Industries · Retail
Online catalog, ordering, and delivery for grocers.
A grocer's catalog is broad, perishable, and updated daily. WhatsMenu gives you stock per item, daily caps on perishables, picker tickets that print to the floor, and coupons for weekly specials. Built for the way real grocery stores operate — not for people selling 10 SKUs.
Where grocery operations get squeezed
Five frictions specific to running a grocery business online.
Hundreds of SKUs with daily stock changes
Tomatoes restock daily. Bread comes in every 3 hours. The customer sees "in stock" online, arrives at pickup time, half their order is unavailable. They lose trust.
Perishables that need a daily cap
You sell 30 boxes of fresh strawberries a day. Past 30, the next batch is tomorrow's. Without a daily cap on the storefront, you risk overselling perishables.
Picker tickets vs. kitchen tickets
A grocery order isn't cooked, it's collected. The picker walks the store, gathers items, packs. Without printable picker tickets organised by aisle, the workflow is chaotic.
Bulk orders from small businesses or repeat customers
Cafés that order weekly. Restaurants that order produce twice a week. They want recurring carts, faster reorder. Without a recurring/saved-cart flow, they message you with their list each time.
Weekly specials and member discounts
This week 10% off cooking oil. Next week 15% off rice. Without a coupon system, you manually mark down each item. Errors creep in.
How WhatsMenu fits a grocer
Five features matched to grocery store workflow.
Stock management with item-level accuracy
Each SKU has its own stock count. Tomatoes restock → update stock count → storefront reflects accurately. Sold out → auto-hides. Customers see what you actually have.
Learn more →Daily limit caps perishables
Cap fresh strawberries at 30 boxes per day. Once the cap hits, the storefront shows "fully booked for today" and reopens at midnight. No overselling perishables.
Learn more →Picker tickets in your own format
Design a picker-ticket template in Order Print — paper size of your choice, items, SKUs, quantities, customer note. Print to the thermal or A4 printer in the picker area through any browser. With Print Node added, prints fire automatically as orders come in.
Learn more →Coupons handle weekly specials
Configure a coupon code "WEEK35" with 10% off the cooking-oil category. Activate Monday, deactivate Sunday. No SKU-by-SKU markdown; one toggle for the whole week.
Learn more →WhatsApp ordering brings B2B customers in
Cafés and restaurants order via WhatsApp share-cart link weekly. They build the same cart each time, send it via WhatsApp, you fulfil. Reorder is one tap; no message-listing each time.
Learn more →How a grocer uses WhatsMenu through a typical week
Monday morning fresh produce restocks; you update each item's stock count for the day. The storefront reflects accurately. By 11am the strawberries hit zero and the item shows "sold out" — customers see what's actually available. Picker tickets print throughout the morning to the picking-area printer (PrintNode fires them automatically as orders come in). A café orders 8 items via WhatsApp share-cart at 7am; same cart they ordered last Monday — one tap. Tuesday the weekly-special coupon "WEEK35" activates, 10% off cooking oil; one toggle covers all 12 oil SKUs. Sunday the coupon expires automatically.
- Monday morning: fresh produce restocks. Update stock counts for the day across hundreds of SKUs (CSV import handles the bulk update). The storefront reflects accurately within seconds.
- 11am: strawberries hit zero, auto-hide. Stock Management hides the item once its count reaches zero. Customers see only what's actually on the shelf — no "we're out, sorry" calls at pickup.
- Picker tickets print to the picking area. Order Print template designed for picking — items, SKUs, quantities, customer note. PrintNode auto-fires prints to the picking-area printer as orders come in. Pickers walk the store with a printed list.
- 7am: a café reorders via WhatsApp share-cart. B2B regulars (cafés, restaurants) keep a Share Cart link they reuse weekly — same cart, one tap. The order joins your normal queue with all the structured data.
- Tuesday: weekly-special coupon activates. "WEEK35" coupon scoped to the cooking-oil category; 10% off all 12 SKUs in that category. One toggle, all SKUs covered. Deactivate Sunday — instant revert.
- Sunday: weekly cycle resets. The expired coupon auto-reverts pricing. Stock counts ready for Monday's restock. Sales reports for the week land in the dashboard — picker volume, top sellers, dead SKUs all visible.
