Displaying Correct Telecom Provider Info for Orders in Shopify

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

A Shopify store owner in the Philippines seeks to automatically identify customers’ telecom providers (Globe, Smart, Touch Mobile) based on mobile number prefixes during checkout. This information is needed for provider-specific promotions and communications.

Key Challenge:
Mobile number portability laws allow customers to switch providers while keeping their original prefix, making static prefix lists potentially inaccurate.

Proposed Solutions:

  • Hardcoded prefix list: Manually maintain and update a GitHub-sourced list of prefixes monthly via custom JavaScript
  • Shopify Flow automation: Create a workflow triggered on order placement that runs custom code to detect prefixes and automatically tag orders, then integrate these tags with email/SMS marketing platforms
  • Custom checkout field: Add a field where customers manually select or enter their provider, connected to an updated database
  • Third-party API: Integrate services like WhatNetwork.ph that maintain current prefix databases and offer API access

Current Status:
The store owner is exploring the Shopify Flow approach and acknowledges that even partial accuracy would improve their targeted messaging capabilities. No final implementation decision has been made.

Summarized with AI on November 2. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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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.