Do you want to interact with your customers and employees through text messaging but need help with how to do it? This article will explain all about SMS for Retail to help you understand how text messaging can boost customer engagement and improve logistics, staff training, and security.
It’s a fact that SMS is a fundamental part of an effective business communication strategy. The retail industry is not far behind this. Nowadays, their customers have different needs and demands that only mobile messaging can fulfill.
Retailers’ customers expect personalised, consistent, and relevant two-way communication through the mobile channels they use most. For that reason, retailers will only succeed if they incorporate an omnichannel strategy to interact with their audiences.
But with so much information out there, it is common to feel overwhelmed. The truth is that technology is here to make our lives and jobs more uncomplicated, and using SMS for Retail is more straightforward than you think.
Why is SMS for Retail a perfect strategy?
SMS for retail is a direct and powerful way to connect with customers at every stage of their purchasing journey. With the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile phones became crucial for consumers to interact with brands and make online purchases.
According to a recent study, 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase via mobile devices in the last six months. In addition, 80% of shoppers used a mobile phone instead of going to a physical store to look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations.
Did you know that 98% of SMS are read within three minutes?
Text messages are the best option to deliver personalised offers and timely communications during purchase because of their limited characters and high open rates. Just what your customers want.
How do retailers use SMS?
Whether in classic SMS or modern RCS, there are so many ways that retailers can use text messaging that it has become an incredible and valuable communication resource.
Using it sparingly can reduce the number of uncollected orders, increase sales, boost the retail customer experience and improve staff management. It’s such a flexible channel that allows placing an URL within its content to redirect customers, for example, to a virtual store.
Examples of how retailers use SMS:
* To inform their customers about orders status. For example, to confirm or reschedule the date, time, and place of delivery.
* To send reminders and reduce the percentage of uncollected orders.
* To offer discounts to loyal customers in next orders and gain loyalty.
* To measure customer satisfaction after purchasing a product.
SMS for Retail: Ways to boost your communication
- To improve customer engagement and gain loyalty
Retailers can use SMS to send general or personalised information to their customers. They can bulk high-volume mobile marketing campings with URLs pointing to their web pages, promotions, surveys, and more.
It’s a great ally for special days. Retailers can use SMS in their Black Friday Strategy to capture and engage potential and existing customers.
For example, Soprano Connect allows to manage an extensive list of subscribers and send automatic SMS with announcements and account messages.
It’s essential to use SMS sparingly and only for certain types of content. SMS should complement other mobile channels, like email marketing.
- To manage your staff and shifts
SMS will also help you manage your employees. For instance, you can ensure your workers arrive for their scheduled shift by sending automatic SMS reminders.
Soprano allows creating groups of workers and configuring their availability to send them SMS with shifts offers.
“Hi, Ana. Are you able to cover a stocking shift this evening at 19h?”
Discover our SMS Messaging Platform for Business
- To coordinate logistics and operation
Do you have remote workers at several locations? With SMS broadcast, you can send your drivers notifications with meteorological updates and changes in routes.
“Good afternoon. The shipping route has changed due to weather conditions.”
With Soprano Connect, you can go one step further than just SMS. Retailers can integrate our CPaaS Platform to their existing IT systems to route automatically the shipping data received at stores and distribution centers.
- To prevent hacking and phishing
One of the most crucial SMS use cases for retailers is two-factor authentication. It’s sending two separate passwords to a customer or employee before allowing them to log in to their accounts.
This second form of identity verification lowers retailers’ risk of hacking and phishing attacks.
Boost your retail communication with SMS
Yes, SMS for retail is great. But with high open rates, you should know that your customers and employees will instantly read your text messages. Sending much SMS with no time-sensitive information may disturb them.
This is why SMS is a powerful resource that businesses must use carefully. The best option is to give your customers and employees an engaging and seamless omnichannel communication experience.
With Soprano CPaaS platform, retailers can engage their audiences via different mobile channels, like email, voice, RCS, IP messaging, and WhatsApp. With an omnichannel communication experience, you can have an ongoing conversation with people anywhere and anytime.
