WhatsApp-first businesses
Run the whole business inside the chat
The business works. The paperwork around it does not: orders live in a thread, payments live in screenshots, and what sold lives in your head.
Your ordering link
One link, and the chat can take an order
Tab generates it for your business when you finish setting up. Share it anywhere you already talk to customers.
Your WhatsApp link
Generated when you finish setting up
Ankara wrap dress
In stock, held for 30 minutes
How it starts
The link arrives when onboarding finishes
There is nothing to connect and no number to migrate. Complete onboarding and Tab generates a WhatsApp ordering link that belongs to your business.
Put it in an Instagram bio, a WhatsApp status, a TikTok profile, a flyer, or send it as a reply. Whoever opens it lands in a chat that can take an order straight away, priced from your catalog and showing what is actually in stock.
- #2041 · WhatsAppChidinma · 2 itemsNew
- #2040 · StorefrontCollect at 6pmPreparing
- #2039 · QR · Table 43 itemsReady
The paperwork around the chat
What the thread stops having to be
The conversation stays
- Today
- Orders copied onto paper
- With Tab
- A structured order, priced from your catalog
Nobody has to move anywhere else. The customer messages exactly the way they always have.
Payment in the same thread
- Today
- An account number typed out
- With Tab
- A payment link where the conversation already is
Card (NGN or USD), or bank transfer, collected in Tab, and it attaches itself to the order it paid for.
A record you didn't have to keep
- Today
- Screenshots matched against a bank app
- With Tab
- History per customer, totals per item
Every order attaches to the person who placed it, so the record exists without anyone writing one.
Money that settles like a business
- Today
- “What sold last month?” means scrolling
- With Tab
- A total per item, sent first thing
Collections reach your bank as one figure by T+1 rather than as forty transfers to match by hand.
A second door
For the people who would rather browse than message
Some customers will never open a conversation to ask a price. They want to look, decide and pay without talking to anybody.
Your storefront is the same catalog as a web page. Same items, same stock, same payment. A link you can drop into a bio, a status or a flyer.
The Lagos Grill · Table 12
- 2× Suya PlatterKitchen
- 2× Jollof & ChickenKitchen
- 4× ChapmanBar
What the link carries
The difference between a conversation and an order
A priced catalog
Items, notes and prices come out of your record rather than being typed again in every thread.
Stock the customer can trust
What is sold out is not offered, so you stop promising things you no longer have.
A payment link in the thread
Instead of an account number, a wait, and a screenshot you have to check against the bank app.
Order history per customer
Who bought what and when, without you keeping a list of it.
One queue for every channel
Chat, storefront and walk-in orders sit together in the same list.
A report first thing
Totals per item, arriving as a message in the morning rather than as a scroll you never do.
What sold
A record you did not have to keep
“What sold last month?” is a scroll. It is also the question every decision in the business depends on: what to restock, what to stop carrying, what to push.
Because the order was structured at the moment it was placed, the answer exists without anyone writing it down. Totals per item, history per customer, takings per day.
Good morning. Yesterday at Amaka Stores:
- • Beaded clutch: sold out, 9 gone by 4pm
- • Leather sandals: 7 sold, 3 left
Reorder beaded clutches and sandals before Friday.
From first message to first paid order
Setting up in an afternoon
Open the account
From the phone you are already running the business on. Nothing to install.
Add your catalog
Items, prices and photographs. Import a spreadsheet if you have one, or add them by hand.
Set how you get paid
Collect in Tab by card (NGN or USD), or bank transfer. Or record payments you take yourself, on delivery or on your own machine.
Finish onboarding
Tab generates your WhatsApp ordering link. Your storefront link comes with it.
Share the link
Bio, status, flyer, reply. Both links are live the same day you sign up, and the first order can arrive that afternoon.
Behind the chat
One catalog, one queue, one set of numbers
The conversation stays exactly where it was. Everything behind it changes.
Sell everywhere
WhatsApp ordering · Your own storefront on your own link · QR codes for tables, counters and shelves · Bookings, covers and ticketed events
Orders & fulfilment
Live order queue across every channel · Station and counter printing · Fulfilment states from order to handover · Team roles and permissions
Get paid
Collect in Tab by card (NGN or USD), or bank transfer · Or collect on your own POS machine and record the payment in Tab · T+1 settlement to your bank · Every payment attached to the order it paid for, with nothing matched by hand · An end-of-day close you read rather than assemble
See what's working
Daily AI report to your phone · Sales and margin by day, hour and item · What to reorder and what is not moving · A customer database you own
Testimonial placeholder
We don't yet have a named, permissioned customer quote for WhatsApp-first businesses. This slot stays empty until we do.
Before you sign up
Where the chat is the wrong shape
Better to know now than in month three.
If you sell one bespoke thing at a time, like commissions, quotes or made-to-order work with long back-and-forth, a catalog and a payment link are not the shape of that conversation.
If your business is almost entirely walk-in and the chat is incidental, most of what this page describes is not your problem.
Tab does not do broadcast marketing or automated drip messaging. It records who bought; it is not a bulk-messaging tool.
It is not a chatbot that answers for you. The ordering part becomes an order; the rest of the thread is still yours to reply to.
Questions people running on WhatsApp ask
The things to settle before you start
- How do customers start a WhatsApp order?
- When you finish setting up, Tab generates a WhatsApp ordering link for your business. Share it wherever you already talk to customers, whether a bio, a status, a flyer or a reply, and the chat it opens can take an order straight away.
- Do I have to connect my own number?
- No. The link is generated for you at the end of onboarding. There is nothing to migrate and no number to hand over.
- Will my customers notice a difference?
- They get a clear order summary and a link to pay instead of an account number and a wait. That is the difference, and it is in their favour.
- Can I still reply to people myself?
- Yes. It is a conversation, not a bot replacing you. Tab turns the ordering part into a real order; the rest of the thread stays yours.
- What if someone wants to pay on delivery?
- Record the payment in Tab when you collect it. The order and the money still line up even when the cash arrives later.
- Can I sell through Instagram as well?
- Yes. Your storefront link is a web page, so it works in a bio, a story or a comment reply, on the same catalog and the same stock as the chat.
Talk to us about your business
Tell us about the business and we'll come back with a quote, or start setting up straight away.
Tab in other kinds of business
Retail & boutiques
Sell the same stock in the shop and in the chat
See how retail runs Tab
Restaurants & bars
Take the order sooner. Turn the table faster.
See how restaurants run Tab
Provisions stores
Know what's on the shelf, and what it earned
Talk to us about your shop