The SMS marketing guide for ecommerce businesses
How to connect with retail customers at scale with text marketing
Summary
Ecommerce SMS strategies for 2025
SMS is a powerful tool in retail and ecommerce marketers’ toolbox. According to Klaviyo’s SMS marketing research with Recharge, 72% of consumers are willing to receive a text from a brand at least once a week.
Brands that haven’t invested in SMS are missing a massive opportunity. The same research found that 72% of consumers have made a purchase after receiving a text from a brand, and over half have purchased 2–3x.
SMS marketing is especially powerful for retail and ecommerce brands because it bridges the digital and in-person customer experience. By combining a personal touch with the instant gratification of online shopping, brands can create intimacy at scale and drive more purchases.
Why SMS marketing matters for retail brands
The retail and ecommerce sales cycle is already pretty fast, but SMS makes it even faster. Klaviyo’s SMS marketing research with Recharge found that 65% of people who made an SMS purchase in the last year bought the item earlier than they planned to because of a promotional text message. Another 14% made a purchase they weren’t planning on at all.
And, according to Klaviyo’s latest SMS marketing benchmarks, SMS delivers serious engagement and value for ecommerce brands:
• The top 10% of apparel and accessories brands see average SMS campaign click rates of 16.65%, placed order rates of 0.59%, and revenue per recipient (RPR) of $0.80.
• The top 10% of health and beauty brands see average SMS campaign click rates of 11.11%, placed order rates of 0.77%, and RPR of $0.85.
• The top 10% of toys and hobbies brands see average SMS campaign click rates of 18.76%, placed order rates of 0.73%, and RPR of $0.83.
DTC brand Dagne Dover combines SMS with email outreach to engage customers at critical points in the consideration process and drive purchases. In their first year with Klaviyo SMS, the brand saw 12,000% ROI and attracted more than 100,000 SMS subscribers. Today, email and SMS marketing make up 25% of Dagne Dover’s quarterly revenue.
4 ways to build your retail SMS subscriber list
To attract SMS subscribers, make it worth their while. Be thoughtful about where, when, and how you ask for sign-ups, and collect proper consent with built-in SMS compliance tools and clear opt-in messaging. We recommend collecting transactional vs. marketing consent separately.
1. Launch SMS sign-up forms on your website
Wherever you trigger sign-up forms on your website, collect phone numbers along with email addresses. You can structure your forms as multi-step forms that ask for email consent first, then SMS (like Marine Layer), give subscribers the choice of what to share (like Shinola), or target email subscribers with SMS-specific sign-up forms (like Dagne Dover).
Image source: Marine Layer
Image source: Shinola
Image source: Dagne Dover
2. Send a “sign up for SMS” email campaign
Email subscribers already have an affinity for your brand and have demonstrated a certain level of intent. Many of them will likely be open to hearing from your brand via SMS.
3. Use QR codes in physical retail locations
What better place to ask for sign-ups than your store, where customers are already interested in your brand? Use in-store signage that touts the benefits of signing up for SMS to convert new subscribers.
4. Collect SMS at the point of sale
After customers buy in-store or online, keep the love going by encouraging them to opt in to SMS. (Note: If you’re doing this online, make sure the opt-in checkbox is unchecked by default to comply with SMS regulations.)
Ecommerce store SMS integration best practices
SMS is just one component of a powerful omnichannel ecommerce experience, not a standalone tool.
Integrate your SMS platform with your ecommerce store. Or better yet, choose a B2C CRM with SMS built in. Klaviyo B2C CRM integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento 2, and BigCommerce, just to name a few, so product, inventory and order data automatically syncs for omnichannel marketing activation. Combining shopping data like purchase and browse history with marketing intelligence creates a complete picture of the customer that powers personalization at scale.
With Klaviyo, you can explore 350+ ecommerce integrations that build deeper relationships, spanning use cases like:
• Surveys and quizzes
• Loyalty programs
• Affiliate and influencer marketing
• Review collection
• Subscription management
To further improve the customer experience, connect online and offline customer data. Unify your customer profiles to ensure that your channels complement rather than clash with each other, and make it easy for customers to see their purchases from both locations. This helps you understand your customers more holistically, too.
