Enhanced Payment Links on WhatsApp

PayU supports multiple ways to accept payments on WhatsApp in partnership with Meta. Merchants integrate with PayU; PayU handles the Meta side—you do not need a separate commercial or technical integration with Meta for these flows.

Enhanced Payment Links (EPL) is the simplest option: you send an approved WhatsApp template message with a Pay Now call-to-action, the customer taps it, and completes payment on PayU’s Hosted Checkout page on the browser (outside WhatsApp) and on WhatsApp app itself for UPI payments. If you already use PayU payment links, link generation and webhooks work the same as today. For more information, refer to Payment Links.

Overview

EPL uses Meta’s Enhanced Payment Links pattern: PayU generates a payment link for the order, your system sends a WhatsApp Cloud API template whose CTA URL carries the PayU link (with the PayU-specific URL suffix Meta requires), WhatsApp shows an enhanced card with Pay Now, and the customer pays on PayU checkout using UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, EMI, and other methods your PayU setup supports.

Meta defines three WhatsApp commerce payment flavours; EPL sits at the lowest complexity end (typically 1–2 weeks to go live), with no PG-to-WhatsApp OAuth linking in Business Manager.

Prerequisites to go live

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How commerce works on WhatsApp

WhatsApp Commerce is not a full e-commerce website inside the chat. It is usually a conversation-led journey: the customer talks to the business (or a bot), the business helps them choose what to buy, then payment is triggered using one of Meta’s flavours—EPL, UPI Intent, or PG Deep Integration (P2M). PayU integrates at the payment step; catalogue, cart, login, and address are handled by Meta’s messaging features plus your website, app, CRM, or order system.

What happens before payment

Where EPL fits in the commerce journey

EPL is a payment channel, not a full in-chat storefront:

• Commerce before pay usually happens outside the pay template—on your website, app, call centre, or agent chat—or the payable amount is system-generated (renewal, EMI, invoice).
• Your system creates the order or payable in your OMS / billing stack, then calls PayU for a payment link, then sends an approved template with Pay Now.
• Login, address, and line-item UX are not provided by EPL itself; if you need them at pay time, they appear on PayU Hosted Checkout (browser / in-app WebView) or were captured earlier in your journey.

Use UPI Intent or PG Deep Integration when the customer must review a structured order in chat and pay with a native order bubble (utilities, multi-item retail, in-chat checkout). For more information on those journeys, refer to WhatsApp Payments Integration.

Commerce capability by payment flavour

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How the payment flow works

1. Your backend calls PayU to generate a payment link (same as existing payment-link flows).
2. Your backend calls the WhatsApp Cloud API with an approved template; the template’s CTA includes the PayU link URL pattern Meta expects.
3. The customer sees the template card in WhatsApp and taps Pay Now.
4. The browser opens PayU hosted checkout; the customer pays with any supported method.
5. PayU processes the payment and sends your existing PG webhook (same payload and reconciliation patterns as today).

The following sequence diagram matches the steps above (same styling as other PayU Developer Guide sequence diagrams such as the refunds workflow).

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  "theme": "base",
  "sequence": {
    "mirrorActors": false,
    "rightAngles": true,
    "messageAlign": "left",
    "fontSize": 12,
    "actorFontSize": 12,
    "noteFontSize": 11,
    "actorMargin": 90,
    "width": 170,
    "boxMargin": 10,
    "messageMargin": 38,
    "diagramMarginX": 60,
    "diagramMarginY": 18
  },
  "themeVariables": {
    "fontFamily": "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif",
    "fontSize": "12px",
    "background": "#FFFFFF",
    "primaryColor": "#A6C307",
    "primaryTextColor": "#002843",
    "primaryBorderColor": "#002843",
    "secondaryColor": "#F4F9E0",
    "lineColor": "#002843",
    "textColor": "#002843",
    "actorBkg": "#A6C307",
    "actorBorder": "#002843",
    "actorTextColor": "#002843",
    "actorLineColor": "#002843",
    "signalColor": "#002843",
    "signalTextColor": "#002843",
    "labelBoxBkgColor": "#F4F9E0",
    "labelBoxBorderColor": "#A6C307",
    "noteBkgColor": "#F4F9E0",
    "noteTextColor": "#002843",
    "noteBorderColor": "#A6C307",
    "activationBkgColor": "#E8F0C4",
    "activationBorderColor": "#002843"
  }
}}%%
sequenceDiagram
    box Merchant
        participant MS as Merchant system
    end
    box PayU
        participant PU as PayU
    end
    box WhatsApp
        participant WA as Cloud API
    end
    participant C as Customer

    MS->>PU: Create payment link
    PU-->>MS: Payment link URL
    MS->>WA: Send approved template (CTA includes PayU link suffix)
    WA->>C: Template card with Pay Now
    Note over C: Tap Pay Now — opens browser
    C->>PU: Hosted checkout (browser)
    C->>PU: Complete payment
    PU->>MS: PG webhook (same as payment links)

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Customer journey

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Benefits for your business

- Minimal backend change if you already use PayU payment links—reuse link APIs and webhooks.
- No OAuth linking of your PayU account inside WhatsApp Business Manager for EPL.
- Full checkout breadth on PayU hosted pages (EMI, auto-debit, etc.), not limited to in-chat UPI-only flows.
- Fastest path to WhatsApp collections compared with deeper native integrations.

Real-world examples cited in product materials include PolicyBazaar (reported 17% conversion uplift after EPL) and Piramal Finance for recurring EMI collection via links.

When you must use EPL?

- Insurance — premium renewals and policyholder collections.
- Lending / NBFCs — EMI and recurring collection links.
- Bulk collections and reminders with a pay link in each template message.
- Merchants who already run PayU payment links and want WhatsApp as an additional channel.
- Teams that need go-live in roughly 1–2 weeks (often dominated by Meta template approval, typically 3–7 business days).

When to consider another flavour instead?

• EPL can still offer a native payment experience for some customers (for example UPI via WhatsApp’s in-app payment surface), but EPL is link-first: you send a template with Pay Now after the amount and purpose are already fixed. It does not, by itself, run a full browse → cart → address → pay journey in chat.

• You want a conversational commerce flow—not only dropping a payment link in WhatsApp, but walking the customer through catalogue, cart, address, and order placement in the conversation → a complete commerce experience on WhatsApp typically needs PG Deep Integration (P2M). Use UPI Intent if a structured order bubble with UPI-only pay is enough. See WhatsApp Payments Integration.

• You need rich multi-line-item orders and real-time order status purely in chat (for example food delivery or quick commerce) → PG Deep Integration (P2M) is usually required. See Integrate WhatsApp Payments.

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