How SMS Can Support Mobile Commerce Sales

SMS can be used to link tracked mobile commerce sales with the social sharing of the specifics of a product or price, by customers. When consumers share the news about something they recently bought among their social network, the effect can be powerful, as long as retailers can track the resulting lift via mobile commerce transactions.

Q: What is the benefit (for a brand or retailer) of having a consumer SMS/MMS a product they are viewing via a mobile commerce site, to a friend?

A: This sort of social sharing means the retailer or brand has a new touchpoint delivered instantly to a highly prequalified audience. Since the text arrives from a trusted friend, the person who receives it is very likely to open the text, read it, and click on the link. It stands to reason that the conversion rates for the recipient of the SMS would be many times higher than traditional marketing blasts.

By providing the tools needed for consumers to repackage and redeliver a marketing message to a highly prequalified audience within their own social graph, retailers can tap into a very potent mixture of personal referrals and siphon off additional mobile commerce sales.

Q: How could this potentially drive sales for a retailer?

A: Smart retailers are increasingly offering their customers tools whereby they can share the deal they just got. Word of mouth and personal referrals consistently ranks amongst the highest-ranked reasons consumers visit a store or retail website. If the retailer has a mobile-optimized site, an SMS sent by a customer can serve as a delivery mechanism for a deep link right into the section of the mobile commerce site where the exact product that was purchased (or product grouping) is queued up and ready to buy for the text recipient. This can directly, positively impact mobile commerce sales and, more importantly, can be tracked, measured and even used as a way to reward consumers who have spread the word.

Q: Do you think more retailers will be incorporating SMS into their mobile sites in 2012?

A: Yes, retailers interested in stay relevant will utilize a variety of new ways to have hyperlinked touchpoints spread by pleased, loyal consumers. In a few clicks, the recipient of the text message can buy the item their friend bought and also have the opportunity to pass the word along. By adding this option pre or post-purchase, retailers can infuse their mobile commerce sites with

As SMS starts to replace email with younger generations and more and more retailers build and launch mobile commerce retail sites, this method of “Trigger Point Marketing(tm)” is a great way to drive tracked ROI. SMS is alive and well and retailers should certainly add it to their marketing mix, in support of mcommerce.

Q: Why is SMS a good medium to encourage sharing?

A: An SMS text message is instant and it is personal and it generally comes from a known, trusted sender. For these reasons, a whopping 98% of all text messages sent are opened by the recipient. No other form of digital marketing even comes close.

SMS also opens up a new channel of communication between the retailer and the consumer and builds a retailers database of contacts, since the mobile commerce platform captures the mobile phone numbers of both the sender and the recipient.

Q: What are some other ways SMS can be incorporated into a mobile commerce site?

A: When integrated into a mobile commerce site as a “social share feature”, SMS can also be tapped to distribute pre- and post-purchase links to a product in a mobile commerce site, within the social graph of the purchaser

SMS can also be used, via short codes, to drive traffic to a mcommerce site, when a hot link is sent back to the consumer, by the retailer. Additionally, SMS can be used to sign up customers to loyalty programs or allow them to opt-in for announcements of new arrivals, etc. If a shopping cart is abandoned, SMS can be used to ping the customer who did not complete their transaction, to remind them that their cart is full and they forgot to check out.

Source from : http://www.sys-con.com/node/2036249 (Oct. 25, 2011)