If you're only focusing on email marketing and ignoring WooCommerce SMS notifications, you're leaving money on the table!
Just like email, SMS keeps customers engaged—and 96% of marketers say it drives more revenue [Source: Attentive].
From order updates to abandoned cart recovery and promotions, SMS ensures customers stay informed and keep coming back.
In this blog, we’ll show you how to send WooCommerce SMS notifications directly from your WordPress dashboard—no coding required.
Short on time? Watch this video 👇
Table of Contents
A WooCommerce SMS is a text message sent to users to communicate with them for various purposes. It’s considered a direct and highly effective way to interact with your audience.
You can send SMS to users to:
Overall, WooCommerce SMS notifications provide a more direct and immediate channel of communication with customers compared to email, making it a valuable addition to e-commerce strategies.
While SMS has limitations in detailed messaging, it remains highly valuable for quick and direct communication, especially in urgent situations.
Here are some of the reasons why you must leverage WooCommerce SMS marketing:
After testing multiple plugins, we have compiled a list of the top 6 plugins you can use to send WooCommerce SMS notifications to your users. Here are the best WooCommerce SMS plugins with key features and prices:
FunnelKit Automations is a highly popular plugin, powering almost 20,000 active WooCommerce stores around the globe. It lets you send transactional and promotional SMSs right from your WordPress dashboard.
It integrates with different SMS service providers to send marketing campaigns to your contacts.
You can send custom notifications to customers, admins, and anyone who needs to be notified about any WooCommerce event.
Here are the key features:
Price: A free version of FunnelKit Automations is available. However, the SMS feature is available with the pro version, which starts at $129/year.
Twilio SMS Notifications allows you to send automated SMS notifications to your customers using WordPress and WooCommerce.
With this tool, you can send text messages to your customers whenever there is a change in their order status.
Here are some of the key features:
Price: You can use this plugin at $4.09/month
BulkGate SMS Plugin for WooCommerce allows you to send SMS and VIBER messages from your WooCommerce store using a BulkGate plugin.
You can send order status notifications to both customers and your admins.
Here are the key features:
Price: This is a freemium plugin. SMS pricing starts from €0.0083.
With WP SMS, you can connect with multiple providers and send SMS or MMS notifications to your WooCommerce customers about their orders, new posts, products, and more.
This tool also integrates with other popular plugins like Zapier, Contact Form 7, etc.
Here are the key features:
Price: A free version with limited features is available. The pro version starts at $39/year for a single site.
SMS for WooCommerce allows you to send SMS to users, updating them about status updates, subscription updates, shipment tracking and delivery notifications, local pickup reminders, and more.
Here are some of the key features:
Price: This plugin costs $9.92/month.
The Uncanny Automator is a powerful CRM tool that can send both automated emails and SMS to your users.
It uses Twilio as an SMS service provider to send SMS and also integrates with popular WordPress plugins to send SMS for different purposes.
Here are some of the key features:
Price: The plugin costs $149/year for a single website.
After looking at all the features and how much control you can have with WooCommerce SMS, we've concluded that FunnelKit Automations is the best plugin of the ones we mentioned.
Funnelkit Automations gives you a range of events that you can use to send SMS, such as an abandoned cart, new user registration, winback campaign, birthday wish, etc., which is not available with the other plugins.
Moreover, it gives you an intuitive UI to easily create and manage SMS campaigns. On of that, you can track how your SMS campaign is performing from a user-friendly analytics dashboard.
In the next part, we'll show you how to use this plugin to send different types of WooCommerce SMS notifications.
FunnelKit is compatible with two SMS service providers: Twilio and Bulkgate.
Here, we will use FunnelKit Automations and Twilio as SMS service providers.
Twilio offers a range of programmable communication tools and services, including calling, voice messaging, SMS, and more capabilities, all of which can be seamlessly integrated into FunnelKit Automations.
Before we move on to the main process, make sure you have installed and activated
Note: We will need FunnelKit Automations Connectors to connect Twilio’s SMS API in WooCommerce with FunnelKit Automations.
First, you’ll need to open a Twilio account. Go to the Twilio login and signup page. Then, enter your name, email, and password to create your Twilio account.
Note: Twilio provides a free trial option for their premium services, allowing users to set up and explore these features before making a commitment.
Now, you need to verify the email you used to create an account.
Check your email for the verification message.
After the verification process, log in to your account.
Now, you will be asked to set up the authentication process.
