Millennials and their devices, am I right?

Okay, full disclosure: I’m a Millennial. A baby of the ’90s. I grew up on Magic School Bus and Dunkaroos. 

That’s why I know firsthand why SMS communication works so well.

Many are pleased to receive texts, so being able to engage with a brand on their own terms reduces the friction they feel when buying and improves the customer’s level of satisfaction afterward.

Boasting the highest open rates of any other medium, SMS is excellent for business.   It also has the added benefit of allowing for simple and easy retargeting. 

That’s why CartKit is proud to announce our brand new SMS notifications feature.

You will be able to use our new SMS notifications the same way you use our email notifications.  Include a reminder to come back to the cart, or a discount code to entice your customers.  

Not only will you be able to convert more customers, but you will also be able to boost loyalty and redeem yourself with unhappy customers. 

So we know SMS is simple to use, and text-based communication is preferred by customers. Maybe you’re asking, why is that though?

Like drive-throughs and ATMs, SMS notifications are quick and convenient. 

It doesn’t interrupt a customer’s day to skim a text the way calling in customer support or checking in with Facebook Messenger does. SMS is also not subject to the same spam filtering email notifications are, leading to a 100% delivery rate. No more getting lost in the junk mail folder!

The proof is in the digital pudding: like any other text message, 90% of SMS notifications are read within 3 minutes of delivery. A measly 6% of SMS notifications go unread longer than 5 minutes, if at all. 

Open rates for your email notifications can average around 30%. SMS has a 98% open rate.

Yes, 98%.

Why the difference? It’s simple. The average user looks at their phone 150 times a day, particularly when they hear a notification sound. 

That’s why all major brands, including Amazon and Ebay are using these features to reduce the time and effort spent on retargeting and customer support. 

There’s more to this story though! SMS is not bound by the internet. 

Remember the last few weeks when Cloudflare had technical issues, and the internet, including many Shopify stores, was at a standstill? Your email and other notifications were not being seen by your customers during this time on any platform. 

SMS would have been unaffected. It is not reliant on the user having an internet connection.

Even when your customers do need an internet connection, to say, shop in your e-commerce store, SMS has advantages. Shopify says stores on their platform see 58% of orders coming from mobile. 

An Optimonk survey found that 35.5% of Shopify store’s customer messages were from shoppers who hadn’t added any products to their cart.  Another 15.5% were from shoppers stuck at checkout. 

Combined, over 50% of messages were from potential customers.

So when these customers are completing, or not completing these orders, doesn’t it make sense to reach them on the device they’re shopping from?

With CartKit’s upcoming SMS feature, you will be able to edit right in the app and retarget your customers. It is extremely simple to use, so like the rest of our features, you can set it and forget it.  

It will be an easy addition to your remarketing strategy. It trumps Facebook Messenger notifications, with higher open rates but much simpler to use.  Who doesn’t love more conversions with less effort?

We understand this may be totally new to your business. You can expect to see handy tutorials built into the CartKit app to help develop your skills in these areas and bring you up to speed in no time. 

By including SMS in your retargeting strategy, you can expect to see an increase in conversions, lower shopping cart abandonment, and an overall increase in customer loyalty and satisfaction.