Why Should E-commerce Stores Use Bulk SMS Marketing?

Your customer had three products in their cart, checked out at the checkout page, and vanished into thin air. No transaction took place, no reply to your mail, and no interaction with your retargeting ads. Your cart has been left abandoned, just like 70% of all carts from the e-commerce sector.

But a rival brand used the power of SMS marketing within 20 minutes of abandonment and sealed a deal with that customer. This is where bulk SMS marketing in e-commerce fills the void, and there are many other reasons apart from abandoned cart recovery that every online retailer should be leveraging it.

The Numbers That Make the Case

Before getting into the explanation of how Bulk SMS Marketing fits in the e-commerce business model, just the figures themselves will tell you how essential Bulk SMS should become part of the marketing strategy of any e-commerce marketer.

SMS enjoys an open rate of 98%, with 90% of all SMS opened within three minutes of receiving them. On the other hand, email open rates for e-commerce marketing campaigns range between 20% and 25%, while SMS click-through rates are recorded between 20% and 35%, compared to the paltry 1% to 10% recorded for emails. Cart abandonment rates via SMS reach as high as 15% to 20%, with higher conversion rates via SMS recorded in 15 to 30 minutes of abandonment. E-commerce marketers get a return on investment 71 times more than what was invested in the SMS marketing campaigns.

These are not forecasts; these are statistics based on actual e-commerce ventures.

Why E-commerce Specifically Benefits From Bulk SMS

E-commerce is all about speed, trust, and relevance. When a customer makes a purchase, they need to hear right away that their order was accepted. When a customer receives a late delivery, they want to be notified before having to follow up themselves. When a customer is shopping online during a sale period, they want the discount now, not two hours later, after they've already gone elsewhere for a deal.

Only one channel allows marketers to communicate at the speed and reliability required by e-commerce, which is SMS. Messages are delivered instantaneously without requiring any internet connectivity and reach all smartphones as well as feature phones. In India, with its diverse urban centers and Tier 2/3 cities, e-commerce apps are used differently, making SMS not just a backup but the most trusted method of communication with customers.

Key Reasons E-commerce Stores Should Use Bulk SMS Marketing

Abandoned Cart Recovery That Actually Works

The worldwide average for cart abandonment is roughly 70 percent, meaning that out of every ten people adding items to their cart, seven will abandon the website before making a purchase. When a message reminder is sent by SMS to customers after a span of 15 to 30 minutes after cart abandonment, the customer is well aware of the product.

Order Confirmation and Real-Time Delivery Updates

At each step along the post-purchase path, there's an opportunity to earn or break trust. The immediate sending of an SMS confirming the order at the point of payment, the subsequent dispatch SMS with a link to track the delivery, and the out-for-delivery SMS ensure that the recipient is ready to accept the parcel. Every one of these SMS communications removes a potential query for your support team.

COD Verification and Return-to-Origin Reduction

COD payment is still the most commonly used form of payment for online shopping in India and is also the primary cause of income loss due to failed deliveries. Sending an automated SMS to the COD consumer right after placing their order to request confirmation by simply replying helps identify consumers with low intent prior to shipping.

Flash Sales and Time-Sensitive Promotions

All the value of a flash sale rests on connecting to consumers when the deal is going on. The email sent at 9 AM regarding a flash sale that expires at noon will be opened after the deal expires. A text message is delivered and opened immediately, ensuring that consumers can respond to the flash sale before it expires. It is the immediacy of the text message that differentiates it from all other communication channels used in flash sales.

OTP and Secure Transaction Authentication

Every time a user logs in, makes payments, or changes passwords on an ecommerce website, OTPs must be delivered immediately, and failure to do so will result in the transaction being aborted. An OTP that does not reach the consumer in seconds means a failed transaction, a disgruntled consumer, and a lost customer. Bulk messaging APIs facilitate the immediate delivery of OTPs.

Personalized Offers Based on Purchase History

Your existing customer, who has already purchased running shoes thrice from your store, will always be a better option than any random customer to market your range of running accessories to. You can use bulk SMS marketing services integrated with CRM to target customers based on their purchase behavior, preferences, and order value. Your personalized campaigns through SMS will invariably perform better than broadcast messages in terms of all e-commerce metrics.

