Does the message arrive with no prior conversation?

Yes, because it is sent on a Meta-approved template — which is what allows starting a conversation with a customer who has placed an order.

What if the customer cancels?

The cancellation is recorded on the order before dispatch, so you save the shipping cost — and the customer stays on your list for a later campaign.

Can I customise the wording?

Yes — your wording and your store's name, within what Meta approves for templates.

Do I need a store connected?

Connecting Salla or Zid makes it fully automatic. Without a connection it is still possible manually or through the API.

Doesn't this lose me orders that would have been accepted?

Some of the people who decline in a reply would have refused at the door anyway — and cancelling now saves you the whole shipment. Measure a month: compare the door-refusal rate before and after confirmation, not the count of cancellations alone. The number that matters is net cost, not order count.

What if the customer never replies?

Silence is neither a confirmation nor a refusal. Treat it as an order needing one more step: a follow-up message or a call before shipping. What matters is that "no reply" does not quietly become "ship and hope" — that is the case the message exists to reduce.

Can it be sent for prepaid orders too?

You can, but the purpose differs: a paid order does not need confirming, it needs acknowledging. Use the ordinary order-confirmation template there, and keep the confirmation template for cash on delivery, where there is an actual decision waiting on the customer.

What if the customer changes their mind after confirming?

They can say so in the same conversation, which opens in front of your team in the shared inbox. That is the advantage over a phone call: the channel stays open afterwards, so the change reaches you before shipping rather than at the door.

Confirming cash-on-delivery orders on WhatsApp

Cash on delivery is the dominant payment method in the Saudi market, and it is also the biggest leak in margin: an order that ships and is never accepted costs you delivery both ways, stock held for the whole trip, and your team's time chasing it. One confirmation message before shipping separates the serious order from the rest.

Try 7 days free Pricing

Where the money goes on a refused order

An order that is refused does not cost you "nothing" because you never collected payment — it costs you more than an order that was never placed.

You pay delivery out and delivery back. The item was reserved from your stock for the whole trip, so it was not available to anyone else. The courier attempted two calls and you followed up once. And if the product was seasonal, it came back after its season ended.

Which is why a confirmation before shipping is not an extra step in the process — it is the step that protects the rest of it.

How the message works

When a cash-on-delivery order arrives from your store, Barqia sends an approved template with the order details — name, order number and amount — ending in a plain request: reply with the word «نعم» (yes) and shipping starts.

The reply arrives as a message in their conversation in the shared inbox, so your team sees it before anyone packs the box. It is a text reply rather than a button tap: the ready-made template Barqia provides is text-only, and deliberately so — text clears Meta's review faster, and a one-word reply works on every phone.

Someone who does not reply is not refusing: treat it as an order that needs a call or a follow-up message before shipping, rather than shipping on hope.

Why this reaches a customer who stopped the marketing

An order confirmation is not marketing. The customer ordered the product, the message is about their own transaction, and they are waiting for it.

So Barqia splits consent into two scopes: marketing (campaigns and offers) and utility (order confirmation, shipping update, an answer to a question). Someone who turned off marketing in WhatsApp's own settings ("Offers and announcements") still receives their order confirmation — because that is not what they asked to stop.

Someone who types "stop" or «إلغاء» in the conversation, however, is opted out of everything, utility included. That is deliberate: we do not split an explicitly typed word on the sender's behalf, and anyone who wants offers alone stopped has WhatsApp's own control for it. If a customer later comes back because their shipping notices stopped, your team can re-enable them.

A tool that does not separate the two silences the most important message in the process for the customers most sensitive about messages — who are often the ones buying most.

What to put in it

A good message here is short and specific, because what you want is a decision, not a read. Barqia's ready-made template already carries these; if you write your own, keep them:

The order number and the total — without the amount, the confirmation is a guess.
What they ordered, in one line.
The expected delivery window.
A clear ask for what you want back: a one-word reply, such as «نعم» to confirm.
Your store's name in the text — the number alone is not enough for the customer to place you.

When to send it

Right after the order, not an hour before shipping. The customer is still in the moment they made the decision, so their confirmation is honest and quick.

One distinction worth being clear about: quiet hours in Barqia govern marketing messages and reminders, not utility ones. An order confirmation is a utility message and goes out as soon as the order arrives, even late — because someone who ordered at two in the morning placed that order moments ago and is waiting on your confirmation, and holding it until morning delays the shipment by a day. If that does not suit your business, switch the automatic confirmation off and send it by hand from the inbox.

After the confirmation: what to do with each outcome

The message produces three outcomes, each needing a different action — and the whole value is in agreeing the action before the first one arrives.

Replied «نعم»: ship with confidence. This order is now lower-risk than a prepaid one nobody reviewed.
Declined or asked to cancel: stop the shipment, return the item to stock, mark the cancellation on the order in your store, and don't ask "why?" in the same message. Ask a day later if you want — the reason may be fixable.
No reply: this is the one needing a management decision. Set a window — twenty-four hours, say — then call or follow up. The worst outcome is "no reply" quietly becoming "ship and hope".

Measuring the effect

Don't measure the confirmation by how many people replied "yes" — measure it by what changed in the door-refusal rate.

Take a month before and a month after, and count: how many orders shipped? how many were refused on delivery? what did the returned shipping cost? The difference in cost is the result, not the number of buttons pressed.

Expect cancellations to appear to rise at first. That is not a loss but a shift: orders that would have been refused at the door are now cancelled before shipping. The only number that genuinely worsens is a drop in total orders actually received — and that is the one to watch.

How to start

1Connect your Salla or Zid store — that is where COD orders arrive from.
2Activate your WhatsApp Business number through Meta's embedded signup.
3Get a confirmation template approved — or use Barqia's ready-made one, which asks for a «نعم» reply.
4Switch on COD confirmation in the integration settings.
5Send a test to your own number and reply to it, so you see where the customer's answer lands in the inbox.
6Agree the rule with your team: an order with no reply means a call before shipping, not a shipment.

Common questions

Does the message arrive with no prior conversation?: Yes, because it is sent on a Meta-approved template — which is what allows starting a conversation with a customer who has placed an order.
What if the customer cancels?: The cancellation is recorded on the order before dispatch, so you save the shipping cost — and the customer stays on your list for a later campaign.
Can I customise the wording?: Yes — your wording and your store's name, within what Meta approves for templates.
Do I need a store connected?: Connecting Salla or Zid makes it fully automatic. Without a connection it is still possible manually or through the API.
Doesn't this lose me orders that would have been accepted?: Some of the people who decline in a reply would have refused at the door anyway — and cancelling now saves you the whole shipment. Measure a month: compare the door-refusal rate before and after confirmation, not the count of cancellations alone. The number that matters is net cost, not order count.
What if the customer never replies?: Silence is neither a confirmation nor a refusal. Treat it as an order needing one more step: a follow-up message or a call before shipping. What matters is that "no reply" does not quietly become "ship and hope" — that is the case the message exists to reduce.
Can it be sent for prepaid orders too?: You can, but the purpose differs: a paid order does not need confirming, it needs acknowledging. Use the ordinary order-confirmation template there, and keep the confirmation template for cash on delivery, where there is an actual decision waiting on the customer.
What if the customer changes their mind after confirming?: They can say so in the same conversation, which opens in front of your team in the shared inbox. That is the advantage over a phone call: the channel stays open afterwards, so the change reaches you before shipping rather than at the door.