WooCommerce Pinpoint SMS Setup

WooCommerce Pinpoint SMS integrates with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide low cost, efficient and reliable SMS notification services. The guide below will show you how to easily configure your AWS account for use with WooCommerce Pinpoint SMS.

Sign in to Amazon Web Services

• If you already have an AWS account, sign in here.
• If you don’t have an AWS account, you can create one here.

Create An Amazon Web Services (AWS) User & Policy

You are going to create an AWS user that has access to the AWS Pinpoint service. Before you create the user, you will create the AWS Policy that will give the user access to AWS Pinpoint. You can start the process to create a new AWS Policy here.

1. Click ‘Create policy’

On the next screen, you will define the new policy:

1. Click the ‘JSON’ tab in the policy editor
2. Ignore the warning message about and remove all of the text from the editor.
3. Very carefully, cut and paste the text in the box below into the AWS policy editor.
4. Click ‘Review policy’

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "mobiletargeting:SendMessages",
                "mobiletargeting:GetSmsChannel",
                "mobiletargeting:GetApps"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:mobiletargeting:*:*:apps/*"
        }
    ]
}

Name and create the policy:

1. Give the policy a name ‘Pinpoint_Policy’
2. Add a description if you’d like (it’s optional).
3. Click ‘Create policy’

Now that we have created the Pinpoint policy, we can create an AWS user and attach this policy to the user. You can start the process to create a new AWS user here.

1. Enter a name for User name — Pinpoint_User
2. Check ‘Programatic access’
3. Click ‘Next: Permissions’

Now you will add permissions for this user to access the AWS Pinpoint services using the policy that you just created.

1. Click the box that says ‘Attach existing policies directly’
2. Put the name of the policy you created in the search box
3. Put a check next to the policy you created
4. Click ‘Next: tags’

Nothing to do on the next page, so just click through.

1. Click ‘Next: review’

Now you have defined the user and attached your policy, the only thing left to do is create the user.

1. Click ‘Create user’

You have now successfully created an AWS user that has the needed Pinpoint permissions.

On this screen, you are given the ‘Access key ID’ and ‘Secret access key’. Click the ‘Download .csv’ button to save these keys. AWS won’t show you these keys again, so please keep them somewhere safe — you will need them in the next section. (If you do lose the keys, you can always create another AWS user with the Pinpoint policy you have already created).

1. Click ‘Download .csv’ and keep the file some where safe.
2. Alternatively, you can click ‘Show’ under Secret access key and copy and paste the keys into a file of your choosing.
3. Click ‘Close’

Add your AWS keys to WooCommerce Pinpoint SMS

Open your wp-config.php file and find the lines that say:

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
	define( 'ABSPATH', dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/' );
}

Immediately *above* that code, carefully cut and paste the following code into wp-config.php. Replace the *’s with your AWS Access key ID and Secret access key.

define( 'WC_PINPOINT_SMS_SETTINGS', serialize( array(
	'access-key-id' => '********************',
	'secret-access-key' => '**************************************',
) ) );

Save the wp-config.php file. (If you cannot edit your wp-config.php file or would prefer not to, you can also add your access key and secret key on the WooCommerce Pinpoint SMS AWS Settings page. This method is less secure, but will work equally well.)

Create an AWS Pinpoint Project

To allow WooCommerce SMS to send SMS notifications through AWS, you need to create a Pinpoint Project. You can start the process to create a Pinpoint project by clicking here.

1. Enter a project name
2. Click ‘Create a project’

Now configure your project for SMS

1. Click the ‘Configure’ button in the box labeled ‘SMS and voice’

Configure your project for Transactional SMS notifications.

1. Check the box next to ‘Enable the SMS channel for this project’
2. Click ‘Account level settings’
3. Click the ‘Transactional’ radio button (it might already be selected)
4. Leave the other boxes unchanged (we will come back to ‘Account spending limit’ later) and click ‘Save changes’

Increase your monthly Pinpoint spending allowance

As a safe-guard, AWS limits your monthly spend on new Pinpoint projects to $1. At current (April 2019) US pricing, this is enough for approximately 150 SMS notifications per month. It is recommended that you increase this monthly cap. To do so, you will make a simple request to AWS. You can start the request process here. (You may have to log into your AWS account again)

1. Click ‘Create case’

Now you will add the details to your request.

1. Choose ‘Service Limit Increase’
2. Under ‘Case Classification’ choose ‘Pinpoint SMS’
3. Optionally, enter a link to your store, ‘Transactional’ for ‘Type of messages’ and the countries most of your SMS messages will be sent to. You can leave any of these optional fields empty.
4. In the ‘Requests’ box, for ‘Resource Type’ choose ‘General Limits’
5. For ‘Limit’, choose ‘Account Spend Threshold Increase’
6. For ‘New limit value’ box, type the maximum amount in USD that you’ll spend on SMS messages each calendar month.
7. In the ‘Case description’ box, write a few short sentences about your store. See the info box below for some guidance and suggestions.
8. For ‘Contact options’ , select your preferred contact language
9. Click ‘Submit’

.

I run an online store called <StoreName> at <StoreWebSite>.  I use transactional SMS notifications to keep my customers up to date with the status of their orders.  My customers can opt in to receiving SMS notifications when they complete their order at checkout.

It usually takes AWS 2-3 days to respond to your limit increase request. You will receive an email when they have approved your request. When you have received your limit increase approval, follow the instructions in the next section.

Change your AWS Pinpoint App Spending Limit

Follow these instructions when you have received a notification from AWS that your Pinpoint spending limit has been increased. Navigate to the AWS Pinpoint service service by clicking here.

1. Select your Pinpoint project.

Now you will change the spending allowance for your project.

1. In the left hand column, select ‘Settings’
2. and then ‘SMS and voice’
3. Click the ‘Edit’ button

1. Be sure that ‘Enable the SMS channel for this project’ is checked
2. Click ‘Account-level settings’
3. For Account spending limit, enter the maximum amount of money, in USD, that you want to spend sending SMS messages each month. This can be a smaller amount that what you have been approved for.
4. Click ‘Save changes’