Automated messages

Automated messages reach your customers on their own when something happens, such as a new account, an upcoming birthday or a change in their cashback balance. Each automated message pairs one event with one channel: WhatsApp, SMS or email. Find them in Marketing > Automated Messages. The Customer wallet updates, Welcome customers and Birthday greetings cards in the Message automations section of the WhatsApp page open the same page.

Channels and what they cost

Each channel draws on its own balance. A channel you can't use yet is greyed out when you create an automated message.

What each channel sends

Choose the channel by how much the message matters and what it costs:

• Welcome new customers and Customer birthday: WhatsApp suits them best. They arrive as a personal chat that shows your store's name, and a button takes the customer straight to your products or copies a coupon.

• Cashback available: it goes out with every completed order, so it's sent more than any other message. WhatsApp reaches the most customers if cashback is what brings them back for a second order; email costs nothing, which suits a message that runs with every order.

• Cashback expiring soon: an urgent message needs a fast channel. WhatsApp reaches the most customers, and SMS works well too, since the message is short by nature: an amount, a date and one sentence.

• Wallet credit added and Balance returned to wallet: WhatsApp reaches the customer quickly, often in the same chat they used to contact you.

Check your WhatsApp and SMS balances

Two cards at the top of the page show what you have left to send.

A Low badge appears on a card when the balance falls to 200 points or 200 messages or fewer.

Events you can automate

The Create automated message window lists the events available to your store, grouped by category, such as Customer engagement and Wallet & Rewards. The window names each event a little differently from the Type column and the filters of the list:

The welcome message goes only to customers who create a new account; guests who order without one, and customers who registered before, don't receive it. The birthday message uses the date of birth saved in the customer's account, so customers without one don't receive it. Zid checks your customers' birthdays every day and repeats the greeting every year while the message is active, with nothing for you to do. The more of your customers have a date of birth saved, the more of them receive it. You can set it up to 30 days before the birthday.

The cashback events reach only customers with an account, since only they have a wallet:

• Cashback available goes out for every completed order that earned cashback, so it is sent often. Until the order is completed, its cashback stays pending in the customer's wallet, can't be used and sends no message. Orders that don't earn cashback send nothing.

• Cashback expiring soon goes out only for credit that has an expiry date. Set Cashback validity period in your cashback offer, or a validity date when you add credit by hand. Credit without an expiry date never sends this message.

• Balance returned to wallet goes out only when the cancelled order was paid, partly or fully, with wallet credit. Money paid by card or another method is refunded on its own path and isn't part of this message.

• Wallet credit added goes out each time you add credit by hand, to each customer when you update several balances at once. Cashback earned from orders sends Cashback available instead. The same text serves every manual credit, so write it to fit a compensation and a gift alike. To explain a specific reason to one customer, contact them directly as well.

Create an automated message

1. Go to Marketing > Automated Messages and select Create. With no automated messages yet, you can also select Create First Automation.

2. In the Create automated message window, choose a category on the side, or keep All, then select the event you want.

   

3. Under Basic information, choose the Communication channel. Channels you can't use yet are greyed out, and a channel this event already uses is not offered again unless the event allows more than one.

4. Under Schedule message, choose when to send:

   • Send immediately sends as soon as the event happens.

   • Send after waits for the Delay you enter (1 or more) in the Time unit you pick: Minutes, Hours or Days.

   • For Customer birthday, the first option reads Before the birthday, by the set duration; enter the Days before birthday. For Cashback expiring soon, it reads Before the cashback balance expires, by the set duration; enter the Days before cashback expires. Enter 0 to send on the same day; the field shows the most days allowed.

   

5. Under Message content, choose the Message language and write the message. Each language your store uses has its own text; complete at least one language. When you write more than one, each customer receives the message in their preferred language.

   • For email, also fill in the Email subject.

   • Under Suggested values, select a value, such as the customer's name, to insert it where the cursor is. It is replaced with the real value when the message is sent.

