RevAI

Setting up SMS

SMS is available on the Pro and Enterprise plans, and is arranged with us rather than switched on from a pricing page — it costs real money per message, so we agree what it costs with you first. Base is email-only and needs none of this.

Two numbers, both honest, before you start:

That second wait is real and Vereli cannot shorten it. It applies to both options — having us run it removes your effort, not the elapsed time. Any app promising instant Australian SMS setup is either not really sending from an Australian number or hasn't told you about the wait yet.

How many numbers you get

One Australian sending number per store. That number is yours: it is registered to your business, it is what your customers see, and it is what "reply STOP" answers to.

Vereli supports one number per store today — there is no way to attach a second number to a single store, at any price. If you run more than one brand or a separate store, each gets its own Vereli installation and its own number, the same as any other app.

Which country your messages are processed in

Your Australian number is Australian either way — this is about where Twilio processes the message, which is a separate setting.

If we run the messaging account for you, it is Ireland. We chose that over Twilio's US default because it is the more privacy-protective of the options available; there is no Australian region for SMS.

If you connect your own Twilio account, the region is whichever your account is set to, and Twilio's default is the United States. You can set your account to Ireland if you prefer, and you do not have to. Either way it is your setting, not ours — our privacy policy says the same thing, and says it because we cannot honestly promise otherwise.

One practical consequence: Twilio credentials are region-specific. An Auth Token created for one region will not authenticate against another, and the error you get says nothing about regions — it just looks like a wrong password. If your credentials are rejected and you are sure they are correct, check which region they belong to in the Twilio Console under API keys & auth tokens, using the region selector.

Why the wait exists

Australia requires every SMS sender to be a verified, carrier-approved number. That verification is checking that your business is who it says it is — which is exactly what makes a customer trust a message from you, and what makes "reply STOP" actually mean something.

It is the same protection working in your favour. Vereli's conversations are legitimate rather than spam because this step exists.

Bring your own Twilio account

  1. Create a Twilio account at twilio.com if you don't have one.
  2. In Vereli, choose to bring your own account in the onboarding wizard and approve the Shopify charge.
  3. Fill in the regulatory bundle form Vereli shows you. This is your business identity — ABN or ACN, business address, and an authorised representative. Vereli submits it to Twilio for you; you don't open the Twilio console.
  4. Wait. Twilio reviews it, then Australian carriers do. You'll see the status in Vereli.
  5. Buy your Australian mobile number in Twilio once approved, and paste it into Vereli.
  6. Send the test message. Vereli won't send to a customer until this succeeds — that's deliberate.

Or we run Twilio for you

Same steps 3 and 4. Vereli creates the Twilio account, submits the bundle, and buys the number automatically once approved. You do not create a Twilio account and never open its console.

Things that commonly go wrong

"My ABN details were rejected." The business name must match your ASIC or ABR registration exactly, including the legal entity type. A trading name that differs from the registered name is the usual cause.

"The address was rejected." PO boxes and virtual offices are commonly refused. It needs to be a real business address.

"It's been more than a couple of days." Twilio's own target is 24 business hours, so past two or three days something is usually wrong rather than slow — most often one of the two rejections above. Vereli shows you the current status; if it's stuck, contact us (see support) and we'll chase it.

"The test message never arrived." Some carriers reject a message sent from a number to itself. Tell us and we'll test it against a different destination.

Adding the "notify me" widget (optional)

Vereli includes a widget for sold-out items that captures a phone number or email plus consent, so you can tell those customers when stock returns.

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize.
  2. Open a product page in the preview.
  3. In the left panel, click the Product information section — not "App embeds", which is a different list and will not have it.
  4. Click + Add block, and choose Back in stock notify under Apps.
  5. Drag it to where you want it. Shopify drops new blocks at the top of the section, which puts it above the product title — almost certainly not where you want it. Just below the add-to-cart button works well.
  6. Edit the heading, button and consent text so it sounds like your store.

Your theme needs to support app blocks. Any Online Store 2.0 theme does — Dawn and anything released with it. If Add block shows no Apps section at all, your theme is likely an older one that cannot accept them.

It appears only where you place it, and if Vereli is ever unreachable the widget disappears rather than showing an error to your customer.