After logging in and completing the authentication process, you will be directed to the main dashboard, where you need to click on the “Get Phone Number” field to get the sender's phone number.
Scroll down a little, and you will also find the Account SID and Auth token. You need to copy both.
Now navigate to FunnelKit Automations ⇒ Connectors and click on Connect.
Now paste the Account SID, Auth token, and Sender Phone number. After that, click on “Connect”.
Now paste the Account SID, Auth token, and Sender Phone number. After that, click on Update.
Now, you should see a pop-up with a success message indicating FunnelKit Automations is successfully connected with Twillio.
We will now create the automation that will send users SMS automatically based on the user’s interaction with your WooCommerce store.
To create WooCommerce SMS automation, navigate to FunnelKit Automations ⇒ Automations (Next Gen) and click on Add New Automation.
Click on “Start from scratch”, provide a name, and click on Create to Automated WooCommerce SMS campaign.
Now click on the “Select Trigger” option to choose the event that will activate this automated SMS campaign.
Here, we will choose the event Order Created. However, you can choose any WooCommerce event.
Configure the event by selecting the order status to send for WooCommerce notifications. Enable it for all products and ensure it runs multiple times for customers with multiple orders.
Here, we are going with order status processing.
After selecting the event, you need to choose the action of sending an SMS. For that, click on the “+” icon and select “Action”.
From the Messaging tab, choose “Send SMS” under Twillio and click on Done.
Now it’s time for the fun part, which is to create the SMS.
First, you need to provide the receiver in the “To” field. We can dynamically send a message to every user who places an order using the number they use at the checkout.
You can use the Merge tag to that number. To use a merge tag, click on {{..}}, search for the customer's phone number, and copy it.
Now paste the merge tag on the To field.
After that, you need to prepare the SMS body. You can also use a merge tag in the text body to make the message more personalized.
For example, here we are using {{contact_first_name}} to address the user by their first name and {{order_id}} to show the order ID that they just placed.
In addition, we are also using {{order_confirmation_page_link}}, which will send users a link that will redirect them to the order confirmation page with all the order details.
You need to use Bitly to shorten the URL automatically.
Note: You can add a product image or any custom image. However, images can only be sent to US & Canada phone numbers.
After creating the WooCommerce SMS body, click on Save to update.
Note: If your SMS is promotional SMS, then you need to check the option “Mark as Promotional”.
Note: Similarly, you can add another action and send an email to your store admin for smooth operation.
The final step is to activate the automation. For that, just turn on the toggle button.
Now, whenever someone places an order on your online store, he will receive this order confirmation SMS.
Note: You can also read our blog on “How to Send Order Confirmation Emails to Get Repeat Sales.”
Here is a preview of our WooCommerce SMS:
You can follow the same process to create an automation to notify the store admin when an order is placed. For extra convenience, you can add another "Send SMS" action to the same automation, ensuring both email and SMS notifications are sent.
Just hit the + icon, select "Action," and choose "Send SMS." This time, in the "To" field, enter the admin's contact number. You can add multiple numbers separated by commas.
Then, in the "Text" field, enter the message to notify the admin.
Make sure to save the changes.
Here is the workflow of this automation that will send an SMS notification for order to both the customer and the admin.
To track SMS performance, go to the Analytics section and select the SMS tab.
Here, you can choose your desired time period and get insights like SMS sent, clicks, orders, and revenue generated.
We have shown how you can automate the process of sending WoCommerce SMS notifications when someone places a new order on your WooCommerce store.
You can follow the same process to create different types of SMS campaigns. Here are a few examples:
People more often check their text SMS than email, and 98% who check their SMS actually read them. So, sending an SMS to recover the cart is an effective idea, and you can set it up using FunnelKit Automations.
Here, you need to choose “Cart Abandoned” as a trigger or event.
You can send a single SMS reminding them to recover the cart. Depending on your strategy, you can also send multiple SMS with optimal intervals and offer discount coupons to encourage them to complete the purchase.
Note: You can also check our blog "WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery"
Making sure users know what's happening with their orders makes shopping better. Users don't need to worry and feel anxious about where their order is.
With FunnelKit Automations, you can send SMS notifications for different order statuses such as Order Created, Order Created - Per Product, Order Refunded, etc.
To inform users about any order status changes, you need to select the "Order Status Changed" event.
After that, specify both the "from status" and the "to status" for which the system will send an SMS notification. For example, you can send an SMS notification if an order status changes from "Processing" to "Completed."
