How to activate OTP verification from the customer’s phone number. He entered the WooCommerce store when completing the order

If you are an online store owner, you have probably encountered the problem of fake orders, which are orders that are sent on store products using fake data either by mistake from the customer or due to incorrect user behavior, which may cause inconvenience to your support team and perhaps losses at times. By relying on the OTP verification system, which asks the user to confirm through a message sent to his phone number, this helps you obtain real orders from real customers. In this article, you will learn about the importance of activating the OTP customer phone number verification system, and you will also learn about the way this system works, and through practical steps you will know how to activate the phone number verification system within your online store to combat fake or counterfeit orders.

The OTP phone number verification system works through 3 basic steps: The customer begins by entering his data, including the phone number, within the site or store. The OTP verifies the phone number entered and, if it is a valid phone number, an SMS message is sent to the person containing a code made up of numbers or distinct numbers and letters. The customer enters the confirmation code on the site, thus verifying that he is a real person first, and also ensuring that he is using a correct phone number. Secondly, the importance of activating OTP verification within your online store, directly or indirectly. The phone number verification system helps you increase the efficiency of the orders that come to you, through the following: Reducing the percentage of returns within the store: Some online stores send orders directly to the shipping company that has the stock of products, and therefore if the customer’s phone number is incorrect, the order will be designated as a return, and thus if verification of the customer’s phone number is activated. This contributes significantly to the low rate of store returns.

Verifying store customer data: Activating OTP verification helps you ensure that your customer data inside the store is correct, and thus you can use it for marketing purposes or sending discounts and gifts to your customers, unlike if you are not sure of your customer data, which means sacrificing your marketing efforts. Counteracting the phenomenon of electronic fraud: Some saboteurs may use programs to send large quantities of orders inside your store with the aim of consuming the store’s server resources, and when activating the OTP verification system, no order will be accepted or processed until after verifying the private phone number. With the customer, you can therefore significantly combat fraud within your store. Reducing unintentional errors: Sometimes a person enters the store and places an order, and accidentally enters his phone number incorrectly, and therefore he may not be able to receive the order, but if he confirms the phone number via the OTP verification code, this helps reduce the percentage of such unintentional errors.

Steps to activate OTP verification of phone number during...

Completing the order inside the store In order to activate the OTP verification service, we will use the Sms Verification add-on, which you can start for free, to verify the phone number of your online store customers when completing the order. This add-on was developed by FraudLabs, a company that specializes in producing software systems that support securing and protecting websites and combating fraud. The add-on provides a free opportunity for WordPress owners to try activating OTP verification. The add-on gives you 500 free points in your account every month, and for every message sent to a customer, the add-on deducts points from your free points balance. If you want to get more points, you can upgrade to one of the paid plans. After installing and activating the add-on on your site, you will go to the add-on’s settings tab from within the WordPress control panel, and we will notice that the points balance available to us is 0, so we must click on the (Add more credits) button in order for it to transfer us to the add-on’s website, where we register a free account to obtain a 500-point balance for free: We will be transferred directly to the add-on’s official website, and from there we click on the free registration button Try for free: You must register a free account on the site, where a window will open for you. Registration in which you enter your data such as name and email and then click on the registration button: After you successfully register the account, your account control panel on the site will open in front of you, in which you will find the external link code API Key: Copy this code API Key and then go to the WordPress control panel, specifically inside the settings tab for the add-on, then paste the API code in the place designated for it: Inside the same settings page for the add-on, you will find a set of settings related to the method of sending and receiving OTP confirmation messages to the phone number of the store’s customers, and among these options are the following: Maximum message attempts Short, in which you can set the maximum number of attempts in which you allow the customer to request sending an OTP code.

Instructions for verifying messages: In which you write the text that you want to appear on the payment completion page in order to ask the customer to confirm his phone number. SMS message content: You write the text that is sent in an SMS text message to the customer’s phone number along with his confirmation code. SMS timeout: This is the period of time during which the OTP confirmation code is valid for use after sending it in a text message to the customer.

Country code: Here you choose the country of the store, so that confirmation messages are sent using a phone number that uses the country code, which gives the customer greater confidence in the content of the messages. Within the same settings page, you will also find some other options such as: 6. Invalid phone number message: Here you write the text that appears in front of the customer if the phone number is written incorrectly.

7. Incorrect OTP message: Here you write the text that appears in front of the customer if he enters the OTP confirmation code sent to his phone incorrectly. Finally, after you configure and complete all the settings for the addition in the manner we explained, and in the appropriate manner for your store, do not forget to click the Save Changes button.

Now only one step remains for the OTP verification system to be activated for phone numbers in your store. This is by entering the add-on settings page, then going to the Woocommerce tab, then clicking on the (Enable) button. Below the Enable button, we find an option to specify the type of customers whose phone numbers you want to confirm. You will find some options such as (New Customer) or (Customer from a Specific Country). You can choose the appropriate option for you and then save the changes on this page: At this step, you will have completed all the basic settings to operate the customer phone number verification system within the store while completing the order. Now visit your store and create a new order for one of the products. You will notice on the order completion page a notification informing you that you must confirm your phone number, which you entered in the order completion form with confirmation: Note: The text on the button is in English (Verify your phone number now). The plugin does not allow it to be translated by default, and therefore you can use one of the translation plugins in WordPress to translate the text into Arabic if you wish. When you click on the confirmation button, you are asked to confirm the phone number to which the OTP confirmation code will be sent: Immediately after that, the OTP confirmation code will be sent to the phone number: A window will appear asking you to enter the confirmation code that was sent to your phone: After you enter the confirmation code and click on the Verify button, you will be transferred again to the order completion form and you will notice a notification informing you that your phone number has been successfully verified, and you can complete your order inside the store: 

In the end, it is necessary to secure your website or online store, and the OTP verification system is considered an effective way to combat fraud and ensure the quality of the orders that reach you.