Festival orders on WhatsApp: a Diwali 2026 checklist

By the Sellly team · Published 2 Oct 2026 · 5 min read

To take festival orders on WhatsApp without losing any, decide what you’ll make and how much before you announce anything, set a last day to order, take payment before you buy ingredients, count your stock, and tell your regulars first. For Diwali 2026, Dhanteras falls on Friday 6 November and Lakshmi Puja on Sunday 8 November, so most sweets, cakes and hampers will want to arrive between 5 and 8 November. This checklist works back from those dates.

The dates

Three to four weeks before: plan what you can make

• A short festival menu. A few boxes and hampers, each with its sizes and prices. Fewer items, more of each, is easier to make, pack and count.
• Your capacity, per day. How many boxes your kitchen and your helpers can make and pack each day, and how many you can deliver. This number decides everything else.
• Packaging and labels, ordered early. Boxes you fill before anyone orders need a label with the details the packaging rules ask for, and your FSSAI number. More in selling food from home in India.
• Prices, set once. Ingredients, boxes and delivery cost more in festival weeks. Price for that before you announce, not after; the cake pricing calculator works it through for a cake or a box.
• What you won’t do. Last-minute custom work, delivery outside your areas, cash on the busiest days. Deciding now saves saying no in a hurry later.

Two to three weeks before: tell people

• Your regulars first. They order earliest, and they order the most.
• Instagram, your Status and posters, each with one link that opens your WhatsApp chat, and its QR code on posters and boxes. The WhatsApp link generator makes both.
• The last day to order, in every announcement.

WhatsApp has rules about announcements. In the WhatsApp Business app, a broadcast list reaches only people who have saved your number. On the WhatsApp Business Platform, an announcement is a marketing template: it needs the customer’s agreement to receive offers, and Meta charges ₹0.8631 plus GST for each one in India. Replies to people who message you first are not announcements.

Set a last day to order, for each delivery day

Work back from your capacity. If boxes are made fresh and you need two days to buy, make and pack, close orders for each delivery day two days before it. For example:

When a day is full, close it, even if its last day hasn’t come. A promise you can’t keep on Diwali costs more than an order you didn’t take.

Take payment before you start

• Paid before you buy ingredients. In full for boxes; an advance for big and custom orders.
• Checked in your own account. Festival weeks are when fake payment screenshots turn up. More in how to accept UPI payments on WhatsApp.
• Unpaid orders closed on time, so a box isn’t held for someone who never pays.
• Cash on delivery, off for the busiest days, if you usually allow it.

Count what you can sell

• A stock count for each box or batch. When it’s gone, it’s gone, and customers find out before they pay, not after.
• Pause new orders when you’re full, with a message that says when you’ll open again.

Bulk and corporate orders

• Treat them as quotes: how many boxes, what’s in them, names or logos, the delivery date and the addresses.
• Take a deposit before you buy anything for them.
• Ask early whether they need a GST invoice. A business that isn’t registered for GST can’t charge GST or issue a tax invoice, so say so before you quote.
• Agree the delivery: one address or many, by when, and who receives them.

Diwali week

• Each morning, one list: what to make, pack and send today.
• Three updates for every order: confirmed, on its way, delivered. Wording is in WhatsApp business message templates.
• Pickup windows for customers who can collect, which saves delivery runs on the busiest days.
• Late requests get a polite closed message that says when you’ll reopen.

Messages to copy

Sample business, prices and dates. Change them to yours.

After the festival

Thank your customers, and note who ordered what: next year’s list starts here. Christmas and New Year bring the next rush for cakes and hampers, and Sankranti in January for sweets.

Sellly is built for weeks like this: stock counts that close a box when it sells out, one switch to pause orders, UPI orders that close on their own when they aren’t paid in time, custom hampers priced as requests with a deposit, a link, QR code and poster to share, and a list of regulars to message from your own phone. See how it works for home bakers, sweets and snacks and florists and gift shops.

Sources

• Holidays to be observed in central government offices during 2026 (DoPT order of 3 Jul 2025) (DoPT, as published by GConnect)
• Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta for Developers)
• Template categories (Meta for Developers)
• FoSCoS: apply for FSSAI registration or a licence (FSSAI)
• Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 (Department of Consumer Affairs)
• Registration under GST law (GST Council)

Related

• Home bakers and cake studiosFor home bakers and cake studios in India: customers order from your menu or ask for a custom cake in your WhatsApp chat, choose pickup or delivery and pay by UPI. Every order and payment lands on one list.
• Sweets, snacks and home foodFor home kitchens in India selling sweets, namkeen, pickles and snacks: customers order packs from your WhatsApp chat and pay by UPI before you pack, and you deliver from one list of paid orders.
• Florists and gift shopsFor florists, hamper makers and personalised gift shops: customers choose a bouquet or hamper in your WhatsApp chat, pick the day it arrives, add who it’s for and a card message, and pay by UPI.
• How to accept UPI payments on WhatsAppFour ways to take UPI payments from customers who order on WhatsApp, how to check that a payment really arrived, the screenshot and collect-request tricks to watch for, and how refunds work.
• Selling food from home in India: FSSAI and GST rulesWhat a home baker, tiffin service or snack maker in India needs before selling: FSSAI registration under the limits in force since 1 April 2026, when GST applies, labels for packed food, and what isn’t needed.