Text messages offer a new marketing channel that has been growing in popularity in the past years and delivers results that are superior to any current technology on the market. The volume of text messages has grown by 40% in 2021 and online retailers have increased their budget for this marketing channel by more than 65%.

With text messages, 96% of marketers said it helped them grow revenue. Still, they are not that widely used by eCommerce businesses as the integration in online shops and marketing campaigns can be daunting. Successfully implementing text messages as a marketing channel requires development work on the websites, copywriting and a lot of A/B testing to optimize costs.

 

This is why more than 61% of eCommerce businesses still do not use text messaging as their marketing channel. That is why CartBoss is growing in popularity as one of the go-to text messaging solutions for eCommerce businesses. It offers a Plug & Play solution, with everything already pre-prepared, automatic language detection, special offers built in the links, and much more!

Did you know: The first text message sent was “Merry Christmas”.

An important aspect of text messages is if the customers like receiving them. Based on surveys, more than 54% of customers would like to get notifications via text messages and 70% of them claim it is a great way to attract attention. With that in mind, text messages are a marketing channel that is just waiting to be taken advantage of.

Using text messages to recover abandoned carts is whole other gameplay – it offers insane results that no other solution out there offers! Check our article on the Abandoned cart text message statistics.

The advantages of text messages

One of the main advantages that text messages offer is the fact that 93% of text messages are read in the first 3 minutes of receiving them. This means that the use of them for remarketing is immense. Targeting a recipient almost at the exact time is an advantage no marketing channel can offer! Thus one can get in contact with a customer who has abandoned their cart within minutes when they are still considering completing a purchase. Offering them a discount in that time span can greatly increase the chances of them completing their order.

There is also a simple solution to integrate text messages into your online store. The solution is called CartBoss – A simple website text messaging integration. Currently, it supports WooCommerce and Shopify and offers a PHP SDK for all the custom online shops out three.

Did you know: The average response time for email is 90 minutes while the average response time for a message is 90 seconds.

Another interesting fact is that 99% of text messages are read! We check our mobile devices over 250 times a day and we never miss a notification we get. Not only that, but 89% of people check their phones within 30 minutes of waking up. And even less tech-savvy are keen on using and reading text messaging on a daily basis, which makes text messages a go-to marketing channel that covers all age groups.

Because text messages are short they are easily read and the special offers sent can not be missed. Thus, the click-through rate for text messages, on average, is 37%. Not only that, text messages have six times the engagement of email!

Get a more insightful look at the abandoned cart text message statistics here: Abandoned cart text message statistics.

The use of text messages in Ecommerce

The top three industries where customers say they are more likely to opt into text messages are the e-commerce/retail industry (46%), healthcare and health-related fields (43%), and banking/financial institutions (41%).

In fact, consumers preferred text messages over any other channel for receiving brand updates. More than 48% of them preferred text messages, 20% preferred Emails or App notifications and only 8% would prefer direct mail.

Did you know: Average sale losses globally due to products out of stock is 4%. With “back in stock” notifications you can drive over 50% of customers back to your store!

Online shops use text messages to recover abandoned cartsoffer post-purchase offers, send notifications to their customers, special offers,.. Everything that has so far been done with emails can be done with text messages. CartBoss offers exactly that and it works out of the box and on autopilot!

Just like with emails, sending coupon codes via text messages is a popular brand strategy. Based on the statistics, coupon codes delivered via text messages are 10 times as likely to be redeemed than by any other marketing channel. And, if you want to grow your subscriber base, the best time is to do it in the holiday season as it grows by more than 41% at that time!

Using text messages to recover abandoned carts is one of the best ways to do it due to the fact that text messages are delivered at exactly the set time and the open rate within the first minutes of receiving them is so big. This is also the main focus of CartBoss.

Automating cart recovery with text messages brings a big advantage compared to emails, as the recipients get offers minutes after they have abandoned their cart.

The average click-through rate for abandoned cart text messages is between 25% and 45%. It varies depending on the country and the products being sold in the shop, but in some cases, we have seen click-through rates even as high as 70%!

The offer sent in the message does play a significant role. Finding the reason why users leave the checkout process and offering them a special offer via a text message that counters that reason is the main pinpoint. For example, if visitors abandon the checkout process due to high shipping costs, a good way to get them to complete the order would be to offer them free shipping. This is why having the option to easily test various special offers sent via text messages is so important.

Are text messages popular with your customers?

Because text messages are more personal than emails, there has always been the question if they might be too intrusive and that the recipients will not like getting them. But the fact is that customers of online shops like getting them and that 85% of them actually prefer them over emails or phone calls. Not only that, but 75% of clients want to receive offers via SMS!

In addition, more than 50% of customers are happy to opt into text messaging loyalty programs. That is mainly because emails are often missed compared to text messages and customers who subscribe to receiving special offers/promotions from stores do want to receive them and get notified.

Did you know: 97% of companies found they communicated with consumers more efficiently with text messaging.

Based on survey results, customers like getting text messages from companies and more often than not it grows brand awareness, loyalty and trust to the store. And, because every text message has a simple opt-out link automatically embedded, unsubscribing from receiving them is a simple process.

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