Email marketing is not dead, but it is certainly becoming less-effective overtime. Open rates and engagement are decreasing, unsubscribes are increasing, and to top it off, the Apple iOS changes are making it even more difficult to collect data on your customers.
Customer inboxes are filled with spam and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out in a sea of routine discount codes and email blasts that your customer doesn’t remember signing up for.
As more and more commerce is transacted via mobile, brands need to meet their customers on the mediums they’re most comfortable with - and that’s quickly becoming their text inbox.
This is where SMS marketing comes in. With open rates of 98%, SMS marketing is the last channel that allows you to cut through the noise and reach customers where they’re already spending a significant amount of time.
But to be able to fully take advantage of the channel and create a personalized experience that “wows” customers, you need to be using the best SMS marketing apps for your Shopify store. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best SMS marketing apps for Shopify in detail.
If you're short on time, here's a quick breakdown of our top picks for the best SMS marketing apps for Shopify for different use cases (we recommend reading the full article to learn how we came to these recommendations):
- 📈 Best for brands on Shopify - 🥇 Postscript
- 😄 Best for personalization - 🥇 Postscript
- ⚖️ Best for compliance - 🥇 Attentive
- 💬 Best for conversational commerce - 🥇 Postscript
- 🤷 Best for basic needs/campaign blasts - 🥇 Klaviyo SMS
- 🔵 Best for brands using Yotpo - 🥇 SMSBump
- 🤝 Best customer support and customer success team - 🥇 Postscript
Our #1 overall pick:🥇 Postscript
What’re the best SMS marketing apps for Shopify?
1. Postscript
Postscript is an SMS marketing platform built specifically for brands running on Shopify. Boasting over 6,000+ customers, Postscript has become the leading SMS marketing app for Shopify. It enables brands to use Shopify customer data to send hyper-personalized marketing text messages that delight and convert customers.
Postscript Key Features 🧰
- Conversational commerce - ability to create natural, scalable two-way conversations with subscribers
- Built-in TCPA and CTIA compliance
- List growth tools (popups, two-touch opt-in technology, landing pages, shareable links for social media, QR codes for in-person) to effortlessly acquire new customers
- Segment subscribers using new and historical customer data pulled from Shopify
- Automations (flows) that automatically send text messages based on customer actions and events (viewed product, abandoned cart, post-purchase, delivery notifications, etc.)
- Send campaigns with a simple and easy to use text editor
- A/B testing to test different copy and strategies
- Ability to create dynamic one-time use coupons with expiration dates
- Syncs Shopify catalog which can be leveraged throughout messaging (example: include dynamic product photo and cart URL of products left behind in abandoned cart texts)
- Responses - receive responses and engage in two-way conversations with subscribers
- Built-in analytics suite to track revenue, CTR, conversion rate, ROI, and more
- Deeply integrates with Shopify, Shopify Plus, and the most common Shopify apps (Klaviyo, Gorgias, Recharge, Okendo, etc)
- Support for SMS and MMS
Postscript Pros ✅
- Strategically focused only in the Shopify ecosystem and have become the speciality SMS marketing app for Shopify
- Enables easy personalization through segmentation (35+ different filters)
- Flexible conversational flow builder designed to enable scalable two-way conversations
- Ability to reference historical Shopify customer data unlocks advanced segmentation at SKU-level, total spend, # of orders, average order value, and more
- Most robust integrations with your tech stack (Klaviyo - pull in Klaviyo lists for segments, Gorgias - customer service via SMS, Recharge - upsell, reply skip, failed credit card text, Okendo - collect reviews via SMS)
- Easy-to-use and self-service so you have control over your account and can make changes as you please
- Top-rated n-app chat support, onboarding, dedicated proactive customer success resources, fully managed services (Postscript Plus)
- Free automation templates available to download into your account
- Loads of free resources (FantasticTexts.com, SMS Templates, SMS Certification)
- No hidden fees
- 1-day view and 7-day click attribution window with option to customize to your preferences
Postscript Cons ❌
- No native popup analytics
- No support for non-Shopify ecommerce platforms
Brands using Postscript 🏷️
- Native
- Dr. Squatch
- Jones Road Beauty
- Brooklinen
- Ridge
- Thrive Causemetics
- Olipop - 👉 checkout their SMS customer support playbook
Postscript Pricing 💵
Postscript's pricing follows a tiered model that gets more economical as you scale up. Its cheapest plan is free with no monthly platform fee. You simply just pay for each message you send. The Growth and Professional plans have platform fees of $100/mo and $500/mo, respectively, and each comes with a lower cost per message and more access to features.
