How to Send Twilio SMS Notifications from WooCommerce (Step by Step)

Do you want to send Twilio SMS notifications from WooCommerce?

With SMS notifications, you can stay in touch with your customers, notify them of order updates, send coupon codes, and more.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can add Twilio SMS notifications from your WooCommerce online store.

Why Add SMS Notifications to WooCommerce?

SMS notifications are the best way to give your customers information about their orders. Text messages are highly personal, and they are usually seen and opened within seconds of them arriving on the person’s phone.

You can use SMS notifications to give your customers updates about their orders, such as order confirmation and shipping messages.

SMS notifications are also a creative way to encourage your audience to visit your store and buy more products. For example, you might use SMS messages to send coupon codes, or alert your customers that their favorite products are back in stock.

You can also use FOMO to increase conversions, for example you might send shoppers an SMS notification about a flash sale.

With that being said, let’s see how you can send Twilio SMS notifications from your WooCommerce store.

Step 1. Set Up Your Twilio SMS Account

First thing you’ll need is a Twilio account.

Twilio is an online service that offers phone, voice messaging, and SMS services that you can use with applications like WordPress and WooCommerce.

Twilio has a free trial so you can set up your account and try the service for free. You’ll pay $0.0075 per message sent, with discounts available for bulk messaging.

To start, head over to the Twilio website and click on ‘Sign up’ to start your free trial.

On the signup page, you’ll be asked to enter your personal information.

Then, you’ll need to verify your email address and phone number.

Next, select the products you want to use. For us, that’s ‘SMS’ and ‘Alerts & Notifications’.

Then, select the ‘With minimal code’ option and ‘PHP’ below that.

Once you enter your information, click ‘Get Started with Twilio’.

After you sign up for an account, you’ll be taken to the Twilio dashboard. To get a phone number for your account, you’ll need to click the ‘Get your first Twilio number’ button.

This will bring up a popup containing your new number.

If you want to use this number, then click ‘Choose this Number.’

Your Account SID, Auth token, and new Twilio number are also listed on this screen. You’ll need this information later, so keep this tab open.

Step 2. Install and Activate Uncanny Automator

To send SMS messages from WooCommerce, we’re going to use automation plugin.

Uncanny Automator is the best WordPress automation plugin on the market. It lets you create powerful workflows to save time and reduce errors without writing any code.

Uncanny Automator seamlessly integrates with all the must have WordPress plugins and third-party tools. 

Think of it like Zapier, but for WordPress websites.

There is a free Uncanny Automator plugin that lets you automate many common tasks. However, we’ll be using Uncanny Automator pro because it integrates with Twilio.

You’ll also need to install the free Uncanny Automator plugin, as it provides the foundation for the premium plugin’s more advanced features. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

For more details, see our guide on how to create automated workflows in WordPress with Uncanny Automator.

Step 3. Create an SMS Notification with Uncanny Automator

After activating Uncanny Automator, you’re ready to send Twilio notifications from your WooCommerce store.

First, you’ll need to connect your Twilio account to the Uncanny Automator plugin. To do that, go to Automator » Settings and click on ‘Premium Integrations.’

In the left-hand menu, select ‘Twilio.’

You can now type in your Account SID, Auth Token, and your Twilio phone number.

After that, click on the ‘Connect Twilio account’ button.

Now, you’re ready to setup a notification so customers will get an SMS message every time they place an order.

To do this, go to Automator » Add new. Here, you’ll be asked to choose ‘Logged-in users’ or ‘Everyone’. We’re going to select ‘Everyone’ so all shoppers will get an SMS notification, even if they checkout with a guest account.

After choosing a recipe type, click on ‘Confirm.’

Next, you can give your recipe a name by typing into the ‘Title’ field. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

After that, click on ‘WooCommerce’ in the ‘Select an integration’ area.

Now you can choose your trigger, which is anything that kickstarts the recipe.

In the dropdown menu, select the following option: ‘A guest completes, pays for, lands on a thank you page….’

Next, open the ‘Trigger condition’ dropdown and select ‘completes,’ so the workflow will run every time a customer completes a purchase.

After that, click on ‘Save.’

Next, you can link this recipe to a specific product.

We want to run the recipe when a customer buys any product, so select ‘Any product’ from the dropdown, and then click ‘Save.’

Uncanny Automator will now save your trigger, and you can move on to the ‘Actions’ section.

Here, click the ‘Add action’ button to get started.

You will now see all of Uncanny Automator’s integrations, such as Activecampaign, Instagram, and MailChimp.

In this section, click on ‘Automator.’

Next, you’ll need to select an action from the dropdown.

You can go ahead and choose the ‘Call a custom function/method’ option.

To start, type in a name for the custom function that you want to create.

Then, click on ‘Add Variable.’

You now specify all the data that you want to use in your recipe, by clicking on the ‘Asterix’ sign next to the empty field.

In the search bar, type in ‘Billing first name’ and select it when it appears. This allows us to use the customer’s first name in our recipe.

Once you’ve done that, click on ‘Save.’

In the new ‘Actions’ section, click on the ‘Add action’ button. You can then go ahead and select the ‘Twilio’ integration.

From the dropdown menu, select ‘Send an SMS message to a number’.

This will bring up a new box where you can add the ‘To’ address and the ‘Body’ of your SMS.

In the ‘To’ field, click the ‘Asterisk’ button.

Then, select ‘Billing phone’ from the dropdown list.

You can now create the text message that will be sent to customers. You can type plain text into the ‘Body’ section, but you can also create a more personal message by adding data from the shopper’s order, such as the total price and delivery date.

To do this, simply click the ‘Asterix’ and then search for the information you want to add.

When you’re happy with your message, click on ‘Save’.

Uncanny Automator will now show an overview of your automation recipe.

After that, you can go ahead and make the recipe active.

In the ‘Recipe’ box, click the ‘Draft’ switch so that it shows ‘Live’ instead.

Your recipe is now live, and Uncanny Automator will automatically send SMS notifications to your customers using Twilio every time they make a purchase.

We hope this article helped you learn how to send Twilio SMS notifications from WooCommerce. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter and our expert list of the best WooCommerce plugins for your store.

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