After choosing the Order Status event and completing the confirmations, choose a Send SMS event.
👉 You can also read our blog on how to send email notification for different order status.
When someone makes their initial purchase from your WooCommerce store, you can give them a discount for their next purchase. This encourages them to return and make additional purchases.
To set up an automated SMS to provide a discount on the second purchase, you need to choose the first order as a trigger, generate a discount, and send an SMS to encourage them to purchase again.
Note: You can also read our blog "How to Offer First Order Discount in WooCommerce".
You can use a winback campaign to bring relapsed customers back to your store who haven’t purchased for a while. For this, you need to choose the “Customer Winback” event as a trigger.
You need to edit the event and set the time of the last ordered period.
You can then add the SMS action, informing users about new products or offering discounts to win them back.
Note: You can also read our blog "How to Create a Winback Campaign in WooCommerce".
Another great way to establish a great relationship with your customers and get more sales is to wish users their purchase anniversary and remind them to come back and make another purchase.
To set up a purchase anniversary SMS campaign, you need to choose the event order created and then add a delay of time period.
For example, if you want to wish for one-year anniversary, add a delay of 365 days or 12 months. After the delay, you can set up the “Send SMS” action.
Note: You can also read our blog on "How to create an anniversary email campaign".
Wishing customers on their birthday makes them feel special and believe your brand cares about them. It’s an effective way to form a strong bond and a great opportunity to make the customers make another purchase.
With FunnelKit Automations, you can collect birth dates on the checkout page. To set up an automation that wishes users their birthday via SMS, you need to choose “Birthday reminder” as an event.
We hope you now realize the abundance of SMS marketing opportunities you get with FunnelKit Automations.
Note: For more details on birthday reminders, check the blog "How to Create Automated Birthday Emails".
To make your WooCommerce order notifications stand out and improve customer experience, follow these simple yet powerful SMS best practices. They’ll help keep your customers informed, engaged, and satisfied.
Address customers by their name and include essential order details like product names, order IDs, and total cost to make the SMS feel personal and informative.
Send SMS notifications for key milestones like order confirmation, shipment, and delivery to keep customers informed and reduce uncertainty.
SMS has a character limit, so focus on the key details like order status and estimated delivery dates, keeping your message clear and to the point.
Shorten URLs with services like Bitly to maintain a neat and branded message that's easy for customers to click.
Encourage customers to take action, such as checking their order details or tracking their shipment, by providing clickable links for easy access.
Here are some of the questions that might be popping into your head regarding WooCommerce SMS with answers.
Well, it depends on the SMS provider you want to connect to WooCommerce. If you want to connect the Twilio SMS provider with WooCommerce, you can do that using the FunnelKit Automations and FunnelKit Connector.
The cost of WooCommerce SMS depends on various factors, such as the SMS service provider and WooCommerce plugin you want to use, the volume of the SMS you want to send, and whether you want to send SMS or MMS.
For example, Twilio charges $0.0079 to send or receive a message. Again, BulGate costs €0.0109 in the USA.
Yes, you must follow some rules depending on the country and region to which you want to send an SMS. For example, GDPR is a comprehensive European Union (EU) regulation that protects personal data. So, if you want to send SMS messages to individuals in the EU, then you need to follow the GDPR guidelines. Similarly, for the USA, you need to follow the CAN-SPAM Act.
If you use FunnelKit Automation to run WooCommerce SMS campaigns, then you can easily track the success of your campaign in the form of click rate, open rate, orders revenue earned, etc.
Yes. With Twillo, you can send MMS right from the WordPress dashboard with the help of FunnelKit Automations. However, only certain locations such as the USA and Canada, can receive MMS.
Yes, you can schedule your broadcast SMS in advance with FunnelKit Automations.
SMS marketing can be highly successful in communicating with customers about their order status, recovering abandoned carts, promoting products, wishing on birthdays, etc.
With FunnelKit Automations, you can easily send different SMS and MMS right from your WordPress dashboard. You can either use Twilow, as we have shown above or BulkGate as an SMS service provider.
The best part of FunneKit Automation is you can automate SMS notifications based on order status and also send broadcast SMS for product or sale promotions.
Moreover, this tool integrates with Bitly to automatically shorten any URL added to your SMS, which helps to maintain your SMS character count.
Furthermore, you can easily track how your WooCommerce SMS marketing performs with in-depth FunnelKit Automations analytics.
So, get your copy of FunnelKit Automations today and start sending WooCommerce SMS notifications.