In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Joe Keenan and Kristina Stidham discuss how retailers are increasingly using SMS (i.e., text messaging) to communicate with customers, from marketing to customer service, among other uses. Total Retail recently published an article, Untapped and Unfiltered: How to Win 2020 With a Solid SMS Marketing Strategy, by Ross Kramer, co-founder and CEO of Listrak, that addressed this trend. Retailers are increasingly turning to text messaging as smartphones are consumers’ most-used devices. Furthermore, SMS messages boast a 98 percent open rate, which is much higher than email. Kramer notes that brands are using SMS in a variety of ways, including:

• Marketing: promotional offers, geo-targeted messages to specific store locations, stock alerts, price drops
• Customer service: customers opt to speak to a live customer service agent via text message rather than a phone call
• Transactional messaging: order confirmations, shipping confirmations, product review requests.

Kramer provides four tips for retailers looking to begin using SMS, including developing a subscriber acquisition plan and settling on a cadence for your messaging. To read the full article and get the rest of Kramer's SMS tips, click here.