Displaying Correct Telecom Provider Info for Orders in Shopify

[taniaramzan]

Hi everyone,

I’m running a Shopify store in the Philippines, and I’ve noticed an issue with verifying customer contact details. Many customers enter their mobile numbers during checkout, but sometimes, it’s unclear which telecom provider (like Globe, Touch Mobile, or Smart) they belong to.

This is crucial for us because some promotions and updates we send are provider-specific. I’m looking for a way to automate telecom prefix recognition during the checkout process to ensure accurate targeting and communication.

Is there a way to integrate a system or app into Shopify that identifies telecom providers based on mobile prefixes? Alternatively, has anyone dealt with similar issues and found a good workaround?

Appreciate any advice or recommendations. Thanks in advance!

[VladimirS]

Haven't found any ready solution. Maybe your best bet would be writing custom javascript, hardcoding this list of prefixes, and updating it every month or so.

But also I'm not sure it'll fully work? Isn't there a "mobile number portability" law, where someone can start out on one provider but then move to another one but keep the same number and prefix? In that case you can't tell the provider from the prefix.

[dpand]

Shopify Flow supports running custom code as part of the action.

You can probably do something like this:

1. Create a Flow workflow and set the trigger to "order placed"

2. Run custom code in the action to check the phone prefix as @VladimirS shared and add a specific order tag based on the detected telecom provider

3. Configure your email/SMS marketing software to send promotions based on order tags

[taniaramzan]

Thanks, @VladimirS and @dpand, for your helpful suggestions!

I hadn’t considered the mobile number portability law affecting the accuracy of prefix recognition—that’s a great point to keep in mind. For now, even partial accuracy with telecom prefixes would help us improve targeted messaging, so hardcoding and updating a list of prefixes monthly could be a workable interim solution.

As for Shopify Flow, I’ll definitely explore that approach! Creating a workflow to tag orders based on prefixes and integrating it with our email/SMS marketing sounds like a practical way to align our promotions with telecom providers. I'll also check out IGOR on the Shopify App Store—it sounds interesting and might be helpful for managing our social media content alongside these workflows.

Appreciate the insights! If anyone has further experience handling mobile prefixes or dealing with portability issues, I’d love to hear about it.

[farhanal · Accepted solution]

Can you share your website URL? That would help me understand your setup better and give more specific advice.

The list of prefixes shared earlier is helpful, but it might not always be updated, especially because of the "mobile number portability" law. This means people can keep their prefixes even if they switch telecom providers, so static lists can sometimes be inaccurate.

One way to handle this is by adding a custom field on your checkout page where customers can select or type their prefix. You can connect this to an updated database so your system automatically identifies the correct provider and improves your targeting.

Another option is to use tools that keep prefix lists updated. For example, WhatNetwork.ph  has a detailed, categorized list of prefixes for providers like Globe and Smart. They also offer an API you can integrate into Shopify to make sure your data stays up to date without extra work.

These steps can make your promotions more accurate and save you time. Let me know if you’d like help setting this up!

[taniaramzan]

Thank you for your input! Unfortunately, I’m unable to share my website URL publicly, but your suggestions have been really helpful. The idea of adding a custom field on the checkout page and integrating it with an updated database is something I’ll definitely consider. Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice! 😊