01What actually has to happen at checkout
A confirmation is not just a nice message, it is the receipt that a payment actually went through and a promise about what happens next: when the order will be ready, where to collect it or when it ships, and what to do if something is wrong. Getting this automated means the payment webhook has to trigger the message reliably, not eventually, and the message has to carry the real order details rather than a generic 'thank you for your order' that leaves the customer guessing when to show up.
- The confirmation is proof the payment went through, not just a courtesy
- It has to carry real order details: time, location, contents
- The trigger has to be the payment webhook, not a manual step someone forgets
02Why email shipped first, and where WhatsApp fits
Email won the first build because it needed no extra approval, no business messaging number, and no ongoing relationship with a channel that has its own rules about automated messages. A transactional email service like Resend sends the confirmation the moment the webhook fires and nobody has to manage a phone number or a message template. WhatsApp is a real, better-read option for a business whose customers already live in that app, but it needs its own approved sender setup and message templates, which is why PROOF48 treats it as a separate, custom-priced build rather than bundling it into every checkout by default.
- Email needs no messaging number or template approval to automate
- WhatsApp is read faster but needs its own approved setup
- PROOF48 ships the email version live; WhatsApp is custom, priced on request
A confirmation email with the real pickup slot
Rotiseria Baba Novac's ordering system sends a confirmation email through Resend on every order, carrying the actual pickup slot the customer chose at checkout rather than a generic thank-you. It is currently email, not WhatsApp, which is an honest, deliberate scope decision rather than an oversight: the restaurant wanted off the delivery aggregators first, and the confirmation channel was the smaller decision behind that bigger one.
See the build: Rotiseria Baba NovacQuestions, answered
Can email and WhatsApp confirmations both run at once?
Yes, but each is its own integration with its own reliability to test. PROOF48 ships the email version as standard and scopes a WhatsApp version separately once we know the real message volume.
What happens if the confirmation fails to send?
A good automation logs the failure and alerts someone, rather than silently dropping the message. That failure path gets written and tested before the first real order goes through, not after a customer complains.
Where PROOF48 fits
An order confirmation has to arrive the instant payment clears, carry the real details, and land on a channel the customer checks. PROOF48 ships the email version, through Resend, as standard; a WhatsApp version is a custom build, priced on request.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.