Start Strong
Sell Smart
Manage with Ease
Market to Success

Connecting Your WeChat Official Account Message Templates

Once you have configured message templates in your WeChat Official Account admin, you can connect them to Message Center. Then Message Center is able to send automatic notifications to customers via your WeChat Official Account using the message templates.

Currently, only order-related notifications are supported: Order Confirmation, Order Payment, and Shipping Update. Expect more notification types supported.

 

 

Connecting WeChat Official Account Message Templates

Before your start, ensure that you have connected at least one WeChat Official Account. You can connect and switch between multiple WeChat Official Accounts.

  1. From your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Channels > Message Center.
  2. Scroll down to the Connect multiple channels to reach more customers section and click the Go to settings button next to WeChat Official Account.
    1-2 wechat channel.png
  3. In the WeChat channel, go to the Message template section and click the Connect template button for the notification type you need.
    1-3 connect template.png
  4. In the pop-up dialog, select the language for the notification.
  5. Enter the template ID and click View template.
    1-5 enter template id.png
  6. If the template works, the system will identify and load the variables from the WeChat template. You will need to pair up WeChat and SHOPLINE variables. Once finished, click Connect now to complete the connection.
    1-6 associate variables.png
  7. In the Message template list, turn on the Status toggle to enable the template. This toggle is not available if no template is connected.

 

 

Adding another Language to a Notification

A single notification supports multiple languages. After adding the first language, simply repeat the same process described in the previous section to add more languages to a notification. Keep in mind that due to WeChat’s limitations, you need to create separate  templates for each language in the WeChat admin.

If you only add one language for the message template, the system will automatically set it as the default language. If your notification supports multiple languages, select one and click the globe icon to make it the default language. The default language will be used when the customer's language doesn’t match any of the languages you've set for the notification.

2-1 add language and default language.png

 

 

Considerations

  • WeChat currently limits each Official Account to a maximum of 25 message templates. If you are creating a new message template, there is an approval period of 3-7 working days. You must wait until the template is approved before connecting it to Message Center. Due to the lengthy approval process, we recommend selecting existing templates from WeChat’s official library. Learn more about WeChat’s template approval process.
  • Due to WeChat’s messaging policy, the tracking number of an order will be displayed as a dash ("-") in the notification If it is empty or exceeds 32 characters. 
  • If your store has enabled the Custom currency format feature (Settings > Basic settings > Payment currency), and your WeChat message template includes the order amount variable, the notification will still be sent. However, the amount and currency will not be displayed as expected. If not necessary, avoid enabling custom currency format to ensure the currency information is displayed correctly.

 

 

Sending Order-related Automatic Notifications via Your WeChat Official Account

Once you establish the connection, any order-related notifications will be sent to customers through your WeChat Official Account if they have registered their WeChat account with you.

Review the checklist for successful notifications:

  1. Customers have registered their WeChat account in their profile.
  2. You have connected Your WeChat Official Account to Message Center.
  3. The notification toggles are enabled.
  4. The WeChat templates are working.