, as a prototype today. The customer calls the business's WhatsApp number, an AI voice agent takes the order, and the payment link and the tracking link arrive as WhatsApp messages.
Is your WhatsApp ordering system already in production?
Not yet. The message ordering flow is a sales demo for cafés and the voice ordering is a prototype. We say so plainly; the booking platform and the WhatsApp agents on our work page are the ones in production.
How do we start?
Book a discovery call and tell us how orders reach you today. We start from your menu and your payment provider, show you the flow on your own phone, and only then connect your WhatsApp number.
How is it priced?
Each project is scoped with you, so we do not publish a price. WhatsApp's own message fees are billed by Meta on top, and our pricing guide explains them.
Taking orders on WhatsApp already?
Tell us how orders and payments reach you today. We will show you the flow we would build.