Apparel brand Marine Layer has brick-and-mortar locations as well as a thriving ecommerce business. By consolidating all their customer data in Klaviyo and integrating with their ecommerce platform, Shopify Plus, the brand can now track engagement across ecommerce, retail, email, and SMS—in one platform. The results? 40.4% YoY growth in Klaviyo-attributed revenue.
Must-have SMS marketing campaigns for ecommerce brands
One-off SMS campaigns reach subscribers in a precise moment, and can include:
• Flash sales
• Limited-time offers
• New product announcements
• Retail store launches
• In-person events
• Early access to product drops
• Holiday promotions
SMS campaign spotlight: holiday SMS marketing
Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) is basically the World Cup for ecommerce brands, but there are a lot of practice games leading up to this massive weekend: the January Sales Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, . Build your SMS marketing campaign calendar around these holidays to create urgency and exclusivity, and coordinate with other channels for maximum impact.
Remember, though, these peak retail seasons are high-volume times for not just sellers but consumers, who will be inundated with promotions from every brand they subscribe to. To break through the noise, pair your SMS outreach with granular segmentation so you’re sending the right messages to the right people.
Other tried-and-true BFCM tactics include:
• Partnering with other brands on promotions and sales
• Encouraging customers to build wishlists
• Providing early access to discounts or sales to VIPs
• Activating on-site shoppers with exclusive offers
• Running hybrid abandonment flows, plural
Handcrafted goods brand Shinola’s 2024 BFCM event ran for almost 3 weeks. It was a daily drumbeat of email offers on specific products and limited-edition drops, amplified by regular SMS campaigns. During BFCM itself, they switched to a spend-more, save-more sitewide event—and all of these strategies help boost Klaviyo-attributed BFCM revenue 27% YoY.
“SMS is how people want to be communicated with these days,” says Brett Vincke, email marketing manager at Shinola.
Must-have SMS automations for ecommerce brands
As with email, SMS automations are essential to nurturing customer relationships at scale. We suggest investing in the following:
• Welcome series for new subscribers
• Abandoned cart recovery texts
• Back-in-stock notifications for popular and/or previously viewed items
• Post-purchase follow ups such as shipping and fulfilment notifications
• VIP/loyalty program messages for your most engaged customers
Of course, one-way communication isn’t the only way to use SMS. Two-way SMS conversations transform texting from a broadcast channel to a relationship-builder. Use them to gather customer preferences, answer FAQs, or create dialogues with VIP customers.
Cookware brand Made In runs a “surround sound” retention program via SMS and email. New subscribers are added to interest-based segments based on how they engage with the automated welcome flow. Made In also uses SMS to re-engage dormant email subscribers.
These efforts have contributed to a 26.1% growth in AOV and 66.3% reduction in unsubscribe rate since Made In’s first full quarter with Klaviyo.
SMS automation spotlight: abandoned cart SMS messages
Abandoned cart flows are an essential part of ecommerce strategy. 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, according to the Baymard Institute, and Klaviyo’s SMS marketing research with Recharge found that nearly 1 in 5 (18%) customers prefer receiving abandoned cart notifications via SMS.
Automate these flows through your SMS platform. Send an initial text within a few hours of a customer abandoning their cart, and follow up in another 48 hours. If your SMS subscriber is also subscribed to email, complement SMS outreach with email so you can communicate with customers on the channel they prefer most.
You can also sweeten the deal with incentives like discounts. To protect your margins, don’t include the discount until the last step of your flow, and make the discount limited-time to create a sense of urgency. Or, segment your list to only offer discounts to VIPs who abandon carts, or those abandoning high-value carts.
SMS personalisation strategies for ecommerce and retail
In 2025, 74% of consumers expect more personalised experiences from brands, according to Klaviyo’s future of consumer marketing report.
