Contact syncing is the one-way automatic syncing of contact information from WooCommerce to the Sinch platform. Once you've set up the integration, the Sinch platform can then retrieve the names and phone numbers of your WooCommerce contacts, and they'll be saved in your Sinch platform contacts list with a "WooCommerce" label, differentiating them from your other contacts.
Enabling contact sync is super easy, all you have to do is check the box for Sync my contacts from WooCommerce to MessageMedia when you set up the integration.
Once you've installed the integration, there are two ways that the Sinch platform will sync your contacts:
- Bulk Sync - this is the initial sync of all your WooCommerce contacts when you install the integration.
- Live Sync - this is automatic ongoing sync of any new WooCommerce contacts across to the Sinch platform.
And just in case you were wondering, we're also going to touch on:
- How contact sync works with your segments and tags
- How contact sync works when a customer uses the checkout as a guest
Bulk (Initial) Sync
What's important to call out is that when you first connect the two platforms, the Sinch platform will automatically sync all existing WooCommerce customers. It's how those contacts are managed in the Sinch platform that will differ based on which option you configure for SMS opt-in consent when installing the integration:
- Explicit Consent - when this consent option is selected, the Sinch platform will sync all of your customers that have opted into SMS Marketing across as subscribed by default. The Sinch platform will also sync unsubscribed contacts as ‘unsubscribed’ for visibility.
- Inferred (or Implied) Consent - this means that when a customer provides you with their phone number, your store has provided them with the reasonable expectation that they'll receive SMS Marketing. without the need to expressly opt in. The Sinch platform will recognise these contacts as subscribed and update their subscription status as such.
Live (Ongoing) Sync
Whenever a new customer is created via the WooCommerce checkout, the Sinch platform will automatically sync that customer and their subscription status to your Sinch platform contacts. What this means is the live sync will recognise whether a contact has opted-in or out of SMS Marketing at checkout, and will sync that contact and their subscription status to the Hub accordingly.
If you want to learn more about managing a contact's subscription status in the Hub, check out this article.
Contact Syncing Customer Groups
To keep things simple and consistent, all your existing WooCommerce customer Segments and Tags will automatically sync as Contact Groups in the Sinch platform. You can learn more about managing contact groups in the Sinch platform here.
How contact sync works for "Guest" customers
Sometimes a customer might proceed through your store checkout as a guest, and won’t exist as a customer in your WooCommerce store. Ordinarily this would mean that you're unable to message or contact them since the information doesn’t get added to the customer section in WooCommerce.
The handy thing about the Sinch platform integration is, that while guest details don't save as a customer on the WooCommerce end, the Sinch platform will sync the guest details and save them into a specific contact group called WooCommerce - Guests.
Preventing duplicate contacts when integrated with Klaviyo
To avoid duplicated contacts within the Sinch platform, we highly recommend against contact syncing for WooCommerce in the event Klaviyo contacts have been synced already or will be synced.