Starting Mar 25, 2022, SMS notifications sent by your business through Shopify will default to a non-customizable template. This means that any copy edits applied to transactional text messages – such as order confirmation SMS – will revert to their original format.
THIS also means that we will not be able to use SMS in most countries because simply they also will stop let translating the notifications.
In other words Shopify decided to destroy our plans and maybe our stores. When we chose Shopify and when we made people order only by mobile phone instead of email, we did not have in mind that one day they would decide to remove SMS feature. We made a long-term collaboration with them which they obviously do not respect.
Default SMS doesn’t make any sense for most stores (it needs edit for each store), but default SMS also will not be available for most languages. They will not let us even TRANSLATE!!!
And their support is unbelievably poor, they suggest PAYING for extra apps that we may not even be able to use for all countries. How crazy is that?
I do not think we should let that happen. Next time they may announce a new disaster.
We have to at least state our opposition to this change.
We also have to warn (for example in any Shopify reviews) those who intend to use Shopify for long term to keep in mind that one day the destruction of their store may be announced.
I wanted to make sure I reached out to you about your feedback that you have shared on this change. We take feedback from our merchants very seriously and I appreciate you sharing the information about how this has affected your business. I have shared it directly with our developers for future consideration as we continue to look into the best options for providing SMS support for stores on our platform.
For some additional insight, this change took place in part due to the way most major telecom providers register business SMS and how they charge for it. I found a detailed article from Twilio that provides a bit more context if you are interested: What is A2P 10DLC?
For any other merchants that would like to share their feedback on this, please don’t hesitate to reply to this thread and let us know.
Please explain more. SMS Notifications will work but only with default text. They did not say for example that the length of the text would be reduced.
So what does the charge have to do with the fact that you will not even be able to choose between texts or edit the text or translate the text to send the right information to the customers? How am i suppose to inform my customers for PRE ORDERS?
I asked the support team to help me with SMS notifications for GREECE in GREEK language, but it’s so unbelievably poor support that they told me to use Klaviyo. An app which needs extra payment and is only for United States Canada UK Australia.
I even asked them to check with their developers and gave me NO SOLUTION as you did.
Forgive me, but the answer “I have shared it directly with our developers” is not enough. It’s unprofessional and is not covered by the words “we are here to help” but in reality you are not helping.
I would recommend moving your customers to email notifications in the interim while you continue looking for a solution to providing SMS messages in Greek to your customers.
There are a huge range of apps in the app store that can potentially help support you in this. Since many of the apps in the app store are developed by independent app developers, our support doesn’t know all the details or options available in all the apps. You can find our SMS apps here: Shopify App Store: SMS Apps.
I hear your feedback on this situation, I recognize how this change has impacted your business. At this time the best solution is to either move your customers to email communications or to reach out to some of the app developers from our app store to see if you can find an app that meets your needs.
Then, if “support doesn’t know all the details or options available in all the apps” why do you send me the link for the apps?? Those apps are for cart recovery and marketing and not for my country.
You are right. I’m from Bangladesh, Here most people don’t use email. The SMS feature of Shopify was very lucrative and that’s why I opened my store here. Unfortunately, they stopped the service without proper alternatives. I tried to find suitable apps for texting but most of them are so expensive. Even I can’t use a local SMS Gateway provider in Shopify. I share the frustration with you and I understand how you feel.