Masters Agency

SMS Order Notifications Plugin for WooCommerce

Comprehensive Client Setup & Administration Guide

Welcome to SMS Order Notifications for WooCommerce! This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough to help you install, configure, test, and manage automated SMS notifications for your e-commerce store.

📌 Overview

SMS Order Notifications automatically dispatches instant, customizable SMS text messages to your customers whenever their order status changes in WooCommerce (e.g., when an order is completed, processing, or shipped).

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Key Benefits

  • Boost Customer Satisfaction: Keep customers updated in real-time on order updates.
  • Reduce Support Queries: Eliminate “Where is my order?” inquiries with proactive updates.
  • Pre-integrated Masters SMS Gateway: Built-in support for Masters SMS (smssmartegypt.com).
  • Smart Phone Normalization: Automatically converts local phone formats (e.g., 01001234567) into clean international format.
  • Automatic Retries: Retries failed SMS dispatches up to 3 times automatically via background WP-Cron.

🛠️ Step 1: Plugin Installation

Installing the plugin on your WordPress site takes under two minutes.

Plugin url : https://wordpress.org/plugins/sms-order-notifications/

Option A: Upload Zip File via Admin Dashboard (Recommended)

  1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard (/wp-admin).
  2. Navigate to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
  3. Click the Upload Plugin button at the top of the page.
  4. Click Choose File and select the woo-sms-notifications.zip file provided to you.
  5. Click Install Now.
  6. Once installation completes, click Activate Plugin.

Option B: Manual FTP Upload

  1. Extract the woo-sms-notifications.zip file on your computer.
  2. Connect to your server using FTP/SFTP (e.g., via FileZilla).
  3. Upload the unzipped woo-sms-notifications directory to /wp-content/plugins/.
  4. Log into your WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins, and click Activate under SMS Order Notifications.

NOTE

Prerequisites

  • WordPress version 6.0 or higher.
  • WooCommerce version 7.0 or higher installed and activated.
  • PHP version 8.2 or higher.

⚙️ Step 2: Plugin Configuration

After activating the plugin, navigate to WooCommerce → Settings → SMS Notifications in your admin menu.

The configuration panel is divided into 4 main sections:

Section 1: General Settings

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → SMS Notifications → General Settings.

Setting FieldRecommended ValueDescription
Enable Plugin[Checked]Master toggle to activate automatic SMS dispatches on order status changes.
Enable Dispatch Logging[Checked]Stores sent attempt logs, API server responses, and failure details in database.
Default Country Code20Default country dial code attached to local customer numbers starting with 0 (e.g., 20 for Egypt).
Phone Check[Checked]Prevents SMS dispatch attempts if the customer did not provide a phone number during checkout.

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Section 2: SMS Provider Setup

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → SMS Notifications → SMS Provider.

Enter your Masters SMS Gateway account credentials:

  1. API Username: Enter your registered Masters SMS account username.
  2. API Password: Enter your account password.
  3. Approved Sender Name: Enter your official Sender ID approved by Masters SMS (e.g., YourBrand).

Testing Your Provider Connection

Before enabling live customer SMS, test your credentials:

  1. Scroll down to the Send Test SMS box.
  2. Enter your personal mobile number (e.g., 01001234567).
  3. Click Send Test SMS.
  4. A green success message will confirm that the SMS was delivered to your mobile device!

WARNING

Ensure your Sender ID is officially registered and approved by your SMS gateway provider, otherwise international/local telecom networks may block dispatches.

✉️ Step 3: Customizing Message Templates

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → SMS Notifications → Templates.

You can customize individual SMS message templates for every WooCommerce order status transition:

  • Processing: Sent when customer completes payment.
  • Completed: Sent when order is fulfilled/shipped.
  • On Hold: Sent when order is awaiting offline payment or check.
  • Cancelled / Refunded / Failed: Sent on order exceptions.

Enabling & Customizing a Template

  1. Expand the order status accordion (e.g., Processing).
  2. Check the Enable checkbox.
  3. Type your custom message inside the text area.
  4. Pay attention to the live character counter at the top right of each template box:
    • GSM Standard: 160 characters per SMS part.
    • Unicode (Arabic/Accents): 70 characters per SMS part.
  5. Click Preview with Sample Order to open a live visual preview modal showing how the customer will see the message on a mobile phone screen.

🏷️ Available Template Placeholders

You can insert dynamic placeholders in any message template. They will automatically be replaced with real order data when the SMS is dispatched:

👤 Customer Details

  • {customer_name} — Full customer name (e.g., John Doe)
  • {customer_first_name} — Customer first name (e.g., John)
  • {customer_last_name} — Customer last name (e.g., Doe)
  • {customer_phone} — Customer phone number
  • {customer_email} — Customer email address

📦 Order Details

  • {order_id} — WooCommerce Order ID (e.g., 1024)
  • {order_status} — Current order status (e.g., Completed)
  • {order_total} — Total order amount with currency (e.g., $150.00)
  • {order_date} — Date order was placed
  • {payment_method} — Payment gateway title (e.g., Credit Card)
  • {shipping_method} — Chosen shipping method

🛒 Products & Tracking

  • {products} — List of purchased products with quantities
  • {product_names} — Product titles comma-separated
  • {tracking_number} — Shipment tracking number (if using tracking plugins)
  • {tracking_url} — Direct tracking URL link

🏪 Store Info

  • {site_name} — Your website/store title (e.g., My Store)
  • {site_url} — Your store home URL

📝 Example Templates

Order Processing (Order Confirmed)

Hi {customer_first_name}, thank you for your order #{order_id} at {site_name}! We are preparing your items now. Total: {order_total}.

Order Completed (Shipped)

Great news {customer_first_name}! Your order #{order_id} has been shipped. Track your delivery here: {tracking_url}. Thank you for shopping with {site_name}!

📊 Step 4: Logs & Delivery Reports

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → SMS Notifications → Logs & Reports.

The logs table tracks every SMS dispatch attempt:

  • Filtering & Search: Search logs by Customer Name, Order ID, or Phone Number. Filter by Sent or Failed status.
  • Delivery Status: Instant visual status badges (Sent in green, Failed in red with error codes).
  • Exporting CSV: Click Export CSV to download historical message logs for accounting or analytics.
  • Bulk Delete: Select log checkboxes and click Delete Selected to clear historical logs.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions & Troubleshooting

Q: Why are SMS messages not sending?

  1. Check WooCommerce → Settings → SMS Notifications → General Settings and verify Enable Plugin is checked.
  2. Check SMS Provider tab and verify API Username, Password, and Approved Sender Name are correct.
  3. Test your connection using the Send Test SMS button.
  4. Check Logs & Reports tab to inspect the exact error response returned by the SMS gateway.

Q: How does phone number formatting work?

The plugin automatically normalizes local phone numbers. For example, if your default country code is 20 (Egypt):

  • 01001234567 is automatically converted to 201001234567.
  • +201001234567 is automatically converted to 201001234567.

Q: What happens if an SMS fails due to a temporary network issue?

The plugin automatically adds failed messages to a background retry queue. WP-Cron will retry dispatching the message up to 3 times (at 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and 2 hours after initial failure).

📞 Support & Maintenance

If you need help configuring your SMS Gateway account or customizing templates, please contact your store administrator or support team.