17 Can’t Miss SMS Marketing Statistics for eCommerce

By Stefanie Parks Articles June 30, 2022

When marketing to customers for your eCommerce site, there’s really no better way to connect than through SMS. Text message marketing is an under-utilized channel that can help your customers engage with your brand, drive tons of new sales, and even help your customer service efforts.

Consumers today use their phones as a primary means of communication. Not only are they engaging with brands via text message, they actually prefer hearing from them through this channel.

Our agency has launched SMS strategies for many of our clients. We’ve seen tremendous success with eCommerce SMS campaigns and incorporating SMS into welcome and abandoned cart emails.

When it comes to SMS, there are so many possibilities. From promotions to order tracking to customer service and more, text messages are often the best and fastest way to get a message to your customer.

Learn More: Text Message and SMS Marketing Tips for eCommerce Brands

Don’t just take my word for it. The SMS statistics below prove just how important and effective SMS can really be.

Need help getting started with your SMS marketing strategy? The Media Captain can help. Contact us today!

17 SMS and Text Message Statistics To Take Your eCommerce Brand to the Next Level

SMS open rates are as high as 98% [1]
- SMS crushes email marketing when it comes to open rates. Email for eCommerce only sees an average open rate of 15.68%.
Over 54% of consumers want to receive coupons, discounts, and promotional offers via text from a brand. [6] 58% of people say texting is the ideal way for businesses to reach them. [3]
- It’s time to give the people what they want! Text messages are such an easy way to communicate with your customers so make sure you’re taking advantage of this great marketing channel.
83% of millennials say they open texts within 90 seconds of receiving them [5]
- This means that your messages are being delivered and received extremely quickly.
About 61% of marketers still don’t use SMS [1] and only 13% of SMBs use SMS marketing [2].
- This channel is extremely underutilized. People are inundated with marketing emails every day, but text message inboxes are still somewhat marketing free. This means businesses have a great opportunity to get in front of their customers on a channel that they pay close attention to and isn’t extremely saturated.
Approximately 100% of people read all their text messages [2] and on average, consumers have 192x more unread emails than text messages. [8]
- Imagine 100% of the people you send your marketing messages to actually reading them? Sending your messages via SMS gives you a better probability of your customers opening them, reading them, and taking action on them.
SMS marketing click-through rates for e-commerce brands can be as high as 36%.[10]
- The click through rates for texts are 30.5X higher CTR than email! [4]
69% of consumers want the ability to contact a business via text and 54% of consumers are frustrated when they can’t text a business. [2]
- Not only do your customers want to receive messages from you, they also want to be able to communicate through text. Imagine what this could do from a customer service perspective.
50% of US customers make a direct purchase after they’re sent an SMS text, coupon, or discount code. [5] SMS produces engagement rates 6 to 8 times higher than retailers normally achieve via email marketing. [8]
- Brands seem to be more careful and thoughtful with the text messages they send. Most messages go out via email, and only the top promotions seem to be sent via SMS. It makes sense that these are converting better and get better engagement.
Only 10% of SMS messages are seen as spam. [5]
- Nearly 85% of all emails are spam. [11] This once again shows that the people’s SMS inboxes are much cleaner than their email inboxes.
41% of consumers prefer receiving brand updates via SMS versus email (22%). Meanwhile, 66% of consumers prefer receiving text service notifications [6] and 80% of consumers prefer tracking orders via SMS. [7]
- When it comes to important information, people want it to be delivered via text.
43% of consumers will text businesses proactively regarding inquiries, ordering products and requesting services. However, only one out of three consumers receive a reply. [3]
- If your SMS capabilities are only one-way for your business, this means you could be missing out on potential business and customer service opportunities.
76% of loyalty program members will opt-in to communicate with their favorite brand through SMS. [6]
- Brand advocates want to be in communication with the brands they love the most. Many times SMS campaigns are reserved for VIPs or special promotions that customers won’t want to miss.
Over 54% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if the messages they receive are personalized. [6]
- Personalizing your SMS messages is easy and with customers more likely to purchase from a personalized message, it’s a no brainer.
SMS marketing has a better open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate than email marketing. [8]
The growth of SMS databases is strongest during the 4th quarter holiday shopping period, when retailers can expect their mobile databases to grow by an average of 41%. [9]
- So many businesses focus solely on growing their email marketing list. While of course, this is extremely important, it’s also essential to focus on growing your SMS list.
Marketers using three or more channels in their campaigns see a purchase and engagement rate 250% higher than marketers using single channels. [10]
- Diversify your marketing plan. You’re not married to just email or SMS or anything else. Using a combination drives engagement and allows you to reach customers in ways you may not have otherwise.
For 78% of buyers, checking, sending, and answering text messages is the primary way they use their phones. [10]
- Most people have their phones with them at all times, even when they sleep, whereas they may only be on their email while they’re at work.