Email and Retention · focused work
SMS marketing for ecommerce
A text arrives within seconds and costs money to send. That combination makes SMS the opposite of email in almost every way that matters. It works for something short, timely and specific sent to people who asked for it, and it becomes expensive and unwelcome the moment it turns into another broadcast channel.
This is the right work if
- Time-sensitive messages arrive too late because email is carrying everything
- A phone list was collected without recorded consent or a working way to stop
- The whole list receives messages at the same frequency the store emails
- Sending in the United States was never registered and messages are being filtered
- Nobody compares what a send earned against what the send cost
What it is
What running SMS properly requires
Compliance comes before anything else, because a list gathered without proper consent cannot be fixed later. In the United States the rules around marketing texts require clear prior consent, an obvious way to stop, and respect for the hours in which messages may be sent, and carriers separately require the sending brand and its campaign to be registered before application-to-person traffic is delivered at all. In Canada the anti-spam legislation governs consent and the records a business has to keep. Both change over time and both deserve a lawyer's eye rather than an agency's assumption.
Once that is settled, the work is editorial and economic. List growth through sign-up units that state what will be sent. Segmentation that separates recent buyers from lapsed ones and from people who have never ordered. A frequency cap enforced across every flow rather than per campaign. Messages written for the format, meaning one idea, the brand named at the start, and a link on a short domain the store controls. And a simple economic test applied to every send, comparing the revenue it produced against what the send cost, because unlike email the marginal cost is real and it makes lazy sending obvious.
How it is done
The work, in order
What changes
- Every subscriber on the list has a consent record behind them
- Messages reach handsets instead of being filtered before delivery
- Time-sensitive messages go by text while email keeps everything that needs explaining
- Each send is judged against what it cost to make
Get consent right before growing the list
Use sign-up wording that names the programme, describes what will be sent and how often, and states that message rates may apply. Keep the opt-out keyword working and store the consent record per subscriber, including where and when it was given.
Register the sending route
Complete brand and campaign registration for United States traffic, verify the number type the store is using, and set the correct sender identity for each country. Unregistered or unverified traffic is filtered by carriers rather than rejected visibly, so it looks like poor performance.
Decide what belongs on the channel
Reserve texts for short and timely messages: dispatch and delivery updates, back in stock alerts, an offer that ends soon, an early access window and a quick reminder after an abandoned checkout. Everything that needs explaining stays on email.
Segment and cap frequency
Separate recent buyers, high value customers, lapsed customers and people who have never ordered, then set a maximum number of marketing messages per person per period and enforce it across every campaign and flow, not within each one individually.
Write for the format
One idea per message, the brand name first so the sender is obvious, and a link on a short domain the store owns rather than a generic shortener. Keep the length inside a single segment where you can, since longer messages cost more every time they send.
Measure per send and per subscriber
Track revenue against cost for each send, the opt-out rate it caused, and revenue per subscriber over a month. Judge list growth on what it earns rather than on its size, because a large unengaged list costs money on every campaign.
Platform notes
Shopify
Consent for texts can be collected at checkout as a separate permission from email, and that separation has to be preserved when the data reaches the messaging tool so a marketing text is never sent on an email consent alone.
WooCommerce
Phone number capture and consent usually come from a plugin, and the checkout phone field exists for delivery rather than marketing, so an explicit and separately recorded permission is needed before that number can be messaged.
Is a checkout tick box enough consent for marketing texts?
It depends on what it says and how it is presented, and the requirements differ by country. A box that is unchecked by default, states plainly that marketing texts will be sent, and produces a stored record is a far stronger position than one bundled with email consent. Have the wording reviewed for the markets you sell into.
How often can a store text its list?
Less often than it emails, and the honest answer comes from the opt-out rate. Watch how many people leave after each send, set the cap below the point where that number rises, and treat any temptation to exceed it as a sign the message probably belonged in an email.
Does adding SMS reduce email revenue?
Some revenue moves between channels, which is why the two need coordinating rather than measuring separately. The gain comes from messages where minutes matter, such as a restock or a delivery update, and from reaching people who read texts but rarely open email.
What does carrier registration actually involve?
Providing business details, the sender identity and a description of the messaging programme including sample messages and the sign-up wording, then waiting for approval before traffic flows normally. It takes time, so it belongs at the start of a project rather than the week before a seasonal campaign.
Related work and answers
Find the leak.
A free Growth Analysis ranks what your store should fix first, by revenue at stake.