Exotel Notifications for WooCommerce — order SMS with DLT support

Exotel Notifications for WooCommerce sends the buyer an SMS through your Exotel account when the status of a WooCommerce order changes. Every message carries the DLT entity ID and the template ID that Exotel asks for on Indian numbers. We found no official Exotel plugin for WooCommerce (there is only a guide for Shopify).

This module has never run against the real Exotel. We had no Exotel account (SMS in India need a DLT registration and we did not invent registration details), so not a single message went through the real Exotel.

What the free version does

You enter the Account SID, API key and API token from Exotel, choose the region (Mumbai or Singapore), the sender and the DLT entity ID; “Check connection” reads the wallet balance. The “Processing” and “Completed” statuses each have their own text and their own DLT template ID: in India the text has to match the approved template, so you paste the template with placeholders instead of its variables. The number is turned into the international form by the billing country (+91 for Indian numbers). Each status is sent once per order; a network failure, a 429 or a 5xx is retried once after five minutes, while a refusal by Exotel (number, DLT, balance) is not repeated and the reason goes into the order notes. An Indian number without the DLT entity ID is not sent and the note says why. There is a test SMS, an optional buyer consent (a checkbox at the checkout) and the key and token are stored encrypted.

What Pro adds

Cash on delivery confirmation by SMS reply: a COD order gets an SMS “Reply YES to confirm or NO to cancel” and waits on hold; the reply, which arrives at the address of the Exotel inbound SMS webhook, moves the order to Processing or Cancelled. Every order status (with its own text and template), delivery reports (each message carries a callback address and the journal and notes show “delivered” or the reason, for example FAILED_DND), an SMS journal, an SMS to the owner about a new order, an e-mail to the admin when the wallet balance falls below a limit, and a free-text SMS to the buyer from the order page.

How it works, step by step

1. In Exotel open Settings → API Settings → API Credentials and copy the Account SID, the API key and the API token.
2. WooCommerce → Exotel: paste them, choose the region, enter the sender and the DLT entity ID and press “Check connection”.
3. Tick the statuses, paste your approved DLT templates with their IDs and save.
4. Enter your own number, press “Send a test SMS”, then place a test order.

Under the hood

• The key and token are stored encrypted; messages go out of the Action Scheduler queue; the key is never printed back in the settings.
• The addresses for delivery reports and replies carry a random secret because the Exotel documentation has no webhook signature. The inbound webhook is open only with an active Pro.
• HPOS and block checkout compatible; language: English.

How to install

1. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin: choose the zip and activate it.
2. WooCommerce → Exotel: SID, key, token, sender and DLT.
3. Enter the service credentials and test the connection.
4. Try one test order before you switch the automation on.

The module is not on wordpress.org yet: the free version and Pro are one archive from this page. Without a key it works as the free version.