More about Postscript pricing:
- Free to install with 30-day free trial
- Pricing scales down as you scale up
- Free inbound messages
- Free toll-free number with option to purchase short code
- No hidden fees
- Customer Success and Managed Services available
- Managed services available (copywriting, popup design, automation building, etc)
👉 check out the ROI calculator to see the results you can expect
Who is Postscript best for? 🙋
Postscript is best for brands on Shopify that don’t want to annoy their customers and instead, want to create unique, personalized experiences that delight customers.. It’s great for brands that prefer to control their SMS marketing with an easy-to-use self-service platform with the option to work with a customer success/managed services team of SMS specialists with expertise in ecommerce and Shopify.
“Postscript by a mile.” - Nik Sharma
If you’re on Shopify and want to create a differentiated SMS marketing channel, Postscript is the best SMS marketing app for Shopify.
👉 Try Postscript free for 30 days
2. Klaviyo SMS
Klaviyo is the leading email marketing platform for Shopify with newly added SMS marketing features, offering an all-in-one solution for brands to combine email and text marketing into a single interface. That being said, Klaviyo’s SMS marketing capabilities are new and still catching up to the rest of the industry.
Klaviyo SMS Key Features 🧰
- Native Shopify app
- Built-in list growth tools (popups which you can use to target new and email-only subscribers, checkout collection, email banners, click-to-text, and though API)
- Flows and campaigns for a variety of messaging types (welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase upsells, and even transactional messages)
- Ability to collect first-party data and leverage conditional logic within flow builder to customize the customer experience based on their preferences
- Two-way conversions to further engage with your customers
- A/B testing to help you identify winning sms marketing campaigns and flows
- Dynamic images to showcase specific products viewed, added to cart, or purchased
- Create intelligent multi-channel messaging between email and SMS
- Built-in reporting and analytics suite
- Support for SMS and MMS
Klaviyo SMS Pros ✅
- All-in-one for SMS marketing and email marketing which saves time and provides more visibility
- Easy to set up if you’re already using Klaviyo for email marketing
- Advanced multi-channel marketing capabilities
- Deep segmentation and conditional splits
- Unified reporting between SMS and email
Klaviyo SMS Cons ❌
- While Klaviyo SMS is mostly compliant per the TCPA, their CTIA compliance isn’t completely up to snuff
- Don’t use verified toll-free numbers, so deliverability is expected to be lower
- Email-first platform, so SMS marketing functionality is lagging compared to other sms marketing apps
- Limited SMS marketing expertise and support compared to other SMS marketing-first platforms (will be harder to get SMS marketing support and build a differentiated marketing strategy)
- Limited SMS integrations
Brands using Klaviyo SMS 🏷️
- Act + Acre
- GhostBed
- KontrolFreek
- The Brand Outlet
Klaviyo Pricing 💵
Klaviyo’s SMS marketing pricing is based on the number of contacts you’ve collected and the number of text messages you send them.
- Minimum SMS pricing plan is free which includes up to 50 contacts and 150 sms sends per month
- Pricing scales down as you scale up
- Free toll-free number with option to purchase short code
- Customer Success and Managed Services available
Who is Klaviyo SMS best for? 🙋
Klaviyo SMS is best for smaller ecommerce brands on Shopify (and non-Shopify platforms such as BigCommerce, Commerce Cloud, WooCommerce, etc) that are already using Klaviyo email and are willing to sacrifice SMS marketing functionality and expertise for an all-in-one platform.
If you’re new to SMS marketing and are looking for a simple SMS marketing app, Klaviyo SMS is a great choice.
3. SMSBump
SMSBump is an SMS marketing Shopify app that was recently acquired by Yotpo. It boasts over 90,000 customers and is mostly in feature parity with all other Shopify SMS marketing apps.
SMSBump Key Features 🧰
- Native Shopify app
- Segmentation with the ability to combine filters around customer behavior, location, data and product interests
- Create custom flows and automated messages based on triggers
- A/B testing to test and identify winning copy
- Abandoned cart reminders and customer reactivation text automations
- Link shortener for better SMS marketing conversion tracking
- Ability to schedule SMS campaigns to send at a later date and time
- Drag and drop subscription form
- Embed coupon codes
- Integrates with Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and most major Shopify apps
- Built in analytics to analyze SMS marketing metrics and quickly make adjustments to improve performance
- Support for SMS and MMS
SMSBump Pros ✅
- Advanced chat capabilities with option to get notified of new customer text replies via Slack
- Acquired by Yotpo so SMSBump will be more tightly integrated into Yotpo (if you use Yotpo)
- Send text messages in customer timezones
- Combine multiple lists and segments
SMSBump Cons ❌
- Lagging in compliance
- Acquisition by Yotpo could lead to increased pricing and delayed innovation during transition
- While SMSBump boasts 90k customers, it lacks larger name brand DTC customers which signals lack of adoption among the DTC marketing community
Brands using SMSBump 🏷️
- Elevated Faith
- The Little Homie
- Velvet Caviar
SMSBump Pricing 💵
SMSBump charges a fee per message sent plus a base fee depending on which features you want access to.
