Guide for Sending SMS Notifications Using WooCommerce

Guide for Sending SMS Notifications Using WooCommerce

Freakin' A, man! Let's dive into how to add WooCommerce SMS Notifications using Orderable in a jiffy.

In this day and age, peeps want you to keep in touch with them via their fave channels. SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger push notifications are on top of the list. So, linking your WooCommerce store to these platforms is a sweet way to engage your customers. And guess what? Orderable is just the plugin for the job!

Time to Score with Orderable

Orderable is a rad, user-friendly WordPress plugin that brings online ordering to your restaurant site. Add your dishes, arrange your order-up menu, tweak your delivery schedule, and manage orders like a boss.

Set Orderable UpFirst off, let's talk why sending customers text updates on their orders is such a big deal.

Reasons to Text Customers about their Orders

Sending customers SMS post-purchase or after an inquiry is vital for your business. Why? Because...

Inspire Loyalty among Customers

Keeping customers updated through regular SMS notifications about their orders helps them feel good about their experiences and twice as confident about their orders. With SMS notifications, customers can easily adapt their schedules for delivery or local pickups. As a bonus, you'll providing them with a bomb-ass experience that'll make them choose you over anyone else.

Stay Ahead of the Game

Most online stores use emails to update customers on order status. But emails take forever to arrive, and customers might not check them frequently. On the other hand, a text message is the quickest way to notify customers of any order status changes.

Whether it's for delivery or local pickups, SMS notifications keep customers up to speed in real-time. This makes 'em loads more confidant about ordering with you, even if it's their first time.

And it's not just customers who can benefit from instant messages at each stage of the order process. Your staff, delivery drivers, and even third-party manufacturers can benefit too!

Who Else Can Benefit from Instant Order Updates?

Apart from customers, there are many others who can profit from receiving real-time order updates.

The Store Owner

As the store owner, SMS notifications will keep you up to date as soon as orders come in or when they need to be processed. Update your chain of events to process orders on time and have them ready for delivery or pickup.

SMS notifications can help with efficient resource management to make sure orders are processed quickly. You can organize your team better, ensuring everything runs smoothly.

Delivery Drivers

If you manage your delivery drivers, sending them instant messages or alerts as orders become ready saves tons of time. They'll be able to schedule deliveries efficiently, ensuring everything gets done on time to keep customers happy.

Third-Party Manufacturers

If you collaborate with a third-party manufacturer, notifying them of an order that needs processing immediately will cut down on delays significantly.

Say your store sells custom clothes, and you get your fabrics from a third-party manufacturer. SMS notifications will alert them as soon as an order is placed so there's no delay in fabric production.

Now, let's see how to add SMS functionality to your WooCommerce store.

How to Send WooCommerce SMS Order Confirmations

Your regular WooCommerce setup doesn't include sending SMS order updates. To change that, you'll need a plugin.

Twist in the Tale: Introducing the WooCommerce Plugin, Orderable

Orderable isn't just a cool plugin – it's an all-in-one solution that helps you control every aspect of your online ordering process. It installs WooCommerce for you if you haven't done it already, allows you to set up your store to accept orders, and even provides delivery or local pickup services.

With Orderable, you can send SMS notifications to your customers or staff to update them on the status of orders. Plus, you can create custom order statuses like 'in preparation' or 'being packaged' and use them in the notifications. This way, it plays a crucial role in customer engagement and satisfaction.

Score Points with Orderable

Orderable is a user-friendly WordPress plugin that brings online ordering to your restaurant site. Add your dishes, create your order-up menu, customize your delivery schedule, and manage orders like a pro.

Set Orderable Up

Now that you know why sending SMS order updates is crucial, let's explore what Orderable can do for you:

Simplify Order Management

Orderable offers a live order view and lets you see the status of each order placed in your store. You can send customers real-time updates on the status of their orders and boost their shopping experience with your store.

Boost Sales with Order Bumps

Orderable helps you suggest add-on or complementary products to the items a customer has added to their cart. You can boost sales and increase your average order value once the customer adds these items to their order.

Orderable also supports checkout tipping which can help you to increase your revenue.

A Seamless Ordering Experience

Orderable optimizes the ordering process for customers, providing a sleek, app-like design. Customers can easily place their orders and even do so on mobile devices.

Code-Free Menu Layouts

This bad boy lets you create interactive and user-friendly product/menu layouts, which you can display anywhere in your WooCommerce store using shortcodes. No coding skills required!

Control Your Schedule

Orderable lets you reserve time slots for delivery or local pickup for customers to choose from. You can better manage your schedule while letting customers know exactly when their orders will be ready.

Orderable also has a holiday scheduling feature that lets you create holidays to ensure orders only come when you're available.

