How to Use Automatic Shipping Confirmation Text Messages in Shopify
The Shipping Confirmation Automation in Yotpo SMSBump allows Shopify merchants to keep their customers in the loop about the progress of their order, i.e. to let them know when their order has been successfully shipped.
Let’s give you a brief tutorial on how to enable this automation and customize it so it serves its purpose the best.
Step 1. From your SMSBump side menu go to Automations and press Create new automation.
Step 2. Use the SMS Automation Name field to give your automation a memorable name so you can track results easily. We will name ours Your Order’s been Shipped.
Step 3. From the Automation type drop-down menu find Shipping Confirmation, located under the Customer care event type.
Step 4. Next step is to configure the recipient. With this automation you only have one available option - your Customer.
Step 5. Your Delay field is where you configure the sending time of your automation. If you wish to have it send immediately after the order has been shipped, leave it Disabled.
However, if you want it not to be triggered instantly, but rather - an hour post shipping the order e.g., then hit Enabled and specify the time.
Automated Message Content (SMS & MMS)
Next step is putting your text message together.
With Yotpo SMSBump you can add an image or a GIF to turn your SMS into a more intriguing MMS that will grab your customer’s attention even more. To add a visual, tick the Attach image or GIF (U.S. recipients only) checkbox and select your further action.
Read more about the importance of including visuals in your SMS.
In the Text Message field you can start crafting your text message. Use the Strength meter and all of its useful tips to create an appealing SMS. You also have a number of short codes at your disposal to make this process even easier. Short codes fetch dynamic customer information from Shopify and include it in your SMS.
Keep in mind that the Shipping confirmation SMS is mainly an informative text message, so only include essential information regarding the customer’s order.
For your Shipping confirmation automation some very useful short codes are:
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{TrackingNumber}: by including this in your confirmation SMS, your customers will be able to easily track the progress of their order
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{ShippingCompany}: this will give them information about which company you’ve shipped their order with
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{OrderID}: this is the order number they will need to specify for the shipping company in order to receive the shipment
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{OrderStatusURL}: by including this link into your SMS, you give your customer a quick way to keep track of their order in real time
Important: Keep an eye on your word count:
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Standard SMS messages are 160 characters.
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Special characters decrease the word limit to 70.
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Attached images or GIFs (U.S only) messages are a maximum of 1600 characters.
Add an Incentive
Last step before completing your Shipping confirmation SMS is to decide if you want to include a small token to show your customer that you appreciate them doing business with you.
To add a discount, simply tick the Add a discount checkbox and proceed to configure the type of discount you’d like to offer. More about the different discounts and how to create them, read here.
Important: Do not forget to include an opt-out option as this is mandatory for all text marketing and most automations. Tick the Add "STOPXXXXX" to opt out checkbox and the unsubscribe verbiage will instantly appear in your text message.
Overview Your Campaign
Before you send out your campaign, you can always test it by sending a test message to yourself or a colleague of yours. We’ve noticed that mistakes happen significantly less often when Shopify merchants use our test option.
To send an example text, just click on Test Event Message. A pop-up will ask you to select the phone number/numbers you wish to receive the test SMS.
Note that if you wish to add more phone numbers, you will first need to include them in your SMSBump General Settings under Staff phones, and then select them from the pop-up drop-down.
Hit OK and your test messages will be sent out.
All set? Go ahead and hit Save. The very last thing you need to do is configure the opt-out option for non-US/Canada recipients, as unlike US and Canada-based customers, others cannot unsubscribe by texting the “STOP” keyword.
Once you hit Save, a pop-up will appear, which will ask you to either approve of the additional change (the app will add a link, which customers can click to unsubscribe), or keep the keyword.
We recommend that you accept the changes, which will add 12 symbols to text messages sent outside of US and Canada but will also ensure you follow the GDPR best practices.
Ready? Awesome! Your Shipping Confirmation Automation will appear along with the rest of our automations, ready to blast out when the time comes.
