SMS Marketing for E-commerce

SMS Marketing for Ecommerce

If you sell your products or services online then text marketing is a great strategy to incorporate. We are now in a “mobile first” era in which more and more customers are purchasing products via their smartphones as opposed to using desktops. The shift to mobile can be attributed to the desire of consumers for a fast and efficient way of purchasing products. This is where SMS comes in. SMS marketing keeps your brand fresh in the minds of your customers and provides them with a call-to-action when you include links to your website. Furthermore, it provides you with a short and concise way of communicating with your customers, due to its 160-character count limit.

Promotions & sales

There are several ways in which text marketing can help increase your ecommerce conversions. Firstly, SMS can be used to inform customers of any promotions or flash sales that you are actively running. The advantage of using text to promote these offers is that it allows your customers to be regularly informed and they do not have to manually search for offers. Using text also ensures that your offers are going to the right people, as your mobile database will only include people that have either previously purchased or expressed an interest. Furthermore, since SMS has extremely high open rates, with around 98% of all text messages opened, you can guarantee that your message will be seen.

Order & delivery notifications

Another way in which SMS marketing can be used in ecommerce is by sending out order confirmations and delivery notifications. This is extremely helpful for customers as it provides them with clarity. Receiving an order confirmation via text message allows your customers to relax and feel confident that they followed the purchasing instructions correctly. Alongside this, delivery notifications will allow customers to make sure that they, or someone else, are present at the expected delivery time. These two simple gestures can go a long way in building a strong brand image and developing positive relationships with your customers.

Segmentation

One reason why text marketing compliments ecommerce perfectly is that you can organise your mobile database into segmented audiences. This means that you can divide your customers into groups such as age, location, gender, previous purchases or interests. Once you have organised your database then you can target each group with personalised offers and updates by including links to specific pages on your website. This can be extremely effective because your customers are then viewing relevant pages rather than having to scroll your website in order to find something that may be of interest.

Remarketing

Finally, SMS marketing can also be used to target customers who have abandoned their shopping carts. This can be achieved by using our API to trigger a reminder message every time a customer either closes your website or does not check out after a certain period. Therefore, sending reminders gives you an opportunity to increase conversions. Whilst some customers may have changed their minds, others could have genuinely forgotten to complete their order or may have been distracted by a third-party. This means that your reminder text, which costs just a few pennies, could be the driving force that encourages your customer to complete their purchase.