Last updated on November 14, 2023

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Jeanie Dunn
Content Manager, SMS @ Yotpo
May 2nd, 2022

Send tailored text messages that expedite the consumer path to purchase with Yotpo SMS & Email’s innovative technology.

Table Of Contents

To effectively engage consumers today, and continuously re-engage them so that they make more purchases over time, is no easy feat. Brands must navigate multiple channels, saturated markets, and complicated buyer journeys to raise awareness and see shoppers through from consideration to purchase — and they have to do it all quickly and seamlessly.

According to a survey conducted by Linnworks, fast, convenient, and frictionless eCommerce purchase experiences are the ones that will win consumers today — 76% of consumers say convenience is a key priority in selecting a retailer, and nine in ten will prioritize using a retail site that offers a seamless experience. We’ve seen this in the rise of buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), which was quickly adopted by brands and consumers alike to bridge the gap between offline and online shopping, and we’ve seen it in the rise of SMS marketing too — 55% of consumers say they prefer SMS to other marketing channels because it’s immediate, convenient, and allows them to quickly get updates.

Even more than consumers crave personalized experiences, they want those experiences to be highly accessible, the shopping highly convenient for them to commit to a brand. New mobile optimization strategies, apps, and channels like SMS have made it possible to meet consumer expectations — but the path to purchase for most remains lengthy and complex. With Click-to-Buy from Yotpo SMS & Email, we aim to finally close the shrinking convenience gap.

Closing the Convenience Gap With Click-to-Buy

Once you get in front of your customer, there are several steps they need to take before they ultimately convert. First, they need to access your website. Once there, they need to browse your products until they find one (or more) that interests them. Then they must add the item(s) to their cart, search for and type in a discount code, and finally input and review their checkout details to place the order.

The more steps there are in this consumer path to purchase, the more opportunities there are for the customer to drop off. As the National Retail Federation reports, almost all consumers (97%) claim to have backed out of a purchase simply because it was inconvenient to them. So what if we could answer the needs of convenience and accessibility by eliminating the majority of those tedious steps? What if your customers could check out on mobile by simply clicking on a link in a text? Now, they can.

With Click-to-Buy, eCommerce brands can guide mobile consumers from product discovery to purchase in seconds. All it takes is a single click for your customer to reach the mobile checkout, where a curated selection of products that you’ve defined awaits them. Customers can purchase their favorite products as quickly as it takes to respond to a text, expediting the path to purchase and creating the absolutely frictionless shopping journey that today’s mobile consumers demand.

With SMS, we believe that there are four personas of shoppers, including the competitive and spontaneous shoppers, the ones that are going to purchase immediately and don’t really need the education behind it. The more opportunity you give them in the funnel to think about their decision, the more you can talk them out of their decision to purchase. This Click-to-Buy is everything that this type of shopper needs, where the text message comes to them, they know they want the product regardless of where they are, and they can just click to buy and get it in their hands. — Nikki Tooman, Co-Founder and CEO of Sticky Digital

How Does Click-to-Buy Work?

Using our native integration with Shopify, brands can create personalized links that direct customers to pre-populated shopping carts. Customize the links with different products according to who you are targeting (down to specific variants like color and size!), while also having the option to apply an exclusive discount to the cart. Plus, show off the products right in the text message to boost engagement — Click-to-Buy comes with an easy to use GIF builder, which allows you to create rotating images of the products you’ve selected. So when your customer opens your text, they can already see what you’ve curated for them in their cart, giving them even more motivation to click through and purchase.

Through this innovative technology, you’ll be able to leverage data to deliver the best possible product recommendations to every customer and create a mobile checkout experience that is both personal and convenient for them, increasing the chance of conversion every time.

Brands that have sent Click-to-Buy campaigns to customers have seen an average 20x ROI so far, while others are optimistic about the future of SMS with this new addition. Michael J. Saba Jr., President of ALT. Fragrances, says, “We feel that the new Click-to-Buy feature offered by Yotpo SMS & Email will bring a tremendous increase in conversion rate, as well as offer a seamless experience for ALT. Fragrances’ customers.”

How Should I Use Click-to-Buy?

There are countless ways for eCommerce brands to curate carts for mobile checkout and create compelling Click-to-Buy campaigns. Think about the customers you want to target — did they purchase from a specific collection, and you have a new product that perfectly complements their previous purchase? Or, maybe you want to target loyalty members with products that will allow them to earn double the points for a limited time. Like any SMS campaign, Click-to-Buy is customizable to suit your brand and your customers. But if you need some inspiration to get started, we recommend using Click-to-Buy to:

  • Target all customers with new product launches
  • Target new subscribers (or non-purchasers) with your best sellers
  • Target your most loyal customers with exclusive product sales
  • Target lapsed customers to purchase again and increase their customer lifetime value
  • Target recent purchasers with a product cross-sell that complements the item they ordered

A Leader in SMS Marketing Innovation

When nearly 80% of U.S. consumers say speed and convenience are the most important elements of a positive customer experience, and nearly 70% rank an easy mobile experience just as highly, it’s clear that brands need to adopt new technologies in order to deliver.

At Yotpo SMS & Email, we empower eCommerce brands to create mobile engagements that are immediate, convenient, and expertly timed and tailored to customers. Click-to-Buy brings us one step further to closing the convenience gap with SMS marketing, while helping to ensure that every experience you create is an unbeatable one. “Any customer that is using Yotpo SMS & Email should try utilizing Click-to-Buy,” says Nikki Tooman, Co-Founder and CEO of Sticky Digital. “We will be utilizing it across the board and casting those wide nets for our brands, and then building them segments so that we can be smarter about the messages that we’re delivering to [customers].”

To give your own customers the experience they demand, and stay ahead of your competition with the latest and greatest SMS innovations, try Yotpo SMS & Email today.