SMS Marketing Gets a Thumbs Up From Shoppers This Holiday Season

Email and SMS marketing sees an early start, leading to record sends and orders

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA, December 20, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — Ecommerce sales in November set another record at $109 billion, and shoppers relied on email, SMS, and web push marketing to help brands reach those numbers.

Omnisend’s annual BFCM email and SMS ecommerce marketing report shows that consumers want, and rely on, email and SMS marketing to aid in their shopping journeys — especially during the holidays.

Compared to 2022, brands sent 35.3% more scheduled email campaigns in November and nearly 24% more during the Cyber Ten (the Sunday before Black Friday through Giving Tuesday. Brands also sent 56.4% more SMS campaigns in November and 41.2% more during the Cyber Ten.

These findings are part of Omnisend’s BFCM 2023: Email, SMS, and push message statistics & trends report. The report analyzed over 2.5 billion marketing emails, 29 million SMS, and 30 million web push messages sent by Omnisend merchants in November of 2023.

The Cyber Ten saw email open rates increase by 5.4% and conversion rates increase to 0.09%, up from 0.07% seen from January through October. This resulted in a 24.5% increase in email-related orders.

Behavior-based automated messages proved to be effective at generating sales. Sporting an average conversion rate of 2.05%, automated emails like cart and browse abandonment generated 29.3% of all email orders during the Cyber Ten while accounting for only 1.75% of email sends.

The report also showed that consumers are increasingly turning to SMS for shopping purposes. Text messages during the Cyber Ten ended with a click rate of 5.58%, a conversion rate of 0.17%, and 12.3% more orders than in 2022. Automated text messages during this time increased by 199% and converted 91.7% better than scheduled messages.

“Email marketing is tried and true, especially during the holidays, and automated messages continue to re-engage and convert shoppers. But brands are getting smarter and applying these same tactics to other opt-in channels, especially to SMS,” says Greg Zakowicz, Ecommerce Marketing Expert at Omnisend. “The narrative that consumers find SMS annoying is nothing but a myth. They are adopting SMS, using it as a part of their shopping journey, and are purchasing from them in larger numbers than ever.”

Other highlights from the report include:

Email Marketing and Industry Verticals:

** Shopping started early. The week of 10/22 saw sends increasing by 40.2% and orders increasing by nearly 26% over the same period in 2022, with the following week seeing increases of 37.9% and 27.7%, respectively.

** The conversion rate for campaign emails finished the Cyber Ten at 0.09%, a rise from 0.07% for emails sent from January through October. Open rates during the Cyber Ten increased by 5.4% YoY.

** Automated emails generated 29.3% of all email orders during the Cyber Ten while accounting for only 1.75% of email sends. Nearly 37% of people who clicked on an automated email went on to make a purchase.

** Brands in the Arts & Entertainment industry had the best conversion rate during the Cyber Ten at 0.28%, while the Games vertical finished fourth-best for both click rate (2.13%) and conversion rate (0.17%).

SMS Marketing:

** During the Cyber Ten, merchants sent 41.2% more SMS, ending with a click rate of 5.58%, a conversion rate of 0.17%, and 12.3% more orders than in 2022.

** SMS sends increased 308.9% on Cyber Monday and generated 221.9% more orders YoY. Black Friday accounted for 26.3% of SMS sales during the Cyber Ten.

** Automated SMS during the Cyber Ten increased by 199%. Compared to scheduled SMS campaigns, automated SMS converted 91.7% better.

Push Message Marketing:

** Merchants sent 12.7 million push messages during the Cyber Ten, an increase of 91.3% YoY, resulting in 61% more orders.

** Brands sent more than 151% more automated push messages during the Cyber Ten.

** Automated push messages made up 18.8% of push message orders and 2.3% of sends during the Cyber Ten.

Read the full BFCM 2023: Email, SMS, and push message statistics & trends report for even more BFCM marketing insights.

About Omnisend

Omnisend is an email & SMS marketing platform with a suite of features made specifically to help ecommerce stores grow their online businesses faster. One-click integration with major ecommerce platforms, pre-made automation & email templates, and award-winning 24/7/365 live customer support make it easy for brands of any size to sell more—all without the exaggerated cost.

“Great marketing needs to be expensive” is a myth that 100,000+ Omnisend customers are busting every day by growing their businesses with email and SMS marketing.

Greg Zakowicz
Omnisend
[email protected]