SMS notification  is the backbone of eCommerce support system. The use of SMS Notification in an eCommerce store has become a mandate because it not only provides a smooth and hassle free shopping experience for customers but also reduces the cost of customer service for an eCommerce store. Despite the growth in other communication channels, SMS is still the most widely used form of communication, growing at a pace of 4% each year.

The Old timer SMS is the fastest and the cheapest way of guaranteed bulk communication for all sorts of businesses. With that said, let us talk about the benefits of integrating SMS notification in your eCommerce Store:

1. SMS notification Provides Superior Customer Experience

A good-looking showroom can only attract a customer to step in. Will that customer buy and then come back for more completely depends on the Customer Experience. Customer Experience has become an important factor in Customer acquisition.

The more real, transparent, responsive and fast your eCommerce is, the better Customer Experience you provide. Utilizing SMS to provide real-time updates to customers about their transaction and order status is a great way for eCommerce businesses to provide superior customer service and reduce inbound inquiries.

Use of SMS Notification in your eCommerce website ensures that your customers get prompt notification about each stage of an order. This not only makes the purchasing journey smooth for your customers, but it also shows that you care. A good customer experience builds deep trust and loyalty. It also increases the customer return rate.

2. SMS Allows future Marketing Opportunities 

A customer who has received a good service mostly likely gives more business. Helpful and timely Order delivery SMS not only provides a good service to the customer but also increases customer acceptance towards future SMS from the same business. This allows future marketing opportunities wherein you could send loyalty coupon and promotional offers with an embedded URL link to your eCommerce website.

Please note it is important that you make sure that your customers want to receive the promotional SMS or not. Always give the opt-out option to your customer because if you send unwanted SMS repeatedly to your customer, you will do your business more harm than good. This practice also ensures that you focus your time and money on customers who opt in and are interested in doing more business with you.

3. SMS Has Higher Open Rates:

On an average, a person looks at his/her phone 150 times per day. Use of SMS Notification in your eCommerce website gives you an edge, as it has way higher open rates than any other mode of business communication. Thanks to the SMS delivery tone, SMS has an open rate of over 98%. Its nearest competitors email and twitter have only 20% and 29% open rates respectively.

Source

Marketing with Open-Rate 98%!

With such a high read-rate, sending SMS regarding offers and order status not only guarantees your customer is up to date and engaged, but also generate a successful ROI (Return on Investment).

4. SMS Is The Fastest Way

Because of its short length and less time-consuming nature, 90% of SMS get read within 3 minutes of delivery and 94% get read within 5 minutes of delivery. This is important to serve an eager customer who is waiting for his or her order to arrive. An order status SMS not only satisfies your customer’s curiosity but also saves you from hiring an additional workforce just to answer the huge volume of order status calls. That is why eCommerce giants like amazon, eBay, Flipkart, etc. use SMS notification extensively on their website.

The Fastest Means of Service

5. SMS Is Cost-Effective

Besides the high open and read rates, SMS is also one of the most cost-effective ways to market and provide service. It is far cheaper than direct marketing or calling customers to update them about their orders. With just for a few bucks a month, you can connect with all of your customers and let them know about your promotions and their order status.

Pocket-Friendly service and marketing Option!

SMS really gets the word out to all of your customers with money left in your pockets. You may be surprised with the kind of results you get by using SMS Notification in your eCommerce website.

6. SMS Is Not Internet Dependent

You might say why we are talking about this after all eCommerce all about the internet. The Truth is that your customer may not always have an working internet connection or might turn off their internet to save battery. Unlike email, SMS is not internet dependent and overcomes these technical issues. It will deliver the crucial order related SMS and update your customer on time.

Besides order information these days’ eCommerce websites like Jabong, Firstcry, Flipkart, etc. uses SMS Notification extensively while running time-based or flash sales to remind their customers to be online in time and get maximum participation.

7. SMS Can Reduce Cart Abandonment

According to Baymard Institute, 67.45% of eCommerce carts are abandoned, which is heartbreaking for any eCommerce owner considering the time and effort it takes to make a customer click the “buy now” button. Integrating SMS on your eCommerce website that can immediately SMS a discount coupon to a customer who has abandoned a cart to get them back to the website and complete the purchase can make a lot of difference.

8. SMS Bridges the changing behaviors

With the growth of mobile eCommerce, more and more consumers these days are buying goods through their smartphones. Along with being a great standalone channel SMS also has ability to boost and support other marketing mediums, such as eCommerce Apps, social media and email.

For Example: You can use Order Status SMS to promote your eCommerce App as an alternate way to track order by inserting a link that can open or install the App.

Conclusion

It is not easy to ignore that nearly 60% of the population worldwide owns a mobile phone of various generations. All of them have only one thing common SMS. SMS gives you a greater ability to connect with your customers. It is certainly a powerful and a versatile tool for every online business. It not only gives you to ability to provide superior customer service but also taps into future marketing opportunities and that too at a pocket-friendly budget.

The eCommerce world is getting tougher all the time. Like a mobile phone, eCommerce SMS notification has become part of daily life of a regular online shopper. This makes Integrating SMS Notification on your eCommerce website all more important. SMS Notification is a prerequisite of an eCommerce website these days that levels you with your competitor and helps you satisfy your customers preset expectation of getting SMS notification at each stage of his or her order.

If you’re using nopCommerce to power your eCommerce store then we invite you to try our SMS Notification Plugin for nopCommerce to send timely and automated SMS notification to your customers.

Use SMS Notification Plugin on your eCommerce website To Serve, Sell and Save!