   • For WhatsApp, format the text in the editor (up to 1,024 characters) and add up to 3 optional Buttons: Add link takes a Button label and a Website link, and Copy code takes a Button label and a Code, such as a coupon code.

   • SMS and email messages have no buttons; put a link in the text instead.

   • SMS messages go out under the sender name shown on the SMS balance card. Until you have an approved custom sender name, the SMS text is Zid's fixed text: the editor is locked, offers no suggested values and shows To customize the message, purchase a custom sender name for advertising SMS here. Buy one in Sender name to write your own text, or use WhatsApp, which shows your store's name.

   • Each event comes with a ready text. If you leave it as it is, the message goes out with that text and each customer's values filled in; rewriting it in your store's voice makes it more personal.

   

6. Select Preview to show or hide the Summary with the event, the schedule, the channel and the message as your customer sees it.

   

7. Select Create. The automated message is saved, inactive, and you return to the list.

8. In the list, turn on the Activation switch of the new message and confirm with Yes, activate.

When every channel of an event is already in use, the page shows This automation is already enabled on every channel. Select Edit WhatsApp automation, Edit SMS automation or Edit email automation to change an existing one, or Back to automated messages.

What each message can include

The Suggested values: under the message box change with the event. Select one to insert it; each customer receives their own value.

The amount covers this event only, while the balance is everything in the customer's wallet, including earlier cashback and credit you added before. In Cashback expiring soon, the balance can also include credit that expires later.

The automated messages list

Use the tabs to show All, Active or Inactive automated messages. Select the filter button to filter by Category, Type or Channel, and use the sort menu to order the list by Created at or Updated at.

Select a row to open it, or use the row menu to Edit or Delete it.

Turn an automated message on or off

1. In the list, select the message's Activation switch.

   

2. Confirm with Yes, activate or Yes, deactivate.

You can also select Activate or Deactivate at the top of the message's edit page. A deactivated message keeps its settings and text, so you can turn it back on anytime.

Edit an automated message

1. Select the message in the list, or choose Edit from its row menu.

2. Change the schedule, the days before the event or the message content. The channel can't be changed; to use another channel, create a new automated message for it. The event's name and description are fixed too, because they decide when the message is sent.

3. Select Save.

Your changes apply to messages sent after you save; messages already sent stay as they were.

Reset an automated message to its defaults

1. Open the message and select Reset to default from the menu at the top.

2. Confirm with Yes, reset.

Its message content, schedule and days before the event return to Zid's defaults. This can't be undone.

Delete an automated message

1. In the list, open the row menu and select Delete.

2. Confirm with Yes, delete.

Tips for automated messages

• Put the amount and the balance in the first line; they are why the customer opens the message.

• Point a WhatsApp link button to a shopping page, such as your best sellers or new arrivals, rather than your home page. Every extra step between the message and the cart lowers the chance the credit gets used.

• When the credit has an expiry date, write the date rather than "soon". One sentence about the expiry is enough: repeating the warning turns a reminder into nagging.

• Don't assume customers know what cashback is. A short line saying it's real credit taken off their next order makes them use it.

• In Wallet credit added, don't promise an expiry period unless it's fixed in your wallet settings, or you may promise what doesn't apply to every customer.

• In Balance returned to wallet, always include the order number, since a customer with several orders needs to know which one you mean. Say that you're talking about wallet credit: money paid by card comes back on another path, and mixing the two sets the wrong expectation. A short apology is enough.

• In the welcome message, give one reason to browse, such as your shipping, your guarantee or a category worth starting with. Send a short welcome right away, and use a short delay when the message carries an offer or a coupon, so the customer reads it after signing up.

• In the birthday message, start with the greeting and put the gift after it; a message that opens with a discount reads like an ad. State the gift's value and how long it lasts in one line, without long conditions.

• Write in your store's voice. Customers can tell a generic message from one written for them.

Related

• Marketing campaigns

• WhatsApp

• Sender name

• Order notifications

• Cashback offers

Last updated 28 October 2026