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The same price on the website and in the chat
Decide what rules, your website or a separate price sheet, and write down the four-step routine so your WhatsApp catalog never shows a different number than your website.
By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026
In a WhatsApp catalog listing, the photo isn't the problem, it's the number right below it. A customer messages you on WhatsApp asking about the haircut with beard trim. You check the catalog and it says $18. But on your website, you raised the price to $20 that same week because your supplier changed. The customer shows you a screenshot of the catalog. Now you're stuck choosing between losing money or looking like someone who raises prices without warning.
This isn't rare. It happens every time you change a price and forget the catalog, every time there's a seasonal deal, every time a new product comes in at a different price than the one someone copied months ago. The longer the gap between the two numbers, the more customers spot the mismatch before you do.
The question isn't how to edit each product listing, you already know how to do that. The question is where that number comes from every time you write it, and who's allowed to change it, so the catalog never says something different from what the website says.
One number, one source
If the price lives in two places at once, in the memory of whoever's answering the chat, on the website, in a notebook behind the counter, sooner or later two of those places will say different things. It doesn't take bad intentions. It's enough to change it in one place and forget the other, or for a new employee not to know the price went up that week.
The catalog is edited from the business's WhatsApp Business account. If more than one person handles the business, the price should be set by whoever manages pricing, not whoever happens to be answering chats that day. Letting anyone who replies to a message also change the price is exactly how numbers end up out of sync.
Some businesses don't have a fixed price: an electrician who quotes based on the job, a designer who charges per project. There, you don't need to make up a set price for the catalog. Just put the same thing that's on the website, "starting at $150" or "no-obligation quote," and settle the exact figure over chat. What can't happen is the website saying "starting at $150" while the catalog says "starting at $100": the starting point has to match too.
The solution isn't checking both places every time someone asks. It's deciding which one is in charge, and making the rest a copy. If the website is in charge, the catalog copies the website. If you keep a separate price list, the website and catalog both copy from there. But only one decides, never both at once.
- The price you see on the website is the real one, always
- The catalog gets updated by copying that number, never the other way around
- No extra document to maintain
- Works for fixed, stable pricing: hair salons, single classes, equipment rental
- You keep a separate document, a spreadsheet or a note, with the price of each item
- When it changes, you update it there first, then copy it to the website and the catalog
- It takes one extra step, but it separates the decision from the place where it's published
- Works when the price depends on something that shifts before you touch the website: the season, the cost of materials, a limited-time deal
Which one should you use: If your prices only change a few times a year, let your website rule: it's what everyone sees and what you're least likely to forget to update. If you change prices every month or by season, keep a separate price sheet and have both your website and catalog always copy from it.
Think of a surf school that raises the price of a single lesson in July and August because there's a waitlist, then lowers it in October. If that school lets the website be in charge, someone has to remember to update it every time the season changes, and meanwhile the catalog is still showing the winter price. With a price list, the decision to raise it in July gets made once, written down, and both the website copy and the catalog listing come from there. The document is in charge; the website and catalog just show what it says.
The same goes for add-ons. If the haircut has a $3 surcharge for a wash with special products, that surcharge has to show up the same way in both places, not just the base price. A catalog that only shows the round number while the website spells out the extras ends up in the same argument: the customer saw one price and paid another.
Who makes the change, and when
Once you've decided who's in charge, you still need a routine so the change reaches both places the same day, not whenever you find a free moment.
- 1Decide the new number
One person decides, the business owner or whoever manages pricing. It doesn't get decided on the fly while replying to a customer in chat, or because an employee thinks a round number sounds better. - 2Change it in the source first
If the website is in charge, edit it there. If the price list is in charge, edit that document before touching the website. - 3Copy it to the catalog that same day
Don't put it off until you have a spare moment. A catalog with the old price for a week means a week of appointments charged wrong, or customers arguing with a screenshot in hand. - 4Check both at the same time
Open the website and the catalog on your phone, side by side, and read the same product on both. It takes a minute, and it prevents the whole problem.
With the price settled, the next thing to decide is how customers get to it: does the catalog send them to ask, or straight to buy. That's what the next lesson covers.
- Decided what's in charge: the website or a separate price book
- Written out: the four-step routine for changing a price without leaving the catalog out of sync
- The catalog says the same thing as the website today
Test yourself
Answer before opening each one. If one gives you trouble, go back to the section that explains it.
1. You run a hair salon with prices that barely change all year, and someone asks you how to keep the catalog and the website from drifting apart. What do you decide, and why?
Let the website be the source. Since the price barely changes, it's easier to remember to check it, and the catalog always copies from there.
2. You sell a product whose material cost goes up and down every month depending on the supplier. Where should the real price live?
In a separate price book, not directly on the website. It gets updated there first, and from there it's copied to both the website and the catalog.
3. A customer shows you a WhatsApp screenshot where you promised a discount that no longer exists. What went wrong, and what would you do differently?
The price was negotiated over chat instead of being posted as a dated offer visible to everyone. Next time, any discount goes up as a public offer with an expiration date, not as a number mentioned one-on-one.
With the price fixed, there's still one other place your catalog could be lying without you knowing: links that still lead to chat instead of to the catalog.
In Yodai the WhatsApp bot answers with your prices and your hours, and hands the chat over when someone asks for a person. See how the WhatsApp bot for your business works.
NextThe link that leads to the catalog, not the one that leads to a chat