In a bid to make it easier for small businesses to connect with customers and grow, Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Thursday introduced the "catalogue feature" for businesses, which use the "WhatsApp Business app" to share information about their products and services.

The feature has been rolled out for both Android and iOS in India, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, the UK and the US. It will be rolled out across the world soon.

"Catalogues are a mobile storefront for businesses to showcase and share their goods so that people can easily browse and discover something they would like to buy. Previously businesses had to send product photos one at a time and repeatedly provide information -- now customers can see their full catalogue right within WhatsApp," the company said.

This, according to WhatsApp, makes business owners look more professional and keeps customers engaged in the chat without having to visit a website.

For each item in its catalogue, a business can add information, including price, description and product code. WhatsApp hosts these catalogues to save storage space on the phones of both businesses and users.

How it works:

Open WhatsApp Business app, go to settings and click on business settings and select catalogue. Then tap on add product or service and add images of the product you want to sell and add the name and a short description of the product, along with links, SKU codes and save.

When a customer asks for a product on WhatsApp, the business owner can select the product from the catalogue option, which will appear along with other attachment options such as image, audio, location, contacts, etc.

However, unlike Instagram, WhatsApp still doesn’t allow transactions to happen within the app.