SMS segmentation for ecommerce brands
Segmentation is the key to meeting personalisation expectations. Before going all-in on SMS, make sure you’re set up for success with clearly defined SMS segments that will enable personalisation at scale, such as:
• Engagement level: new subscribers and those who have engaged in the past 90 days, subscribers who have engaged in the last 90-150 days, and subscribers who have engaged in the last 150 days
• Location: to promote in-store events, deals, and promotions
• Behavioural triggers: abandoned carts and check-outs
• Product interest: based on browsing and purchase history
• VIP subscribers: your most engaged subscribers who are most likely to buy via SMS
You can use Klaviyo AI to create dynamic segments with less effort that will make every communication feel personal and targeted.
2xist, a men’s underwear brand, used Klaviyo Marketing Analytics to build dynamic RFM segments with associated retention flows that highlight a customer’s past purchases. The segments also form the basis of Meta audiences that see targeted remarketing campaigns. Facebook ROAS has jumped 61% YoY, demonstrating the power of integrating data across platforms.
VIP programs for SMS subscribers
Speaking of VIPs: one of the best use cases for personalised SMS marketing is to connect with your VIP customers. Here are some ways leading retail brands leverage SMS for their most engaged, highest-value fans:
• Creating SMS-exclusive VIP offers for retail customers to encourage them to shop online
• Using SMS to enhance loyalty program engagement, such as reminding customers of their points balance, loyalty level, and when they have rewards waiting for them
• Soliciting customer feedback on recent purchases
• Rewarding in-store or online purchases through integrated SMS campaigns
• Providing customer support via text
When Ohio-based apparel brand HOMAGE launched their first SMS campaign to promote the exclusive release of their 80s- and 90s-style NFL Starter jackets, they drummed up 100 orders in the first hour alone. Ultimately, 87% of SMS customers clicked the in-message link, and 9% of fans placed an order. Even more impressive: the campaign delivered $167 RPR.
What’s the right SMS marketing cadence?
Experiment with send times to learn when your customers are most likely to engage with SMS or purchase. According to our SMS marketing research with Recharge, this is when consumers most want to receive text messages from brands—though your customer base may behave differently:
• Evening: 45%
• Afternoon: 25%
• Midday: 13%
• Morning: 9%
• Late night hours: 8%
Measuring text marketing performance for retail brands
So you’ve set up your SMS channel, integrated it with your CRM and ecommerce store, and built your first campaigns. How do you tell if all of this is working?
The answer is simple: measure. Track the following key SMS metrics:
• Click rate
• Conversion rate
• RPR
Compare your performance to industry benchmarks to see how you stack up against your peers. If you find that your performance doesn’t measure up, run A/B tests to optimize your campaigns until you figure out what works.
Make sure you’re tracking ROI, too. To calculate ROI, divide net profit by investment cost. While your specific ROI targets will vary depending on your company and how you use SMS, you should look for this number to increase as you fine-tune your strategy.
Use Klaviyo’s ROI calculator to estimate the return you’d get from investing in SMS.
Getting started with SMS marketing for your ecommerce store
To be successful with SMS from day one, follow these SMS marketing tips:
1. Pick an SMS platform—or better yet, a CRM with SMS built in.
2. Ask and confirm permission.
3. Actively build your list.
4. Make it easy to opt out.
5. Differentiate email from SMS.
6. Keep copy short and sweet.
7. Choose wisely between SMS and MMS.
8. Limit yourself to one CTA per message.
9. Personalize with smart segmentation.
10. Make your SMS subscribers feel special.
11. Connect on a deeper level.
12. Find the right texting cadence.
13. Track your performance—and assume nothing.
As you start to run SMS campaigns, continually optimise your strategy. Experiment with not just content types and automated flows, but cadence, send time, and CTAs. Our complete SMS marketing guide is packed with strategies and tips for how to make the most out of SMS.
Klaviyo SMS gives you data-driven SMS marketing that works seamlessly with all your channels, so it’s easy to send timely, personalised text messages that get tapped. With SMS available in 19 countries within Klaviyo B2C CRM, and powered by Klaviyo Data Platform, it’s easy to combine SMS, email, and mobile app marketing to power a world-class omnichannel experience.
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