Setting up SMS Notifications

Updated May 29, 2026 Extensions

The SMS Notifications extension texts your customers order updates — order confirmed, shipped, delivered — and can alert you to operational events like low stock or a failed payment. It works with Twilio or Vonage as the sending provider. This guide takes about fifteen minutes and assumes you have (or will create) an account with one of those providers.

1. Activate and enable the extension

Go to TitanCart → Extensions → Installed Extensions and enter your SMS Notifications license key to activate it.
Open Growth → SMS Notifications and, on the Settings tab, switch the master Enabled toggle on.

Note: the Enabled toggle stays locked until a valid license is active — that’s expected. Activate your license first, then enable. Nothing sends a text until this master toggle is on.

2. Choose a provider and enter your credentials

On the Settings tab, pick your Provider and fill in its credentials:

Twilio — enter your Account SID, Auth Token, and a From value. The From can be a Twilio phone number in +E.164 format (for example +15551234567) or a Messaging Service SID (starts with MG).
Vonage — enter your API Key, API Secret, and a From value, which can be a number or an alphanumeric sender ID.

Save your settings. When credentials are valid, the page shows the provider as configured.

Note: SMS providers expect phone numbers in international +E.164 format. Store your sending number that way, and make sure customer phone numbers include the country code.

3. Send a test message

Before going live, use the built-in test send to text your own phone. A successful test confirms your credentials and sending number are working end to end. The result, including the provider’s message ID, also appears in the Message Log tab.

4. Turn on the customer order updates you want

Each order event has its own toggle and its own editable message template. Enable the ones you want to send:

Order placed — sent when an order is paid.
Order shipped — sent when an order reaches a shipped status. You can set which status names count as “shipped” (default: shipped).
Order delivered — sent when an order reaches a delivered status. You can set which status names count (default: delivered,completed).

Message templates support placeholders that fill in per order, so each customer gets their own order number and details.

5. (Optional) Set up admin alerts

The extension can also text you when something needs attention. Enter an admin phone number, then enable:

Low stock — an hourly check that alerts you when a product runs low.
Failed payment — an alert when a customer’s payment fails.

6. Collect consent at checkout

To text customers, you need their consent. The checkout opt-in adds a clearly labelled checkbox at checkout where shoppers agree to receive SMS updates. On the Settings tab you can:

Turn the checkout opt-in on or off.
Decide whether it’s pre-checked — it’s left unchecked by default, so consent is explicit.
Edit the consent text (the default mentions that message and data rates may apply).

Note: only customers who opt in and have a phone number on file receive texts. An order from someone who didn’t opt in is simply skipped — you’ll see it marked as skipped in the Message Log.

7. Monitor what’s being sent

The Overview tab shows totals at a glance — sent, failed, skipped, and how many customers have opted in. The Message Log lists individual messages with their status and provider message ID, and the Subscribers tab shows who has opted in.

How to verify on Twilio’s side

If a message shows as sent in TitanCart but the customer says it didn’t arrive, confirm delivery from your Twilio dashboard:

Sign in at twilio.com and open Monitor → Logs → Messaging.
Find the message by recipient number or by the message ID shown in TitanCart’s Message Log (Twilio message IDs start with SM).
Check the message’s status — delivered confirms it reached the handset; undelivered or failed shows an error code you can look up in Twilio’s docs (common causes are an unverified trial number, an invalid recipient, or carrier filtering).
While on a Twilio trial account, you can only text numbers you’ve verified, and messages carry a trial prefix — upgrade to a paid account to send to any number.

Troubleshooting

The Enabled toggle won’t switch on — activate your license first under TitanCart → Extensions → Installed Extensions.
The test message fails — double-check your provider credentials and that the From value is a valid sending number (or Messaging Service SID) on that account.
Customers aren’t getting texts — confirm the specific event (placed / shipped / delivered) is enabled, the customer opted in and has a phone number, and the order actually reached a status in your shipped / delivered status lists.
Shipped or delivered texts never fire — your store’s status names may differ from the defaults; add your actual status names to the shipped statuses / delivered statuses fields.
Sent in TitanCart but not received — check the provider dashboard (see “How to verify on Twilio’s side” above) for the real delivery status and error code.