Today’s consumers are absolutely addicted to their phones. In fact, studies show that 91% of customers have their mobile device within arm's reach 24/7. This makes SMS the perfect tool to attract more customers to your retail store by engaging them on the go, which will help drive traffic both instore and online. Trumpia has been working with retail stores for more than a decade, and we’d love to share how SMS has helped our customers drive new and repeat business. 

Here are 5 ways your retail marketing can benefit from a complete SMS solution:

1. Attract New and Repeat Customers

Attracting new visitors and enticing repeat business is the lifeblood of retail stores. With 78% of people wishing they could have a text conversation with a business, text messaging is the best way to collect new contacts, offer referral coupons, and send product updates.

Building your contact database can be a daunting task, but SMS makes collecting contacts a walk in the park. Not only can you import your existing contacts, but you can also streamline contact collection by posting keywords on your store window, cash register, receipts, website, or in-store coupons. Your customers can easily opt-in to a specific text keyword, such as “Men” or “Women”, to be added to a distribution list to receive relevant text alerts.

Gaining a loyal customer base boils down to word of mouth and providing irresistible deals. You can tap into your customer base by offering referral coupons. Not only will this entice a purchase from your existing customers, but it can convince them tell their friends and family about your store! And by sending the coupon via text, they can quickly share the referral with anyone on their phone.

Being successful in the retail industry goes hand in hand with staying up to date with the latest trends. Utilizing a mass texting service will allow you to blast an update to your customer to alert them of new product releases. You can even schedule daily updates to be sent on the week before a release to get your customers pumped and maximize purchases during your product release.

2. Drive Foot Traffic During Slow Days With Mobile Coupons

Retail SMS marketing is the most effective way to increase purchases because texting has the highest click-through rate of 36%. Traditional methods, such as email’s 3.2%, have extremely low rates. Sending mobile coupons, alerts, and flash sales during slow periods via text will instantly drive traffic and reap the highest ROI.

Blasting out deals to every customer will not be as effective without a way to easily segment your lists by customer interests. If you have an complete SMS provider, you can send targeted messages to attract customers by collecting custom data from them and sorting them into different lists. Using their age, preferences, or gender, you can send targeted coupons to your customers. For example, you would only send coupons for men’s clothing only to men or toy coupons to people that have kids.

An obstacle that retail stores cope with is being able to drive instant traffic to their stores during slow business days. Mobile coupons have a 10x higher redemption rate than traditional coupons, which means sending an SMS coupon will guarantee increased visits to your store. And when it comes to driving traffic, SMS has an unmatched with 90% of messages being read within 3 minutes. This means that when you are having a slow day you can instantly drive more traffic to your stores, meaning revenue won’t take a hit on traditionally slower days of the week.

3. Attract Customers By Mobilizing Your Loyalty Program

Establishing a network of loyal customers will ensure constant traffic to your stores. To make your customers feel special about your business, create a mobile loyalty program. Not only does this replace old paper methods, but it makes it easier for customers to opt-in and track when their next reward is by sending them point updates directly to their phone.

While loyalty programs are great for acquiring repeat purchases, the best way to make a customer really feel special is by adding them to your VIP program. Being apart of your VIP club will give members a sense of membership in your business and ensure that they are getting special deals not offered to the general public.

If you choose a provider like Trumpia, you can also analyze click-through rates and engagement rates of your various programs, allowing you to identify how to improve your future campaigns.

4. Shorten Your Buyer’s Decision and Address Concerns

To get an advantage in the market, retail establishments need to match the prices of their competitors. Texting allows customers to send in quick advertisements when you are beating competitor’s prices so you can generate more business from bargain-savvy customers.

Online retail businesses and made-to-order shops rely on communicating order details and delivering their products in a timely manner. SMS is an effective way of communicating order information, as well as sending a text reminder to customers of order status, delivery updates, and billing information. As a result, customers will feel safe about their orders and you will help ensure brand loyalty.

Addressing concerns as quickly as possible will ensure that you don’t lose any of your loyal customers. With an average response time of 90 seconds, texting is the fastest way to address damaged products, poor customer service, or any other issues your customers may have.

5. See What Your Customers Think With SMS Surveys

We all know the saying that the customer is always right. A great way to make sure customers come back is by identifying areas for improvement with a quick survey. SMS is the best way of sending text surveys, polls, and having real-time conversations with customers. Paper, email, and phone surveys are ineffective, but texting customer surveys has a response rate of 45%, meaning you get more feedback from a more diverse pool of customers.

When choosing a SMS software for retail, you want to make sure that you’re getting a complete service. Check out Trumpia’s Retail Brochure to discover the numerous ways your retail establishment can improve by implementing text messaging.