Notifications
Notifications: Overview
A merchant-facing map of every customer and staff lifecycle notification Bird sends: what each one says, who gets it, and what triggers it.
Customers get updates as their order moves through pickup, delivery, or shipping. Staff get an email the moment a new order comes in, with the scheduled date, time, and method already in it. Both cut down on the same problem from opposite sides: a customer who isn’t sure where their order stands ends up contacting your store, and a staff member without the delivery details in front of them ends up digging for them in the Bird App.
Notification Methods
Bird sends notifications through two channels:
- Email - the main channel. Every template is editable in Bird Settings > Notifications. See How to Customize Email Templates in Bird App.
- SMS - available on any paid plan, but billed against your account balance rather than included automatically. Enable it from your Subscriptions page: update your limit, then top up your balance if prompted (see Complete Guide to Our Pricing Plans for the billing details, and Shopify’s third-party app charges doc for how the underlying charge works). Once your balance is set up, turn individual SMS notifications on or off in Bird Settings > SMS Notifications.
SMS requires both a paid plan and a store based in the US, UK, Canada, or Sweden. It isn’t available outside those countries, regardless of plan.
SMS mirrors the same lifecycle as email: Ready for Pickup, Order Picked Up, Out for Delivery, Order Delivered, and Order Edited go to the customer, and New Order Notification goes to staff. Staff SMS also needs phone numbers added in Location Settings before it can send.
Notification Reference
Customer notifications
| Notification | Controlled By | Applies To | SMS | Trigger | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ready for Pickup | Bird | Pickup | ✅ | ✅ | Order marked ready for pickup |
| Order Picked Up | Bird | Pickup | ✅ | ✅ | Order marked picked up |
| Out for Delivery | Bird | Delivery | ✅ | ✅ | Order marked dispatched |
| Order Delivered | Bird | Delivery | ✅ | ✅ | Order marked delivered |
| Order Edited | Bird | All orders, incl. shipping | ✅ | ✅ | Delivery details changed and “Notify customer” is checked |
| Order Confirmation | Shopify | All orders, incl. shipping | ✅ | ❌ | New order placed |
| Shipping Confirmation | Shopify | Shipping only | ✅ | ❌ | Order marked fulfilled |
Order Confirmation is Shopify’s own email, but Bird can still add the delivery date, time, and method to it. See How to Add Date and Time to Order Confirmation Emails.
Shipping orders don’t get a Bird lifecycle email the way pickup and delivery orders do. Bird only touches Order Confirmation for shipping orders. Shopify’s Shipping Confirmation, sent when the order is fulfilled, is untouched by Bird.
Staff notifications
| Notification | Controlled By | Applies To | SMS | Trigger | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Order Notification | Bird | Pickup & Delivery | ✅ | ✅ | New order placed |
| Shopify New Order Email | Shopify | All orders, incl. shipping | ✅ | ❌ | New order placed |
Bird’s own New Order Notification and Shopify’s New Order Email are two separate systems, use whichever one you prefer. Bird can add delivery date, time, and method to Shopify’s version too. See How to Add Date/Time and Delivery Method to Shopify Staff Emails.
Staff mark orders ready, dispatched, or picked up/delivered from either the Bird App orders page or Shopify Orders (More Actions > Bird: Mark Ready). See How to Send Pickup and Delivery Notifications to Customers for both methods side by side.
Integration failure alerts
If you use a last-mile courier integration, Bird also emails staff when a delivery job fails to create with that courier, separate from the lifecycle notifications above. See Stuart Integration: Last-Mile Delivery with Bird App and Shipday Integration: Automate Delivery Orders with Bird Pickup & Delivery for where to set the alert email.
When Notifications Fire
A single order moves through these stages:
- The order is placed. Shopify sends its own Order Confirmation to the customer, with Bird’s delivery details added in. Staff get the New Order Notification at the same time, automatically.
- Staff mark the order ready or dispatched. The customer gets Ready for Pickup or Out for Delivery. Neither fires on a timer. Someone has to update the order’s status first.
- Staff mark the order complete. The customer gets Order Picked Up or Order Delivered, depending on the fulfillment method.
- If delivery details change after the order was placed (a new date, time, or method), the customer gets Order Edited, but only if whoever made the change checked “Notify customer.” Leave that box unchecked and the update happens silently.
Fulfilling a pickup or delivery order through Bird’s own actions automatically suppresses Shopify’s generic shipping confirmation email for that order, so customers only get Bird’s own emails. Standard shipping orders are untouched and still get Shopify’s shipping confirmation as normal. See How to Send Pickup and Delivery Notifications to Customers for the one case where this suppression doesn’t apply.
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