Reorder and Replenishment Reminders

In e-commerce stores dealing in goods like supplements, skin care, home items, or baby care products, the re-ordering process is quite routine. If the same consumer has purchased a stock that lasts for 30 days after three weeks from his previous purchase, it is high time for him to be reminded to order again. A simple automated SMS at the right point of usage, accompanied by an order link, ensures repeat business.

Review and Feedback Requests

A review request via SMS sent within 48 to 72 hours after delivery confirmation receives much better results than an email review request because the experience is still fresh in the mind of the consumer. Product reviews fuel conversions for every product in your inventory, and SMS is just the quickest means to achieve this goal.

Operational Benefits Beyond Marketing

The impact of bulk SMS for e-commerce extends well beyond promotional campaigns and directly solves recurring operational problems.

Support Volume Reduction

The majority of customer inquiries raised through the inbound customer service channel in e-commerce pertain to order status, delivery time frame, and return status. Giving SMS alerts for each stage of the fulfillment cycle ensures that these inquiries can be handled proactively without requiring any customer inquiry.

Delivery Attempt Coordination

The logistics company loses a second trip for the failed delivery attempt, and the store loses on return-to-origin charges and negative customer experience. A message sent an hour prior to the delivery attempt, confirming that the customer will be available, greatly lowers the instances of failure and losses incurred.

Getting Started With Bulk SMS for Your E-commerce Store

Here's how you can get started with Bulk SMS for your e-commerce store:

Register completely for DLT prior to initiating your campaign by ensuring that your entity, sender ID, and templates are registered with your SMS provider using your GST documents.

Identify all customer contact points where an SMS can be used right from the first visit until after purchase. This includes abandoned cart, order confirmation, shipping, delivery, feedback request, reordering reminders, and creating templates for each stage.

Make sure that your Shopify, WooCommerce, or custom-built website is integrated into your SMS gateway through API to ensure automatic delivery of each SMS message upon reaching the specified trigger point.

Create separate lists for new customers, returning customers, and high-value customers to send out personalized promotions, and make sure that you thoroughly test all auto-sends before launching.

Bulk SMS Services offered by SDGM Technologies facilitate marketing for e-commerce portals across India. We include assistance in registering the portals for DLT, transactional, and promotional routes, API integration for some of the leading e-commerce portals, setting up sender IDs, COD verification processes, and delivery analysis. We also help various-sized e-commerce businesses generate higher conversions without additional marketing costs.

Conclusion

Every single rupee spent by an e-commerce website on account of lost transactions due to failed deliveries, abandoned shopping carts, and unnecessary support tickets can be easily overcome through bulk SMS marketing. This also applies to losses from single-use purchases by customers who are never seen again.

These challenges can be addressed at costs that make all other marketing channels appear exorbitant. Only websites that leverage SMS as a crucial part of their operations and promotions will have customers who keep coming back for more.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is the most important use of bulk SMS for e-commerce?

Cart abandonment recovery and real-time order updates provide the best and fastest ROI. The conversion rate for SMS sent 30 minutes after cart abandonment is 15% to 20%. Proactive order updates can drastically cut down support calls.

Q2: Can bulk SMS reach customers on the DND list in India?

Messages like transactional ones, such as order confirmation, OTP, delivery status, and cash on delivery, are sent via DND numbers. However, promotional messages related to sales and offers are not sent through DND numbers.

Q3: How quickly should a cart abandonment SMS be sent?

After 15–30 minutes of abandonment, to get the best results. After two hours, their focus will have drifted away from your products, lowering the effectiveness rate of the message.

Q4: Can bulk SMS be automated through Shopify or WooCommerce?

Indeed. The integration of APIs links your e-commerce system to the SMS messaging system, where the system sends SMS automatically when events occur in your online store.

Q5: How many SMS messages should an e-commerce store send per month?

Transactional SMSs should be automatically triggered for each occurrence in the ordering process. Only two to four promotional SMSs should be sent per customer every month.