There’s no denying that customers want eCommerce businesses to start texting. Currently, 89% of consumers would like businesses to use messaging to communicate with their customers and potential customers. But when it comes to SMS, eCommerce businesses may be confused about the particulars. How does business SMS for eCommerce work?
There are many departments in which business texting works well, from customer service to marketing, and even internal operations. Team members can use SMS to do everything from answer product questions in real time to send flash sale alerts.
Read on to learn the top 8 ways eCommerce companies use business SMS.
eCommerce SMS Use #1: Answer Product-Related Questions In Real-Time
An astonishing 83% of shoppers need support during their customer journey; they like to be sure how they feel before they make their purchases. By offering quick answers through business SMS, your customer service agents can impress potential customers with excellent service and provide valuable information about clothing fit or product specifications, ultimately closing more sales as a result.
Pro tip: Simplify the communication process for consumers by enabling web chat, SMS, and email options on high-traffic pages and screens.
eCommerce SMS Use #2: Manage Delivery Services Or Other Contractors
Many eCommerce businesses have to manage delivery services or other third-party contractors. With business SMS, contractors can text into your operations team for a quick answer about everything from problems on a delivery route to a mishandled package. They can also relay issues like delays or missing items so that your customer service agents can forward that information to affected customers.
Pro tip: If you are using an advanced business texting platform, you can create different shared inboxes that handle separate areas of business. Establish a separate inbox for contractors so customer service agents aren’t confused by a message meant for customers.
eCommerce SMS Use #3: Provide Checkout Assistance
As eCommerce businesses know well, around 77% of online shopping carts are abandoned. While this abandon rate may partially be due to people changing their minds about products, it can also be due to confusion on the checkout page, like an unregistered gift card or even a system glitch. By providing a business SMS option for immediate checkout assistance, your business can prevent any confusion, streamlining the checkout process for customers, and lowering your online shopping cart abandonment rate.
Pro tip: Place a vivid SMS widget on your checkout page to make it clear that your company can provide immediate assistance if needed.
eCommerce SMS Use #4: Send Order Notifications
To nearly two thirds (63%) of online shoppers, knowing an order’s estimated or guaranteed delivery date is key to a good customer experience. eCommerce businesses are often well aware of this fact; customers tend to track their orders daily until they arrive. With SMS, eCommerce businesses can easily share step-by-step order fulfillment notifications. And with SMS’s 98% open rate, agents can be sure customers receive the eCommerce SMS notifications.
Pro tip: Your teams can automate order notifications for increased simplicity.
eCommerce SMS Use #5: Automate Customer Follow-Ups
To ensure customers are having the best experience with your brand, customer service teams will often reach out to customers after conversations or purchases to ensure they are satisfied. With the automation abilities of customer service SMS platforms, agents can ensure these check-ins will be sent regularly.
Pro tip: Agents can either schedule mass, yet personalized, check-ins through lists or schedule individual personalized check-ins directly after customer conversations.
eCommerce SMS Use #6: Ask For Easy Feedback
Gathering feedback on your business’s services is the first step to making improvements—and a great way to make your customers feel like you prioritize their opinions. With SMS, eCommerce businesses can easily send links with net promoter score (NPS) or similar surveys to customers. (As an added bonus, 19% of people will click a link in an SMS messaging campaign compared to just 4.2% in emails.)
Pro tip: Managers can create campaigns that send personalized feedback requests to large lists of customers at once. The campaigns can automatically send check-ins to those who don’t initially respond.
eCommerce SMS Use #7: Send Special Deal Notifications
With business texting’s high open rate (98%), SMS marketing can be tempting for eCommerce businesses. After all, getting someone to open your marketing content is a huge step in the process to convincing them to buy your products or services. SMS marketing is a useful option as long as your recipients have opted in and as long as you’re providing value with the content you send.
Pro tip: Popular SMS marketing campaigns include early product or service alerts, updates to existing products, or in-stock notifications for popular items.
eCommerce SMS Use #8: Organize Your Teams
Business SMS can be used within internal teams, too. eCommerce managers can use SMS to text schedule reminders to teams, or send notifications about critical events like emergency closures or mandatory team meetings. On a daily basis, business texting platforms empower customer service teams to see all incoming texts and assign each one to the most relevant agent.
Pro tip: Business texting platforms can also be used to train new team members. Managers can watch new employees interact with customers in real-time within the platform and make helpful comments via private messages.
Ready to try business SMS for eCommerce? We’ve got you covered.
