Generic Yotpo SMS & Email Installation Guide for Existing Reviews Customers

In order to start utilizing Yotpo SMS & Email, existing Yotpo Reviews customers will need to migrate to our new API. This will allow for a seamless transfer of all orders, products, and customer data to be used for activation across all of our products.

Integrating Yotpo's SMS & Email product can easily be accomplished via two phases: Backend development and platform configuration.

The platform configuration side can be easily done by an eCommerce manager, and it includes basic settings, campaign settings, flows & automation settings, and creating subscriber collection methods (popup, embedded forms, etc.). The backend development part includes:

1. Importing existing data to Yotpo’s SMS application: importing orders and customers via API.
2. Creating API flows for ongoing store activity - send an update to Yotpo for new orders, products, customers, and checkouts (for abandoned cart campaigns).
3. Adding an opt-in checkbox to the storefront checkout and registration form that sends the customer with the SMS consent to Yotpo’s SMS application (Optional).

Yotpo’s SMS & Email, Reviews, and Visual UGC products now benefit from our brand new API - Not only is this API more robust, but it also allows for greater flexibility, ease of integration, and enhanced functionality for connections to other platforms and data sources.

Yotpo customers who already have Yotpo Reviews set up will need to migrate to the V1 API and start using the V3 API. These are our upgraded API endpoints that will serve you for both Reviews and SMS. 

Step 1: Setting up an account

Create a Yotpo SMS & Email account that you can then connect with your store - use the navigation bar to access the SMS & Email admin.

If there are any issues with the account creation, please reach out to your Yotpo representative or our Support team.

Configure basic settings

Once you’ve created an account, you’ll need to configure some of the basic settings. Go to the Settings section of your SMS & Email admin and, under the ‘General’ tab, configure the following details:

• Store URL
• Store name
• Timezone

Step 2: Importing data

In this step, we will import relevant product and customer data into your SMS & Email account.

1. Product information - As you already have an active Yotpo Reviews account, just make sure your existing product catalog is up to date either via the Create or Update product API endpoints or via a CSV file upload.
2. Customers - Run the Create or update customer API endpoint to import customer data. This should include all customers, even those who haven’t made a purchase yet.
3. Orders - First, you’ll need to backfill all order-related information, even if the relevant data already exists in your Yotpo Reviews account. Backfilling the information will allow you to segment customers within the SMS & Email product and create more efficient campaigns. You can use the Update order endpoint for orders that exist, and Create order endpoint for new orders, or use the Send aggregated order info endpoint for both.

We recommend enriching the orders with data that can be used later for segmentation, however, If you don't want to add anything to the existing orders, you can just send the external customer ID:

{
"order": {
"customer": {
"external_id": "test"
}
}
}

4. Collections (optional for segmentation)- To associate the product with their respective collections: 
   1. Perform the Create collection API endpoint
   2. Perform the Add product to collection API endpoint

Managing review requests

If you're also using our Reviews product, sending the order information will allow you to send out automatic review requests to your shoppers.

The review requests will only be sent out for fulfilled orders. You can set your order status by using the same order creation endpoint or as a separate API call. Make sure you include the following fields: 

• fulfillment_date
• fulfillment_status=success

To learn more about how to integrate your platform with Yotpo Reviews, click here.

Step 3: Configuring subscriber collection methods

Yotpo SMS & Email allows you to set up various subscription collection methods. There are two main ways to add these methods to your store - Code pasting and API:

• Code pasting - this allows you to create and customize the subscription collection method within your SMS & Email admin, Once you’re done, you’ll be presented with a code snippet that can easily be added to the relevant pages of your store. Simply go to the Subscribers Collection section of your SMS & Email admin and set up the methods relevant to your store. 
• API - You can choose to add your own HTML element that includes compliance text and a subscription checkbox. You can then use Yotpo’s API to send the subscription information to Yotpo.

If you add a subscription element to your checkout page, use the Create order API endpoint and make sure to mark the accept _marketing parameters as “true”:

If you add it to a registration page, use the Create or update customer API endpoint and make sure to mark the accept _marketing parameter as “true”.

Step 4: Setting up API flows

In this step, you’ll create API flows that will ensure ongoing communication between your store and Yotpo. The following information needs to be sent out to Yotpo via API:

• New products, updated product info (including deleted products)
• New collections and new products associated with collections - optional
• New customer registrations and customer information updates
• New checkout information and checkout updates
• New orders, updated orders, order fulfillment
  

Yotpo Reviews merchants will need to update the way in which you send Yotpo order-related information:

Generic integration

If you set up a generic integration with the Review product, stop sending order data via the V1 APIing order data via the V1 API. All order-related information must be sent to Yotpo using the new endpoints. 

Supported platforms

First, set up the Create order API endpoint. Once it’s set up, you’ll need to perform the action relevant to your platform (below):

Step 5: Integrations

Make the most of your eCommerce apps by integrating them with one another. Combining different app capabilities can help you create a more comprehensive solution both for your store and for your shoppers. Here are some examples:

• Yotpo Reviews and UGC - Collect customer reviews, photos, and videos with SMS & Email and Yotpo.
• Yotpo Loyalty - Inspire loyalty with an enticing rewards program
• Zendesk - Don't miss a text  from your customers with the New Zendesk Integration
• Klaviyo - Connect Klaviyo to Increase SMS engagement

 To view all available SMS & Email integrations, click here. 

Step 6: Setting up flows and automations

Now that your eCommerce platform is integrated with the SMS & Email product, you can start creating SMS campaigns and automation to engage your customers.