Enhance Your WooCommerce Checkout

Orderable enhances your standard WooCommerce checkout by giving you more control. You can set your delivery fees and include as many payment options as possible.

The best part? Orderable lets you do all this without charging you extra fees on your transactions. Boom!

Now that you know the benefits of adding Orderable to your WooCommerce store, let's see how to set it up.

Step 1: Install Orderable on Your WooCommerce store

Assuming you've already set up your WordPress website, the first step is installing Orderable.

In this tutorial, we'll install the Pro version because this is the one that gives you access to the Order Statuses feature, which is essential for sending SMS notifications. Let's roll!

1. Buy the Orderable Pro plugin from the Orderable website at our website. Once you've completed the purchase, two plugins (Orderable free and Pro) in a .zip file will be sent to your email. Download the zip file to your computer.

Step 2: Create a Twilio Account

Sending SMS communications requires specialized equipment (servers) and staff to run it. But Twilio SMS notifications ensure you don't have to worry about this.

Twilio is a communication service that bridges the gap between websites and phones in the background. With Twilio, you can send SMS notifications from your website to user's mobile phones.

To create a Twilio account:

1. Head to the official website: twilio.com, and click the Sign-up button.
2. Provide your name, email, and password. A verification message will be sent to your email. Click on it to verify your email.
3. Add your phone number and verify it using the code you'll receive.
4. Complete the onboarding process by filling in the requested details.

Step 3: Create your Messaging Service and Link it to Orderable

Once you've completed setting up your account, don't run to the bar yet! Now you need to create your SMS messaging service, link it to Orderable, and start sending those bad boys out.

To do this, take the following steps:

1. On your Twilio account, click on the Console tab. Go to Messaging > Try it out > Get Set Up > Start Setup.
2. Label the messaging service (SMS in this case), then click Create Messaging Service.
3. Twilio will give you a phone number for free; use it if you're okay with it, or click Provision a different number if you want to change it.
4. Copy your Account SID, Auth Token, and Messaging Service SID (at the top) and go to your WordPress dashboard.
5. There in your WordPress site, click on WooCommerce > Orderable from your WordPress dashboard. Then the Notifications button at the top.
6. Scroll to the Twilio Integration section and paste these values into their respective fields.

Now that your messaging service is linked to your website, we can proceed to create an order notification.

Step 4: Setting up Custom Order Status and Notification

Before creating an order notification, you need to create an order status and then create an order notification from it.

Take the following steps to do this:

1. Go to Orderable > Order Statuses, then click the Add New button on your WordPress dashboard.
2. Name your order status and provide a slug. You can customize the color and icon as well.
3. Scroll down and click on the Add Notification button, where you'll create your SMS campaign.
4. Select SMS as the type and specify the recipient (customer, admin, or custom number).
5. In the message section, you'll be given an SMS template along with a list of shortcodes to use in your template. Replace the shortcodes with their actual values when the notification is sent.
6. Finish up by scrolling to the top of the page and clicking the Publish button.

Boom! Now you can send SMS notifications to your customers, staff, or third-party service providers right from your WooCommerce store.

Add SMS Notifications to Your Online Store Today

Using automatic SMS order status update notifications on your WooCommerce store is crucial for improving customer satisfaction and running your operations smoothly.

Orderable, an all-in-one ordering and SMS notification plugin for WordPress, helps you achieve this. If you'd rather use WhatsApp notifications, you can check out our guide for that[1].

Pop a Squat with Orderable

Orderable is a user-friendly WP plugin that brings online ordering to your restaurant site with aplomb. Add your dishes, design your menu, control your delivery schedule, and manage orders like a boss.

Set Orderable Up

1. Orderable plugin, a robust solution for online ordering in the industry, offers features like sending SMS notifications to customers or staff for order updates, creating custom order statuses, and more, enhancing business efficiency and customer satisfaction.
2. In today's tech-savvy world, SMS notifications about orders play a vital role in inspiring loyalty among customers, ensuring real-time updates, and making the ordering process more efficient for the store owner, delivery drivers, and third-party manufacturers.
3. The fintech sector, especially online stores, can benefit tremendously from instant order updates, as they help manage resources, improve customer experiences, and boost sales through checkout tipping and order bumps.
4. For entrepreneurs aiming to revolutionize their business with smart technology, integrating gadgets like smartphones and integrating Orderable within their WooCommerce store provides an edge in customer engagement and financial growth.
5. The addition of Orderable to a WooCommerce store not only streamlines the order management process, but also offers features like live order views, order bumps, customizable product layouts, time slot reservations, holiday scheduling, and enhanced checkout capabilities, elevating the overall customer experience and driving increased financial performance.

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