Send tracking updates via Standard WhatsApp

Topic: Alongside branded tracking emails and SMS, you can notify your customers by WhatsApp whenever their parcel reaches a delivery milestone. Learn how to enable WhatsApp messaging for your parcels in the following article.

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WhatsApp tracking notifications 

Instant messaging service WhatsApp delivers more than 100 billion messages per day in 2020. This makes it an unmissable opportunity for e-commerce retailers to keep their customers up to date about the delivery status of their online orders. You can easily enable automatic tracking updates via WhatsApp in your Sendcloud panel if you're subscribed to our Lite plan and upwards. 

How to enable WhatsApp notifications

1. From your Sendcloud account, go to Tracking > Tracking messages.
2. From the Tracking messages page, you can configure tracking emails, SMS messaging and WhatsApp messaging independently of each other, by switching between the Email, SMS, and WhatsApp tabs at the top of the page.
3. Select the WhatsApp tab
4. Select a brand to use to send tracking updates via WhatsApp from the dropdown menu: 
   
5. You can save a different WhatsApp message configuration for each of the brands you have created in your Sendcloud account. You can find more information about creating brands here. 
6. To enable WhatsApp messaging, toggle the switch. By default, all the available templates are activated for all default countries. If you want to send messages to any of the countries in the list, make sure to enable those countries individually. Note that with a Lite subscription, you can only activate messaging for up to 2 countries.
7. The first time you enable WhatsApp messaging, you'll see a pop-up message informing you about rates. You'll also need to give your consent for customer phone numbers to be used by Sendcloud to send updates via WhatsApp messaging, by ticking the boxes and by clicking Continue. 

Tracking statuses

Once you've enabled WhatsApp notifications, you can choose which tracking statuses will trigger the sending of tracking updates. You can choose any combination of the following statuses:

Shipping:

1. Ready for shipment
2. Out for delivery
3. Delayed
4. Ready for pick-up
5. Delivered

Returns:

1. Label Created
2. Handed in at drop-off
3. Return received

Post-purchase:

1. Post-purchase

Each status can be toggled on or off , and can be toggled on or off per shipping Country. This configuration is unique per brand— For example, if you enable the "Ready for shipment" status for the Sendcloud brand, it will remain disabled for all your other brands and countries until you enable it for each one.

Countries

Dynamic tags

The WhatsApp notification feature includes some unique dynamic tags to help personalize the body of the message. These tags will dynamically pull content, such as {{carrier}} name or {{companyname}}, from the parcel details and insert the correct value into the message. The dynamic tag{{whatsappnumber}} is designed to automatically display the WhatsApp for Business number that you have stored in the footer section of your brand settings. 

Pricing

• Lite plan: 0.16 GBP per template message*
• Growth plan: 0.14 GBP per template message*
• Premium plan: 0.12 GBP per template message*

*Messages sent via Sendcloud templates will be charged. 

Invoicing

• You are charged according to 2 criteria: the country where your company is registered and your Sendcloud subscription plan. This means that the country you send the WhatsApp message to does not affect the pricing.
• WhatsApp tracking messages will be billed on a bi-weekly basis along with your shipments

Terms & conditions

Sendcloud and the partner we use to send tracking messages via WhatsApp will use the phone number and other information submitted to us to provide the messages associated with the service.