How to Customize Shopify SMS Notifications

Creating a successful online store is about more than simply grabbing the attention of your ideal customers and convincing them to purchase something from your website. While constantly advertising and promoting your store can help to increase your revenue, the majority of your profits are likely to come from loyal, returning customers. 

This means business leaders need to figure out a way of successfully connecting with customers, and nurturing them over time. If you have your own Shopify site, there are various ways to boost your relationships with your target audience. You can use your in-built blog to engage clients with content, or connect to social media to interact with clients across Facebook and Instagram. 

You can also use the built in email templates available from Shopify to reach out to customers whenever they make a purchase, or provide them with updates on their orders. However, in today’s mobile-focused world, it might be worth exploring another option too: SMS messages. 

What are SMS Notifications on Shopify?

Earning the trust of your target audience is a complex process. It involves not only designing the most attractive online store, but also providing your customers with transparency, via regular communication. Shopify allows you to send notifications to your customers automatically, whenever they complete an action, such as purchasing a product or adding an item to their basket. 

These notifications are typically sent via email, as by default, Shopify asks customers for an email address during the checkout process. However, if you enable SMS notifications on Shopify, you’ll also be able to send your customers messages straight to their smartphones. 

Notably, the SMS notification option available from Shopify is only accessible in certain parts of the world, so it’s worth double-checking whether you can send SMS messages in your region before you get started. Additionally, you’ll only be able to use this service if you’re accessing one of the paid plans for Shopify. Currently, SMS messaging isn’t supported on the free trial version of Shopify. 

If you enable SMS notifications for your Shopify store, you’ll be able to give customers the option of entering a phone number on the checkout page, instead of, or alongside an email address. When customers enter their number, you can use this to send order confirmations, tracking details, and other updates to the smartphones of your customers, through Shopify. 

How to Enable SMS Notifications on Shopify

Connecting with customers via SMS can be an excellent way to keep your business top-of-mind with your target audience. After all, while not every customer will check their email inbox every day, many of us spend our lives glued to our smartphones. 

To leverage SMS notifications on Shopify, the first thing you’ll need to do is enable the option within your Shopify admin interface. At present, enabling SMS notifications will allow you to send order confirmation details to customers. However, you can’t send shipping notifications by SMS, unless you consider using a third-party Shopify app. 

To set up your customer’s SMS notification options, you’ll need to go into your Shopify admin portal, and click on the “Settings” option, followed by “Checkout”. You can access the Shopify Settings page by clicking on the gear-shaped icon on the Shopify dashboard. 

Once you click into the “Checkout” section, you’ll see the option to adjust your Customer Contact Method. You can choose between either giving your customers only the option to enter their email address at checkout, or you can ask for a phone number or email address. 

Click on the option to allow phone numbers or email addresses, and click on the “Save” button. 

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How to Customize Shopify SMS Notifications

Just as Shopify provides a variety of templates for email notifications, there are also solutions available for sending SMS messages. Notably, not all email templates will have an SMS version, so you may be limited on the types of messages you can send. 

To access your SMS notification templates, go back to your Shopify admin interface, and click on the “Settings” option again. Here, you can click on the “Notifications” tab. Once you click on this tab, Shopify will direct you to a page where you can click on “Customer Notifications”, and see all of the notification templates available to access and edit. 

Currently, there are three types of templates available for notifications on Shopify, including solutions for orders, shipping, and customer contact. 

Click on the blue title for the template you want to edit, and you’ll be directed to a drafting page, where you can make changes to the contents of your notification. If the message is available to send via SMS, you’ll see an “SMS” tab next to the “email” option. Click on this to change the content you’re going to send to your customers after they place an order. 

Keep in mind, it’s best to keep most SMS messages relatively short and sweet. If you’re worried about code, you’ll see some examples of Liquid variables alongside the editing form, which you can use within your SMS. After you’re done editing, click on the “Preview” button to see what your message will look like when sent to a customer. 

If you’re happy with the template, you can click “save” to confirm your changes.

Enhancing Shopify SMS Notifications

As mentioned above, while Shopify does allow companies to send SMS notifications to their customers, the options you’ll have will be relatively limited. If you’re thinking of connecting with customers more frequently through SMS, you might benefit from downloading a third-party app. 

The Shopify marketplace has a number of integration tools available you can use to create automated marketing campaigns for SMS. Using one of these tools will allow you to create more complete SMS strategies for converting and nurturing customers. 

Keep in mind, however, if you’re going to use a third-party app, you’ll need to deactivate the SMS notification feature in Shopify. You can do this by going to Settings on Shopify, clicking on “Notifications”, and selecting the “Order Confirmation” option within the “Orders” section.

Click on the “SMS” tab and click on “Deactivate” next to the option to send a Shopify SMS order confirmation. Some of the top options available for companies in search of SMS automation apps include:

• Omnisend: A comprehensive toolkit for sending themed emails, newsletters, and SMS with automated triggers. You can also grow your subscribers with custom pop-ups. 
• SMS Bump: An easy-to-use tool for email and text messaging, with comprehensive automation options and tools for recovering abandoned carts. 
• Klaviyo: This fully featured email, SMS, and customer relationship management platform comes with themes and templates for SMS, as well as reports and analytics. 
• Sender: The Sender Email Marketing and SMS app allows you to access automated and affordable email and SMS marketing tools, with customizable popups. 
• Postscript: The Postscript SMS marketing app is a solutions specifically focused on helping companies to leverage the power of customized, and automated SMS marketing.

Keep in mind, many of these third-party tools will have an additional fee connected to them. You’ll need to evaluate the package options available to determine which plan is right for you.

Editing SMS Notifications on Shopify

Shopify’s built-in tools for connecting with customers will help you to keep your buyers up to date on their orders and transactions. However, while the platform does support basic SMS messaging, you won’t be able to create comprehensive marketing campaigns with Shopify on its own. 

If you want to create interactive and automated campaigns for customers through SMS, you may be better off downloading one of the third-party apps available for Shopify. For more advice and assistance building and growing your Shopify store, check out the Storetasker blog. Alternatively, reach out to us today for help finding your own Shopify coding expert.