WhatsMenu vs grocery aggregators vs Shopify-class platforms
Grocery aggregators (HappyFresh, Grab Mart, Lazada Mart) take a fat commission and put their picker between you and the customer. Shopify-class platforms aren't built for hundreds of perishable SKUs. Where each option lands.
| What you get | Grocery aggregators (HappyFresh, Grab Mart, Lazada Mart) | Shopify / WooCommerce / Wix | WhatsMenu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-order cost | 15–25% commission + delivery fee taken from your margin + their picker labour cost. | Monthly platform fee (~USD 30/mo) + 0.5–2% transaction fee + paid theme + paid apps for hundreds of SKUs. | Flat monthly subscription. Payment gateway fee only. Your own pickers, your own delivery zones. |
| Picker workflow on YOUR store | Aggregator's picker — you don't control them. Stock errors are your fault, not theirs. | Native cart but picker-ticket printing needs paid apps. | Picker tickets via Order Print, designed in your own format. PrintNode auto-fires prints to the picking area. |
| Hundreds of perishable SKUs | Aggregator catalog limits + their photography requirements. | Native, but bulk SKU updates need CSV apps. | Native — Stock Management handles unlimited SKUs; CSV export/import for bulk daily updates. |
| B2B / café / restaurant orders | Aggregator targets retail consumers, not B2B. | Available via paid B2B apps. | Share Cart for repeat B2B orders — café reorders the same list weekly with one tap. |
| Weekly specials / member discounts | Platform-mediated promos; you don't control timing or scope. | Native via coupons; date scheduling needs configuration. | Coupons natively scope by category + start/end date. "WEEK35: 10% off cooking oil, Mon–Sun" — one toggle, auto-expires. |
| Customer relationship | Aggregator owns the customer; you can't WhatsApp them about restocks or specials. | Yours. | Yours. Customer phone in dashboard — direct WhatsApp for restock alerts, weekly specials, B2B reorder reminders. |
| Best when | You want delivery reach to in-app shoppers in your zone. | You're a national grocery chain with a tech team. | You're a neighbourhood grocer who already has a customer base via WhatsApp + footfall and wants a structured ordering layer on top. |
Most independent grocers run hybrid: list a curated selection on aggregators for new-customer reach, run the full catalog (including B2B accounts) on direct WhatsMenu. The aggregator commission on weekly cooking-oil reorders alone usually covers a year of WhatsMenu subscription.
Recommended setup
Modes to enable
Features to enable
Frequently asked questions
Can I track stock for hundreds of SKUs?
Yes. Stock Management handles unlimited SKUs. Each item has its own stock count; sold out → auto-hides. CSV export/import lets you bulk update.
Can I cap perishables at a daily quantity?
Yes. Daily Limit caps total orders and total items per day at the company level (with per-weekday and per-date overrides). For caps on a specific perishable like fresh strawberries (30 boxes a day), use Stock Management on the strawberries item with the qty reset each morning; the item shows "sold out" once it hits zero.
Can I print picker tickets in a format that suits my warehouse?
Yes. Build a picker-ticket template in Order Print — paper size of your choice, items, SKUs, quantities, customer note, any layout that fits your picking flow. Print one-click from any browser, or add Print Node to auto-print as orders arrive. Items currently print in the order they were added to the cart; if you need strict aisle-order grouping, that's a layout-design call you make in the template.
Can B2B customers (cafés, restaurants) order on a recurring basis?
WhatsMenu doesn't enforce recurring billing yet. For weekly B2B orders, raise the Share Cart link expiry and visit limit (Settings > Apps > Share Cart) so a buyer can keep reusing the same link, or have them rebuild the same cart each cycle and share it back. Many B2B grocer-customer relationships work via WhatsApp Business — Share Cart fits that flow.
Can I run weekly specials without manually marking down each item?
Yes. Coupons let you create category-scoped percentage discounts. Activate Monday, deactivate Sunday — no per-SKU change needed.
How does pricing work for a grocer using WhatsMenu?
Flat monthly subscription, no per-order fee. Payment gateway processing fee on online orders only (e.g. Stripe ~2.9%). For grocers running a mix of cash on delivery and online payment, the only variable cost is the gateway on online orders.
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Learn more →Open your grocery storefront today.
Stock per item, daily limits, picker tickets, weekly specials — all in one platform.
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