Text the buyer and the packing bench when an order comes in
One submission sends the buyer a confirmation text and the packing bench a separate message with the picking details.
New submission on your order or pre-order form
Send an SMS to the buyer confirming the items and expected ship date, and a separate SMS to the fulfilment line
One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.
A shop selling through a form has two people waiting on the same submission: the buyer, who wants to know the order landed, and whoever packs it. Email serves neither well on a busy Saturday.
Two Twilio steps in one Zap cover both sides. The buyer gets a short receipt by text with the item and a ship date; the packing bench gets the picking details on a shared handset. The form captures the order and can send the buyer to secure hosted checkout; the messages keep both sides updated.
Setting it up
- 1
Publish the order form with Phone Number required, since a buyer with no number cannot be sent a receipt.
- 2
In Zapier, trigger on formformform and New Submission, selecting the order form.
- 3
Add the first Twilio Send SMS action for the buyer: map Phone Number into To, and build the body from Item Name or Product and Quantity.
- 4
Write the ship-date sentence yourself and switch it on Delivery Method, because collection and courier do not share a date.
- 5
Add a second Twilio Send SMS action in the same Zap with the packing bench handset hard-coded into To.
- 6
Put Color, Variant, or Size and Special Instructions into that second message so the picker never has to open a laptop.
- 7
Leave Shipping Address out of both texts — it is long, it splits the segment, and it reads better in the submission itself.
- 8
Place a test order, check both handsets, then enable the Zap.
What maps where
Using the Product Order Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.
| Form field | Twilio |
|---|---|
| Phone Number | The Twilio To number for the buyer's confirmation |
| Item Name or Product | Named in the buyer's receipt and in the packing message |
| Quantity | Included in both messages so the picker knows the count |
| Color, Variant, or Size | Appended to the item line in the packing message |
| Delivery Method | Selects the ship-date wording in the buyer's message |
| Special Instructions | Passed only to the fulfilment SMS |
Variations worth knowing
Add Zapier Paths on Item Name or Product and give each branch its own Twilio action. Framed prints go to the studio handset, everything shipped flat goes to the packing bench. The buyer's receipt stays on a single shared step above the split.
This Zap fires once, at order time, and knows nothing about dispatch. Build a second Zap triggered by your shipping tool or a spreadsheet row and send it from the same Twilio number, so the receipt and the dispatch note thread together for the buyer.
If something isn't arriving
Long product names push the body past 160 characters and Twilio splits it into billed segments. Trim the buyer's message to item, quantity and ship date, keep the address out of it entirely, and check the character count on your longest product name.
Zapier runs actions in order and halts the whole Zap when one fails, so a malformed buyer number stops the second message. Put the fulfilment SMS first in the Zap, before the buyer's receipt, so a bad number cannot keep an order from being packed.
Frequently asked questions
Can the form take payment at the same time?
Yes. Add products and priced options to the form, then collect payment through secure hosted checkout with Stripe, PayPal, or Square. Payment status is tracked alongside the response.
How do I stop test orders texting the warehouse?
Add a Zapier Filter that halts the Zap when Special Instructions contains an agreed word such as TEST. Zapier's own test runs also send real messages, so put your own mobile in the To field while you are still building the steps.
Can one submission text two different numbers?
Yes. A single Zap can hold several Twilio actions, each with its own To number and its own body. That is exactly how the buyer and the packing bench are both reached, and a third action can cover the courier if you need it.
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Build the form first
The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.
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