Edit plugin strings and SMS templates to match your store’s specific wording and tone. If your store uses WPML, see how to translate SMS messages using WPML instead — the two tools are not meant to be used together for the same string.
Warning: never translate or alter placeholders such as {billing_name}, {billing_first}, {billing_last}, {order_id}, {order_amount}, {tracking_link}, {tracking_number}, {shop_name} and {order_status}. They must appear exactly as-is, character-for-character, in every translated string, or the plugin will no longer recognize them and customers will receive the raw placeholder text instead of their order details.
Save translations to the correct location: when Loco Translate offers to save a translation, choose the location under wp-content/languages/loco/, not the plugin’s own folder (wp-content/plugins/zorem-sms-for-woocommerce/languages/). Loco Translate defaults to a “safe” location for exactly this reason, but if you or a previous editor pointed it at the plugin folder, the translation will be silently wiped the next time SMS for WooCommerce is updated, because plugin updates overwrite the entire plugin folder.
This method is redundant for any template you’ve already customized in the plugin’s own settings. If you’ve entered your own message text directly into an SMS Notifications template field for a given order status or event, that saved value is what SMS for WooCommerce sends — it overrides the plugin’s original English default string, so Loco Translate has nothing left to translate for that particular template. This method only produces a visible change for templates that are still using the plugin’s untouched default text.
- Install and activate the Loco Translate plugin.
- Go to Loco Translate → Plugins.
- Find and select SMS for WooCommerce from the list.
- Choose the language you want to edit or create a new translation.
- Click Edit to open the translation editor.
- Search for the text strings you want to customize, leaving any placeholder such as {order_id} or {tracking_number} untouched.
- Enter your custom translation in the text field.
- Save the translation file to the wp-content/languages/loco/plugins/ location Loco Translate suggests by default, not to the plugin’s own folder.
Editorial note: the two screenshots originally on this page were hotlinked directly from woocommerce.com (uploaded there in 2022) rather than hosted on docs.zorem.com. Since they point at a URL we don’t control, they have been removed rather than left to fail silently with a broken image if woocommerce.com moves or deletes them; new screenshots should be captured from this plugin’s own Loco Translate screens and uploaded to the docs media library the next time this page is edited with image-upload access.
Troubleshooting
If your translated text doesn’t appear on the site:
- Confirm the site (or your own user profile) is actually switched to the language you translated into — Loco Translate only applies a translation when WordPress is serving that locale.
- Confirm the .mo file was compiled and saved to wp-content/languages/loco/plugins/, not to the plugin’s own folder — check the file’s last-modified date in Loco Translate’s file list.
- Confirm the template hasn’t already been customized directly in the plugin’s SMS Notifications settings for that status or event — a saved custom template always overrides the translated default.
- Clear any caching plugin (page cache or object cache) and your browser cache, since cached admin or storefront output can hide a translation that has, in fact, taken effect.