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 will 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 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 remind them of abandoned carts.

With that being said, let’s see how you can send WooCommerce SMS using Twilio. You can use these quick links to navigate through the steps:

Step 1: Set up Your Twilio SMS Account

The 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. To start, head over to the Twilio website and click on ‘Start for free.’

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

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

Next, select the product you want to use, what you plan to do with it, and what organization you will use it for.

This tutorial will cover SMS, Alerts & Notifications, and Sole proprietor / Self-employed.

Once you enter your information, scroll down and select ‘With no code at all.’

Then, 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 phone number’ button.

Now, scroll down to the Account Info section.

Your Account SID, Auth token, and new Twilio number will be listed here. You’ll need this information later, so keep this tab open.

Step 2: Install and Activate Uncanny Automator

While there are many WooCommerce extensions you can use to connect Twilio with WooCommerce, the best method we’ve tried so far is using an automation plugin.

This plugin will connect Twilio and WooCommerce. Then, it will automatically notify Twilio to send WooCommerce SMS messages whenever there is a certain activity happening on your online store.

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.

For this tutorial, you will need the Pro Uncanny Automator plugin, as it lets you connect with WooCommerce. While the free Uncanny Automator plugin allows Twilio integration, you cannot connect it with WooCommerce.

If you need help with the plugin installation, 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: Set Up Twilio SMS Notification Triggers

After activating Uncanny Automator, you are ready to send automated SMS 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 » App integrations. In the left-hand menu, select ‘Twilio.’

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

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

Now, you’re ready to set up 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 are 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 and Instagram.

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.

It can be something like ‘sms_notification.’

Then, click on ‘Add a variable.’ You can now specify all the data that you want to use in your recipe by clicking on the asterisk ‘*’ 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.’

Now, click on the ‘Add action’ button again 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 and select ‘Billing phone’ from the dropdown list.

You can now create the text message that will be sent to customers within the ‘Body’ section. Feel free to add data from the asterisk ‘*’ button to insert the shopper’s order information, such as the total price and delivery date.

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

Now, navigate to the ‘Recipe’ box and 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.

Bonus Tip: Use SMS Marketing to Build Customer Relationships

Sending Twilio SMS notifications from your WooCommerce store is just the beginning of SMS marketing. To take things further, we recommend using an SMS marketing plugin.

SMS marketing is more than just order notifications. It can grow your customer relationships by informing buyers about upcoming discounts and sending out feedback surveys to improve their shopping experience.

To implement SMS marketing on your WooCommerce store, you can check out our list of the best SMS marketing plugins on the market.

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 points and rewards plugins for your store.

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