Set up the WhatsApp confirmation
WhatsApp only lets a store start a conversation with a message template it has approved. Your store comes with a ready-made draft template for the COD confirmation. Until WhatsApp approves it, every COD order goes to the Needs a call list.
Submit the template
- Make sure WhatsApp Notifications is on and connected to your WhatsApp Business account (WhatsApp Cloud API).
- Open Messaging → Templates and choose the WhatsApp template for COD order confirmation (named Default).
- Check the text. The draft says: "Hi {{customer_name}}, thank you for your order {{order_number}} at {{store_name}}. You chose Cash on Delivery for {{order_total}}. Please confirm the order so we can ship it, or cancel it if you no longer need it."
- It has two quick-reply buttons, Confirm order and Cancel order. Its category is Utility.
- Submit it to WhatsApp. Approval usually takes from a few minutes to a day. The page shows its review status.
Once it is approved, the COD confirmations page stops showing Customers are not asked on WhatsApp yet, and new COD orders are asked on WhatsApp.
Changing the text or the buttons
You can reword the message and the buttons before you submit it. Keep these rules:
- Don't start or end the message with a variable such as {{customer_name}}; WhatsApp rejects that.
- Keep two quick-reply buttons. A button whose text says cancel cancels the order; one that says confirm or yes confirms it. A button with other text counts by its position: the first confirms, the second cancels.
- Button text is at most 25 characters.
- Don't add a discount to this template: a message that offers a discount is a marketing message for WhatsApp. The online payment offer goes in the reply to Confirm order instead, which every customer can receive.
Who gets it
- Customers who replied STOP or STOP ALL to your WhatsApp number are not asked; their orders go to the call list.
- The confirmation is an order update (WhatsApp's Utility category), so it does not need the customer's marketing opt-in.