Order notifications

Order notifications tell a customer what has happened to their order, confirmed, packed, shipped, out for delivery, delivered, paid, refunded, returned. They are the reason most stores install this in the first place: a customer who gets a shipping message on WhatsApp does not open a "where is my order" ticket.

The events

Twelve of the eighteen catalog events are order-related. Each has its own template, its own approval state and its own set of variables.

What has to be true first

A registered number

Not just linked, registered on the Cloud API with a six-digit two-step PIN. An unregistered number rejects every send with Meta error 133010, however many templates are approved. See Connect your WhatsApp number.

The template approved

Per event, per number. E-commerce Notifications shows the state of all eighteen at a glance and submits them in one click.

The event switched on

In WooCommerce and Shopify every event has its own toggle, and most start off. An approved template with the event switched off sends nothing.

A phone number on the order

The recipient is read from the order's billing phone by default. No phone, no message.

Credits

Order events are UTILITY, the cheap category, but not free. See Credits and billing.

How to set it up

1. Get the templates approved

   Open E-commerce Notifications in the dashboard. The headline reads "N ready to send / 18 total". Press Get all N verified to submit every outstanding template at once, or Get verified on a single card. Meta usually reviews within minutes to a few hours.

2. Fix any blockers reported at the top

   If the number cannot send at all, no access token, or not registered, a red panel says so above everything else. Approved templates below it will not deliver until that is fixed.

3. Send a test

   Expand an approved event's card and use the test row. It sends using the template's approved sample values, so you can confirm delivery without a real order.

4. Wire up the store

   Then connect WooCommerce, Shopify, or your own backend, see the tabs below.

The variables

Each event declares its variables in a fixed order, and that order is the {{1}}…{{n}} order of the approved template. Send them by name; the platform maps them to positions.

Newlines and tabs inside a value are collapsed to a single space and runs of four or more spaces are shortened, because Meta rejects such parameters with error 132000. Values are then trimmed.

What the customer receives

These are the exact approved bodies.

Under each one is that body rendered with the catalog's own example values, as it arrives on the customer's phone, *text* is bold in WhatsApp, not asterisks.

Hi {{1}}, your order *{{2}}* is confirmed! ✅

Order total: Rs.{{3}}
Track your order here: {{4}}

We'll message you as soon as it ships. Thank you for shopping with us!

📦 Update on your order *{{1}}*: the status is now *{{2}}*.

Track it here: {{3}}

Thanks for your patience!

🚚 Good news, your order *{{1}}* has shipped!

Tracking number: {{2}}
Track your shipment: {{3}}

It is on its way to you.

🛵 Your order *{{1}}* is out for delivery and should arrive today.

Track it live: {{2}}

Please keep your phone reachable.

🎉 Your order *{{1}}* has been delivered. We hope you love it!

Tell us how we did: {{2}}

Thank you for shopping with us.

Your order *{{1}}* has been cancelled. Reason: {{2}}.

Any payment already made will be refunded as per our refund policy. Contact us if you need help.

💳 We've received your payment of Rs.{{2}} for order *{{1}}*.

Your order is now confirmed and being processed. Thank you!

💰 A refund of Rs.{{2}} for your order *{{1}}* has been processed.

Please allow 5-7 business days for it to reflect in your account.

The remaining bodies, invoice, return_requested, return_approved and welcome, are shown in full on each event's card in the dashboard, and in the Event catalog.

Wiring up a store

Custom order statuses

Stores add their own statuses, packed, rto, ready-for-pickup, and the plugin supports them without any code.

On WhatsApp → Events, each event card has a Triggers field holding a comma-separated list of order statuses. Type the slug in, without the wc- prefix. The screen prints an Available: line listing every status registered on your site, so you can copy the exact slug.

processing, on-hold, packed, ready-for-pickup

order_status is the event built for this: it sends the status itself as orderStatus, so one template covers every custom status you add. Its default triggers are processing and on-hold.

The other events' default triggers are: order_cancelled → cancelled, failed; order_shipped → shipped; out_for_delivery → out-for-delivery; order_delivered → completed, delivered; refund_processed → refunded; return_requested → return-requested; return_approved → return-approved. Several events also use pseudo-triggers that are not statuses at all, new_order, payment_complete and invoice_created.

Where the tracking number comes from

Every shipment-tracking plugin invented its own meta key, so the {tracking_number} and {tracking_url} tags check the common ones in turn and take the first non-empty result.

1. WooCommerce Shipment Tracking (the official one)

   Read from _wc_shipment_tracking_items, which holds an array, the most recent entry is used, giving the number, the provider and the link. If that entry carries no link, the plugin's own formatter is called to build one.

2. Single-value keys, in order

   _tracking_number, _aftership_tracking_number, _shiprocket_awb, _awb_code, awb_code, _wc_shipment_tracking_number. These cover Advanced Shipment Tracking, AfterShip, Shiprocket, ClickPost and several India-focused logistics plugins.

3. Tracking URLs, in order

   _tracking_url, _aftership_tracking_url, _shiprocket_tracking_url, _wac_tracking_url. If none is set, {tracking_url} falls back to the customer's order page rather than sending an empty link.

4. Anything else

   A store on an exotic plugin can supply the values through the wac_order_tracking filter instead of switching plugins.

Because these keys are written by the tracking plugin at the default hook priority, the notification hooks run at priority 20, late enough that the tracking number is already saved when the shipping message is built.

Invoice numbers

{invoice_number} follows the same pattern: _wcpdf_invoice_number, _bewpi_invoice_number, _wac_invoice_number, _invoice_number, falling back to the order number.

When it does not fire

• The template is not approved. 409, code TEMPLATE_NOT_APPROVED. The single most common failure on a new account.
• The number is not registered on the Cloud API. 502, Meta error 133010. Every event fails, not just this one.
• The event is switched off. Nothing is attempted, and in WooCommerce nothing is even logged. The check runs before the log row is written.
• The order has no usable phone number. Logged as skipped with No usable phone number for this customer.
• The number is on the opt-out register. Logged as skipped with Recipient has opted out of WhatsApp messages. An opt-out beats every consent mode and every category. See Contacts and opt-outs.
• Consent mode is “required” and the customer never opted in. Skipped with Consent mode is set to "explicit opt-in required" and this customer has not opted in.
• The customer declined. Skipped with Customer declined WhatsApp updates.
• It has already been sent. The deduplication key, typically <event>:<orderId>, or order_status:<orderId>:<status>:<event> for a status change , is a unique index on the delivery log. A duplicate is refused with This notification has already been sent. and leaves no second log row at all. All three of WooCommerce's new-order hooks share one key on purpose, so a checkout that fires more than one of them still sends a single message.
• The plugin is not connected. No API key means Growcord WhatsApp is not connected. Add an API key under WhatsApp → Settings.
• The phone number could not be read as an international one. A national number is not guessed at; the send is refused.
• Credits ran out. 402. Nothing is sent and nothing is spent.

Cost

Every event on this page is UTILITY, the cheapest billable category. Under the shipped default rate card that is 1 credit to an Indian number and 6 elsewhere, against 8 and 18 for a marketing message. A skipped send costs nothing: no platform call is made at all. A send that fails is refunded automatically.