Online shopping certainly needs no introduction. The practice of Ecommerce has been spreading like wildfire. By definition, ecommerce generally refers to the buying and selling of goods or services online – over the internet and via online platforms.
Goods that can be bought online have as large a spectrum as you will ever see, from cars to laptops and even a single sachet of coffee. Most common online services are services like booking flights or bus trips or most commonly mobile banking.
Ecommerce in Today’s World
With the current state of affairs, most of the services have reverted to virtual means with ecommerce, being virtual itself, benefitting a great deal. However, with many businesses going online, the market space has been a tad crowded, necessitating crafting of other marketing strategies – necessity being the mother of invention and all. The most effective has been ecommerce SMS also called SMS marketing.
SMS Marketing
SMS marketing, as a commerce SMS, simply is communicating with customers via text messages rather than over the internet, possibly by email. Communication, being either two-way on one-way, could be anything from promotional messages to customer reviews.
What gives ecommerce SMSs the upper hand over emails is the sheer convenience of SMSs context being that you can reach customers all over the world by a simple text message regardless of whether they are connected to the internet or not.
Why SMS Marketing Has Been So Successful
Text Messages are Fast
With the average sending and reception of text messages being roughly a few seconds, whatever message you need delivered is guaranteed fast delivery.
Text Message Are Opened More Often Than Not
With an average open rate of more than ninety percent, text messages are almost always read upon arrival compared to emails. So you are almost always sure your message will be read. For contrast, just think of how many unread promotional messages you have in your email inbox.
Text Messages Are a Great Tool for Marketing
With the nature of marketing SMSs being mainly bulk, SMSs are usually sent to many people at once, increasing both sales and clientele, which is killing two birds with one simple well-crafted personal text message.
As ecommerce SMS is to ecommerce, so is business SMS to regular businesses.
Text Messages Are Globally Applicable
With text messages available by default on all mobile devices, reception of commerce SMSs is guaranteed.
One Folder for All Incoming Messages
With only one inbox folder on mobile devices, chances are low that your text message will get jumbled up or lost after reception by the customer.
Businesses and SMSs
A business SMS simply is a text message sent by a business to customers, either existing or prospective. The text messages could be one-way in the sense that only businesses can send the message but customers cannot reply; or two-way, in which case customers can also text the business. Businesses have numerous uses for text messages in their daily operations:
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Appointment Reminders and Scheduling
Businesses could use text messages to remind customers of upcoming appointments they had made or inform customers of when something has been scheduled for example when a grocery store could be hosting a nutritionist to answer all questions about food, health and diet.
If a business has details like dates of birth of customers, they could send the customers a happy birthday wish to make them feel special and appreciated. In fact, they could even throw in a birthday present like coupons, free gifts or crazy discounts just for the day.
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Sending Promotional Messages
A business could use text messages to promote all their products or a single product probably new in the stock serving their purpose as e-commerce SMSs.
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Sending Notices on Discounts and Offers
We all are huge fans of clearance sales and it is only logical letting your customers know of an upcoming sale or an upcoming offer on certain products. Granted you have let them know of the discounts it is guaranteed they will be at the very least interested in the products on offer.
In the case of restaurants, customers could even make orders using text messages. How, you ask?
The restaurant in question could send a menu to the customer and ask for the customer to respond to the message with a number corresponding to a certain dish and voila, lunch is served.
Text messages can also come in handy for a business in communication with their employees as well.
For instance, say a catering business just landed a last-minute gig that was not planned for. A supervisor could craft a message in the lines of “I need 3 waiters and a chef available tomorrow, reply with YES if interested” and just like that the problem is fixed.
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Conducting Online Contests
Contests very much increase customer loyalty simply due to the fact that winners get a gift like shopping vouchers or free massages aside from the reason that they are fun.
A sample contest message could include salutations and a link to the actual contest.
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Conducting Customer Preference Polls
To keep up with current customer preferences and polls, a business could send customers a bunch of options and they could respond with what they prefer mainly by responding with a number that corresponds to a certain item.
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Carrying Out Customer Service
Customers would no longer have to call and probably wait for a good while before actually getting some customer care. Customers could text their query or issue and an employee would just respond appropriately.
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Sending Job Alerts to Potential Job Seekers
With all the numbers in their catalogue, businesses could send out job openings along with details for the opening and all the requirements.
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Provide Updates on Pending Orders
Upon ordering something, customers find it preferable to have the ability to track their order in the sense that you message them when their order is dispatched and most importantly when it arrives and is ready for pick up.
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To Send Reminders on Pending Payments
As a business , you could use text messages to politely remind customers of pending payments or pending renewals for subscription.
