Text messages get read. That is the whole appeal, and it is also why the rules around them are stricter than email: a shopper has to ask for them, and you have to be able to show that they did. The extension handles both halves. It asks at checkout, it records the answer with the evidence behind it, and Mailchimp does the sending.
Nothing about this turns itself on. No shopper is ever texted because of an order they placed or a box they did not tick.
Before you start: set up SMS in Mailchimp
Texting is set up in Mailchimp, not in Magento. You need an approved SMS program on the audience your store is linked to. Set up SMS marketing walks through it.
Which countries you can text, and what that costs, is part of your Mailchimp SMS plan. Ask Mailchimp what your plan includes before you count on reaching a particular market.
Your store collects permission from any shopper who gives it. Delivery is Mailchimp’s side of the line.
Turn it on in your store
Go to Marketing → Intuit Mailchimp → Configuration and open the SMS section. The settings are per store view, so you can run texting on one storefront and not another.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Capture SMS consent | Shows the permission ask at checkout |
| Consent disclaimer | The wording a shopper reads before they agree. Yours to edit |
| Use the billing phone | Offers the shopper the number already on their order, so they do not retype it |
The disclaimer is worth a minute of your time. It is what a shopper reads at the moment they agree, and it is stored with their permission as evidence.
What the shopper sees
At checkout, under the billing address, a single checkbox and a phone field. Nothing is pre-ticked. A shopper who already has a number with you sees it shown rather than an empty box, so there is nothing to retype.
Logged-in customers also get a Text Messages section in their account, where they can see the number you hold and whether they are signed up.
The number a shopper gives is the one kept on their contact in Mailchimp, which is why it is shown rather than offered for editing. If a customer needs a different one, get in touch and we will help you sort it.
How a customer stops their texts
They reply STOP to any message. That is the way, and it is the answer to give when a customer asks to be taken off.
Mailchimp tells your store, so your records stay in step.
The consent record
Every permission a shopper gives is stored in your own database, with the evidence behind it. Go to Marketing → Intuit Mailchimp → SMS Consent to see it.
| What is kept | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who agreed, and their number | The basics of the record |
| The exact date and time | Consent is dated or it is not consent |
| The disclaimer they actually read | If you edit your wording later, older records keep the version each shopper was shown |
| The page they were on, their IP address and browser | Corroborates the rest |
| Where it came from | Checkout, their account, or recorded by your staff |
Click View on any row to see all of it, and export the grid to CSV whenever you need the records out.
The table is never trimmed and survives disconnecting from Mailchimp.
Your staff can also see and manage a single customer’s SMS permission from Customers → All Customers → edit → SMS Consent, next to the Newsletter tab. Anything recorded there is marked as staff-recorded, and stamped with the admin account that did it, so a record made in the office never looks like something a shopper did.
What happens next
Once a shopper has given permission and Mailchimp has their number, they are reachable by your SMS campaigns and Customer Journeys in Mailchimp exactly like any other contact. The sending, the segments and the reporting all live there. Your store’s job is the permission and the proof of it.
Questions about texting? Troubleshooting covers the common ones, and ebizmarts support is one email away.