SMS Notifications — setup
Use this guide to start texting customers when their orders change status, and to send messages to your customer list. Georgian text costs more per message than Latin text, so the parts of this guide about cost are worth reading before your first send.
Before you begin
- An account with a supported SMS provider. MS Group (bi.msg.ge) is included today.
- Your server's IP address allow-listed by that provider. Most Georgian gateways refuse anything from an unknown address.
- WooCommerce 8.0+ on WordPress 6.2+ and PHP 8.1+.
Setup sequence
- Buy the SMS Notifications license, install the ZIP, and activate the key on the License tab.
- Open Settings, choose your provider, and enter the credentials they gave you.
- Give your provider the IP address shown on that screen, and wait for them to confirm it is allow-listed.
- Turn on Dry run and leave it on for the first day. Everything is recorded, nothing is delivered, and you can check the messages look right.
- Open Messages and pick which order statuses text the customer. Only Processing and Completed are on to begin with.
- Use Send test message on the Settings tab, then turn dry run off.
What a message costs
SMS is billed per part, and the alphabet decides how much text fits in one part:
Sending to your customers
On the Send a message tab you can text everyone who has ordered, a saved group, or a list you paste in. Two things happen automatically:
- Duplicates are merged. One customer with three orders is one recipient, not three — you are not charged three times.
- Anyone who opted out is skipped, and the delivery log records why.
You must press Preview and price it before Send becomes available. If the message or the number of recipients changes after you preview, the plugin refuses to send and asks you to preview again — so you never approve one figure and send another.
Consent and opt-outs
- Order updates
- Sent without marketing consent. The customer placed the order; telling them what happened to it is the service they bought.
- Offers and news
- Only sent to customers who have not opted out — and, if you switch the option on, only to those who actively agreed.
- Full opt-out
- If a customer asks not to be contacted at all, nothing is sent to them, including order updates.
When something does not arrive
Open the Delivery log. Every message is there with your provider's own reply, so you can tell the difference between "we never sent it" and "they rejected it". Failed rows have a Resend button.
- Wrong credentials or forbidden IP
- Either the username and password are wrong, or your server's address is not allow-listed. Check the credentials first, then ask your provider about the IP.
- Out of balance
- Top up your account with your SMS provider.
- License is not active
- Nothing sends until the license is active. Activate it on the License tab.