Why SMS, not email
If you sell on cash on delivery you soon notice one thing: a large part of customers have no email, or if they have it they do not look at it.
But everyone has a phone number, and must, because a courier does not deliver without it.
So the real channel for confirming an order is SMS. Those who run shops know how many phone calls one line like "We have your order, sending tomorrow" saves.
Two conditions first
One, this is a benefit of the Commerce plan. On the smaller plans the SMS box does not even appear.
Two, up to 200 SMS a day go, no more than 30 an hour, no more than 3 a day to one number, and no more than 40 a day triggered from one network. In an ordinary shop it is hard to reach these limits, but it is good to know the numbers.
The SMS goes through your own account
This needs to be clear first, because it does not match what many people expect.
We do not sell SMS on your behalf. You open an account with an SMS gateway company, get a link from them, and put that link here. After that, when an order comes, we send a request to that link.
The reason is the rules. In Bangladesh, to send SMS in a business name you need a masking sender ID, and it is registered separately in the name of each business: trade licence, national ID card, an application on letterhead. It takes a few working days and there is a fee.
That means the sender ID is your business's identity. The name of your shop shows on the customer's phone, not anyone else's.
The setting-up job
First take two things from the gateway company: the API link and the sender ID.
Then go to the Code and auto-reply tab of the site manager page and put in the link, and write the message that will go to the customer.
Three rules for writing the message:
- Keep it short. If you pass the limit of one SMS the cost doubles, and for Bangla writing the limit is much lower than for English.
- Write the shop's name. So the customer can tell who it came from.
- Give one useful fact. The order number, or when you will send it. There is no sense in spending an SMS on a thank-you alone.
Since the link carries your API key, it is a secret. Here it is kept encrypted, even in our own database backups, and nobody in support can see it.
There is one exception, and you need to know it: in the site backup file that you download yourself, the link is in the open, because that is your own information. Keep the file carefully, and think before you send it to anyone.
Now the real point
This part is why this post exists.
Almost every SMS gateway in Bangladesh returns a success signal even when sending failed.
In technical language: HTTP 200. That means the request arrived, but that signal does not say whether the SMS went. The real answer is in the text inside, and each company writes it in a different way.
So what happens: the balance is finished, or the sender ID has not been approved yet, or the masking route did not take that message. In all three cases the company says "fine", and an ordinary system shows the shopkeeper "confirmation sent".
Nothing comes to the customer's phone.
For order confirmation there is no worse failure, because the shopkeeper is at ease and the customer thinks the order did not happen.
What we do
For this reason the answer here is not judged by the signal alone, the text inside is read too, according to each company's own way.
And the result can be of three kinds, not two:
| Result | Meaning |
| Went | The company clearly said success |
| Did not go | The company clearly said failure, with the reason |
| Not sure | The answer could not be read |
The last one matters. An answer we cannot understand is not taken as success. If you put in an endpoint you made yourself, the result usually falls into this third box, and that is the honest answer.
Test it yourself
After setting it up, place an order once with your own number. See whether the SMS comes.
Check three things: the message has come, it shows the shop's name, and the Bangla letters have not broken.
Then do it again once a month. The balance runs out silently, and the worst time to find out is in the rush of Eid orders.
The cost
The gateway's bill is yours, not ours. The price of each SMS is different by company, and a masking sender usually costs more.
Two things raise the cost and both can be avoided:
Long messages. If you pass the limit of one SMS it is counted as two SMS. For Bangla writing the limit is lower, so if you write in Bangla the message has to be even shorter.
Unneeded SMS. Do not send an SMS for every small event; keep to two: order confirmed and the day it is sent.
What to do if you do not take SMS
Not every shop needs SMS, and not on the first day.
In a small shop, writing one line on WhatsApp yourself when an order comes is enough, and that is free. You need SMS when so many orders come in a day that answering by hand is not possible.
There is an email auto-reply too, but that works only when the customer has given an email in the form. In a cash-on-delivery shop that often does not happen, and this is exactly why the SMS arrangement exists separately.
Where orders are stored and how to handle them is in the post on the inbox. And which plan has SMS is in the post on choosing a plan.
If you want to see the whole arrangement for online selling in one place, read the post on a shop's web app.
Questions and answers
Do you sell SMS? No. The SMS goes through your own gateway account and the bill goes to them too. We only put the message together and send it to the link you gave. The reason is that the sender ID is registered in a business name, and it is your business's identity.
Can I manage without a masking sender ID? You can, but then the customer's phone will show a number instead of the shop's name. Showing the name on an order confirmation matters a lot for trust, so once the business is a bit bigger it is better to get the registration done.
The gateway says sent, but the customer did not get it, why? The three most common reasons: the balance is finished, the sender ID is not approved yet, or the message is not acceptable on the masking route. In all three cases most gateways return a success signal, so look first at the balance and the state of the sender ID.
Can I send SMS in Bangla? You can, but Bangla writing fits far fewer letters into one SMS, so the cost goes up. For a small shop it is practical to write a short message mixing Bangla and English, and to test once on your own phone to avoid broken letters.
My API link has my key in it, is that safe? On our side it is kept encrypted, so it is not open to support's eyes or in our database backups. But if you download the site's backup file yourself, the link is in the open there, because it is your own information. A good habit is to set a daily limit on the gateway account.
Can I use any gateway? We can read the answers of a few well-known ones, so there the result is clear. If you put in some other endpoint, the send does happen, but the result is shown as "not sure", because we cannot understand that answer.
Can I send both SMS and email? Yes, and the conditions for the two are different. Email goes when the customer has given an email in the form, SMS goes when there is a phone number and a gateway is set up. In a cash-on-delivery shop SMS is usually the more useful.
How do I test it? Place an order on the site with your own number and see whether the SMS comes. Do this once a month, because nobody tells you by themselves that the balance has run out.
In short
- A Commerce plan benefit, up to 200 a day
- The SMS goes through your own gateway, the sender ID is in your business's name
- You take the link from the gateway and put it on the site manager page
- Keep the message short, with the shop's name and one useful fact
- Almost every gateway returns a success signal even when sending failed
- So there are three results: went, did not go, and not sure
- Test with your own number after setting up, and once a month
- In a small shop a WhatsApp reply by hand is enough, SMS can come later