- The base plan is free and charges $0.0149 per messages sent and includes basic functionality
- More advanced functionality such as 1:1 conversations, timezone sending, or A/B testing can be unlocked at higher base fee plans ranging from $19/mo to $199/mo
Who is SMSBump best for? 🙋
SMSBump is best for brands that are currently using Yotpo, or plan to use Yotpo, and prefer a more robust integration into Yotpo in order to power more Yotpo functionality via SMS (reviews, loyalty, etc.).
👉 Try SMSBump or view SMSBump alternatives.
4. Attentive
Attentive is a leading SMS marketing platform for brands and businesses across several different industries including ecommerce, retail, food & beverage, and entertainment. Attentive does not have a native Shopify app. However, it is used by brands on Shopify.
Attentive Key Features 🧰
- Built-in TCPA & CTIA compliance
- Growth - built-in list growth tools including popups, checkout, email list, social media, and in-person
- Leverage static and dynamic coupons within messaging
- Audience manager to build segments based on new data collected and stored within Attentive user profiles
- Send campaigns and flows through Messaging, and respond to customers replies
- A/B testing to test and optimize messaging language
- Integrations with all major platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce, customer data platforms and help desks)
- Support for SMS and MMS
Attentive Pros ✅
- Highly focused on compliance to ensure you’re protected
- Nicely designed popup template with design service option
- Popup customization and display rules
- Support wide array of industries and integrations and can support more customer profiles (ecommerce, retail, food & beverage, entertainment)
- Concierge to outsource conversations to 3rd party sales agents
Attentive Cons ❌
- No native Shopify integration - can’t reference historical customer Shopify data for segments (you have to start building your customer data from the moment you install)
- Must use Attentive’s popup tool, can’t use 3rd party popup tools
- Unclear pricing which typically includes hidden fees, charges for inbound and undelivered messages
- Service several industries, no specialty with ecommerce/Shopify
- Use same playbook across all customers so it’s hard to differentiate your SMS channel
- 30-day attribution window leads to inaccurate reporting of ROI
- Attentive makes it very difficult to leave their platform and frequently will hold your deploy aggressive save plays such as holding your subscriber list hostage
- Reactive customer success team that typically provides templated recommendations
Overall, Attentive has earned a bad reputation within the DTC industry:
Brands using Attentive 🏷️
- Urban Outfitters
- Supergoop
- Lulus
- Michaels
- Pura Vida Bracelets
- DIFF Eyewear
Attentive Pricing 💵
- No public pricing available (must speak with sales team) but expected to start at $300/mo
- Pricing scales down as you scale up
- Free toll-free number with option to purchase short code
- Customer Success and Managed Services available
Who is Attentive best for? 🙋
Attentive is best for businesses that operate in the brick and mortar, service, or entertainment categories, and brands that don’t use Shopify. This doesn’t mean Attentive is a bad fit for brands on Shopify, though.
👉 Try Attentive or view Attentive alternatives.
What is SMS Marketing Software?
SMS marketing software is similar in theory to email marketing software. Just like with email marketing software, you can collect subscribers and send them campaign marketing messages for new product drops, special promotions, company updates, and whatever else you find relevant. Further, you can send automated messages based on different behavioral events or triggers such as joining your list, abandoned a cart, completing a purchase, or clicking on a click.
SMS marketing software collects phone numbers and customer data. It then lets you build messaging strategies and will take your messages and send them to the carriers which then sends them to the customer, automatically.
What is SMS Marketing for Ecommerce?
SMS marketing for ecommerce is the act of communicating with and marketing to your ecommerce subscribers and customers via text messaging. These customers and subscribers are typically interacting with your website and then joining your SMS text list through a popup, banner, or some type of acquisition tool.
SMS Marketing Benefits
There are several benefits to adding SMS marketing to your marketing playbook. For starters, SMS open rates are 98% which means almost every subscriber you send a text message to is going to open it.
Further, average click through rates (CTR) are upwards of 15% and conversion rates are averaging upwards of 9%.
How to Choose an SMS Marketing Platform for Shopify
The most successful ecommerce brands are not annoying their customers. They’re sending the right message to the right customers at the right time. The SMS marketing app with the best segmentation and automation personalization capabilities will help you best accomplish this.
Here are a few factors to consider when choosing the best SMS marketing app for your Shopify store:
- Native Shopify app
- Advanced segmentation and ability to reference historical Shopify customer data
- Shopify-specific triggers and filters
- Ease of use
- Implementation and managed services for easy setup
- Accessible and detailed customer support and help center
- Robust list acquisition tools
- Two-way conversations
- Native reporting and analytics
- Ecommerce and Shopify SMS expertise
Discover more Shopify apps in our Shopify app directory.
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