3 min read

Not Your Plain Old SMS

May 12, 2022
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Messaging is changing. Once limited to text and cute emoticons like : ) or 8-), today’s text messages include a wide variety of engaging features. Depending on the tool and platform, your next text message to your customer can include smiling emojis, experiential buttons, and engaging images and videos that help convert sales.

Let’s Talk About Buttons

Adding buttons into your chat windows can be done using RCS, WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram messaging. Buttons get your customers to be more responsive and invested in the conversation.

The simplest type of buttons are Yes/No buttons. Ask a customer if they would like some help, if they’d like to see latest fashions, or if they were satisfied with their experience. Yes/No buttons make it easy for them to respond and helps bring them into a conversation that can then be expanded.

Ecommerce shops have a lot to get out of buttons. Using automated texts, they can ask customers if they’d like to see new merchandise or ask if they are still looking for item that was out of stock the last time. After clicking Yes, ecommerce chatbots can continue to move the conversation forward, with links, information and other buttons that can drive sales.

Introducing More Images

While users have always been able to share images through MMS, those messages were costly. Today’s messaging tools, however, have changed the cost structure and made it more cost effective to share images.

For ecommerce retailers, that means the ability to share pictures of merchandise, show how items look together, and create visually compelling promotions to increase sales.

For consumers who are used to looking at products online, this is a natural extension of that process and brings the storefront into a familiar application.

Selling Through Chat

Retailers can even sell merchandise directly through the chat window. They can share an image with a Buy button, and when the customer clicks Buy they launch a payment app such as Apple Pay or Google Pay to secure payment.

Store owners can set up automated sequences to place abandoned shopping carts in graphically enhanced messages. When combined with a discount offer button, this is a fast way to either close the sale or releases the items in the cart and make them available for other users.

Changing Face of Messaging

Messaging is continuing to evolve, with more use cases being developed every day. For retailers looking to stay on top of their sales and opportunities, now is the time to develop advanced messaging capabilities.

Talk to our team about advanced ecommerce messaging tools, like two-way chat and ecommerce emessaging