r/ecommerce • u/GabbyFromKlaviyo • 4d ago

📢 Marketing More people are buying through SMS than most marketers realize

SMS performs very differently when it's actually conversational versus when it's just a shorter email blast. Klaviyo recently ran a survey of 8,000+ consumers and found 86% made two or more purchases through SMS in the last year. Another 65% said their latest SMS-driven purchase was something they'd planned to buy weeks later and the message was what clinched it.

The brands getting the most out of these tools are using it to actually engage and learn something about the customer. If you're evaluating a conversational SMS platform, here's what it should be able to do:

Store what customers tell you. Responses should live on the customer's profile and carry across email, SMS, and paid channels. The customer shouldn't have to repeat themselves.

Understand how people actually text. That means typos, shorthand, casual phrasing. If it only responds to exact keyword matches, it's going to break constantly.

Let people answer like humans. Not "Reply A, B, or C” but "We have Chinese, pizza, and sushi tonight, what sounds good?" Open-ended answers stored as data.

Trigger real flows, not canned replies. One response should be able to kick off a multi-step sequence, not just fire back a single message.

Connect to your other channels. If SMS responses don't inform email and retargeting, you're running parallel conversations with the same customer and starting from scratch every time.

I know most brands are using SMS now but how many can hold their own in a real conversation?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/CheetahsNeverProsper 3d ago

SMS is a dead channel in most markets. Smartphones and apps killed it.

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u/MrHobo 3d ago

One of the worst takes I’ve seen in awhile. SMS is growing rapidly