Here's something every Nigerian merchant knows, even if it never made it into an ecommerce textbook: for a lot of customers, the sale doesn't close on a web page. It closes in a WhatsApp chat.

Maybe they want to confirm you're a real person before sending money. Maybe they want to ask about colours, negotiate delivery, or pay by transfer once they've seen your account name matches your business. A full checkout form — email address, shipping calculation, card details — can feel like friction, or worse, like a wall between them and the conversation they actually want to have.

WhatsApp Checkout, now live on SalesCenta, is built for exactly this. Instead of forcing every customer through online payment, you can now let them order through your store and finish the purchase in a WhatsApp chat with you — the way many of them prefer to buy anyway.

What your customer sees

When WhatsApp Checkout is enabled, customers get an "Order via WhatsApp" option at checkout. Choosing it takes them to a simplified form — just their delivery method, name, and phone number. No email required, no shipping calculation, no card page.

From there, they're redirected straight into a WhatsApp chat with your business number, and here's the good part: the message is already written for them. Your store name, the order reference, the items, the total, and their name are pre-filled. They tap send, and the conversation starts with everything you need on your screen — no "which item did you want again?" back-and-forth.

Your stock is protected while you talk

The moment a customer places a WhatsApp order, it's created in your store with a "pending WhatsApp" status — and the items are reserved for 48 hours.

That means you and your customer can take the time to sort out payment and delivery without another buyer snatching the last piece from under the conversation. And if the order isn't confirmed within 48 hours, it expires automatically and the stock is released back for sale. No manual cleanup, no items stuck in limbo, no overselling.

Closing the sale

Once you and your customer agree terms and the payment lands — bank transfer, cash on delivery, however you've arranged it over WhatsApp — you record the payment on the order from your dashboard. It's the same "record payment" action you already use elsewhere, so there's nothing new to learn. The order then moves into your normal fulfilment flow and counts in your sales like any other.

To be clear: in this version, confirming payment is a manual step you take once you've received the money — WhatsApp Checkout isn't sending the customer an automated payment link. That's deliberate. This flow is built for the transfer-and-confirm rhythm that Nigerian buyers and sellers already trust, with your store handling the part it does best: capturing the order, protecting the stock, and keeping your records straight.

Turning it on takes two minutes

WhatsApp Checkout lives alongside your other payment methods in Settings. Enable it, add your WhatsApp business number, and you're live. (Use the test link to confirm the number opens the right chat before your first customer does.)

Meet your customers where they are

You could keep insisting every buyer completes a full web checkout — or you could accept what Lagos has been telling merchants for years: trust is built in conversation, and plenty of your best sales will always start with "Good afternoon, is this available?"

WhatsApp Checkout doesn't fight that. It organizes it — so every chat-based sale is a tracked order with reserved stock and a clean record, instead of a screenshot in a busy thread.

Turn it on today, and let your customers buy the way they already buy.