Ding. You got an SMS message. What will you do? 

You’ll probably open it, regardless of the sender.

Why are we saying you this? Well, precisely because of that. Text messages are easiest to open—which is usually the first touchpoint a customer makes. An entry to the funnel, if you’d like.

Therefore, if you are a marketer or a retailer—and looking to try SMS marketing campaigns for ecommerce, you’re at the right place.  

We’ll go through the basics of SMS marketing and help you decide if this powerful channel is for you. 

Is SMS Marketing Effective For Ecommerce?

Yes, SMS marketing is extremely effective. Especially for ecommerce.  

Here’s why:

• Text messages achieve an extraordinary 98% open rate, with most messages being read within three minutes of receipt. (source: Textdrip)
• SMS marketing generates click-through rates between 21-35%, significantly outperforming email marketing’s typical engagement rate. (source: XL Today)
• Businesses using SMS marketing are 683% more likely to report successful digital marketing outcomes compared to those that don’t utilize text messaging. (source: Simple Texting)
• An impressive 90% of consumers respond to text messages within 30 minutes of receiving them, making it one of the most immediate communication channels (source: Persuasion Nation)

That’s not all. Besides higher engagement rates than most marketing channels, SMS marketing allows you direct customer access—as more than 80% of consumers have notifications enabled for native SMS apps.

This ensures instant visibility of your messages. 

But not all is good. SMS marketing also has a few limitations, including character limitation and the lack of rich media content you can use.  

So it’s best to use this channel in combination with other omnichannel ecommerce strategies.

Best Practices When Running Ecommerce SMS Campaigns

Running SMS campaigns for ecommerce is a different task from running email marketing campaigns for ecommerce.

As such, you have different things to pay attention to. So let’s list them.

Obtain Proper Consent

Okay, this is similar to email marketing.

But you should only “text” customers who have oped in to receive SMS. 

How to know this? Include clear online opt-in forms and confirm subscriptions with an initial text message.

Here’s an example of an SMS opt-in form:

This is an easy one-tap form that helped our clients fill their SMS list and increase sales.

Seriously, if you didn’t implement this already… what are you waiting for?

Keep SMS Texts Concise

Did you know that SMS messages have a 160-character limit?

Maybe you haven’t paid attention to that before, but delivering straightforward, clear messages is crucial. 

Not only will it irritate your customers to read walls of text, but—depending on the sms providers, phone type, and others, there’s also a chance text will break.

Within this limit, you should always include:

• Your brand name.
• A compelling offer.
• Clear call to action.
• Opt-out instructions.

Here’s an example of an SMS sales blast that we did for a client:

See the elements?  Brand name, offer, CTA, and opt-out instructions. Short, simple, effective.

Timing and Frequency

Only send messages during appropriate hours.

Remember, most people usually have set time to check their email. While they almost always leave their SMS notifications on—even during their free time.

If you don’t maintain a consistent, non-intrusive messaging schedule—you risk annoying even your most loyal customers.

According to Mailchimp, the best time to send SMS blasts is during business hours, when customers’ brains are wired to be hyperfocused and decision-driven.

Optimize Your Landing Pages For Mobile

Guess what? When you text someone the link, there’s 99% chance they’ll open it on their smartphone. 

So when you create a promotional landing page for your SMS promotion, make sure it is visible on mobile. 

Poor mobile experience can lead to cart abandonment, as you probably know.

Bonus: Compliance

We’ve already gone through this above, but it’s worth mentioning again.

Compliance in SMS marketing requires strict adherence to several key regulations:

• The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) mandates explicit consent before sending messages, 
• Privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA govern data handling and consumer rights. 

Businesses must provide clear opt-out mechanisms in every message and maintain reasonable frequency limits to avoid harassment claims. 

Violations can result in substantial fines, with TCPA penalties reaching up to $1,500 per message. 

That money is better spent to run ads or something, right?

Types Of Ecommerce SMS Campaign Examples

What eCommerce SMS campaigns to run? 

While there’s also a case for setting a workflow similar to the one you’d do with your email automation—we’ve already mentioned that it might not be the best idea. 

SMS is just too intrusive. 

Instead, we’ll focus on four key SMS campaigns and we’ll show you an in-house agency example for each. 

Welcome Text

This one comes right after a user opt-ins their phone number.

Once they do, you should immediately send a welcome message notifying them that they’ve subscribed.

Usually, you’d want to include a special offer or discount code to sweeten the subscription “deal.” 

Here’s one example:

What do we have here: Branding, brief description, opt-out. 

Then, we follow up with the welcome discount code and a bit of urgency:

Abandoned Cart Recovery

This one’s familiar.

You want to set up an automation that will trigger a text any time the customer leaves an item in their cart. Similar to how you’d do it with retargeting ads or retargeting emails.

Of course, it’s also good to offer some kind of incentive to complete the purchase. 

Here’s a simple example once again:

Flash Sales and Limited-Time Offers

New product launches, flash sales, limited-time offers…

They usually fall under the same category of one-time offers and—as with any other SMS campaigns—you should make sure you send them at an appropriate time.

These types of campaigns create urgency with time-sensitive promotions and exclusive deals, sometimes only available for SMS users, for instance.

Here’s an example of a flash sale that we’ve done:

Post-Purchase Communication

After a purchase is done, you can set a short, non-intrusive tone to report on the order process and occasionally text your customers to stay top of mind.

When done right, these order confirmations, shipping updates, and follow-up texts can enhance customer experience.

But beware—they can also annoy users.

This is how a pet brand uses SMS to stay top of mind with their past purchasers—this time by sending educational content:

Yep, you can also provide value higher up the sales funnel to your customers with SMS.

As long as you know how.

How to Measure the Sucess Of Your SMS Campaign? 

To measure your SMS campaigns, just follow the same process you use for email campaigns.

This means that all the analytics, KPIs, and other data should be in your automation tool. We use Klaviyo, but you might a different one—Mailchimp, Omnisend, or something else entirely.

But hnow to know if you had success with your SMS campaigns? Again, pay attention to the similar metrics you’d use for email campaigns:

• Open rates: The metric will tell you how many recipients actually read your messages. As we mentioned, this can be quite effective—and hover around 98% even. You can also  “clean” the lists of users who don’t open your messages. They likely never will.
  
• Click-through rates: This shows how customers engage with your links, helping you determine whether your SMS copy had an effect.
  
• Opt-out rates are also important. High unsubscribe number may signal that you’ve annoyed users or you’re sending irrelevant or low-value content. 

Analyze all these metrics together and you can optimze your SMS strategy, adjust message frequency—and refine content to better serve your audience.

We don’t need to mention that you should monitor these KPIs regularly for the best results. Especially if you’re having an active SMS marketing campaign. 

Bonus tip: Add UTM tags to your shortened links so you can track the customer journey of your SMS campaigns through Google Analytics—and see whether they drive important conversions.

Not sure how? We can set it up together. Reach out!

Texting Out

SMS marketing is a powerful tool for ecommerce. 

It offers exceptional open and engagement rates, which can help you convert the part of your audience who are already deeper in the funnel. 

By following best practices—such as obtaining consent, keeping messages concise, and timing campaigns appropriately—you can enhance customer relationships and avoid bottlenecks. 

However, you should look to combine SMS marketing with other promotional strategies fpr a more balanced, omnichannel approach—while monitoring key metrics helps optimize performance. 

Top Growth Markeitng specializes in growing brands through multiple channels, including SMS marketing.

Reach out if you have any questions!