The Future of Online Shopping: Embracing the Text-to-Order Trend
The escalating number of DTC companies turning to the text-to-order method signals a pivotal shift in the e-commerce world. Let’s explore the reason behind this emerging trend.
SaleCycle’s 2019 report shows that mobile devices accounted for a whopping 63% of retailer traffic and 53% of completed transactions.
This mobile supremacy in our digital age is prompting marketers to concentrate their efforts on mobile-centric tactics. Some might focus on adopting a mobile-first strategy for their website. Those with larger budgets might venture into the realm of customized mobile app creation.
While such strategies aren’t intrinsically problematic, they often introduce obstacles during the purchase process. Customers are required to input payment and shipping details, and also create or recall their account information.
This contributes to the recurring issue of deserted shopping carts.
To address this, e-commerce platforms are seeking a way to streamline purchases from mobile devices, making it utterly effortless.
This is where the rising trend of “text to order” or its equivalent, “text to buy” becomes relevant.
Deciphering Text to Buy
The text-to-buy initiative is multi-faceted. Some brands push out exclusive promotions, with customers simply responding with the quantity they desire. Others allow customers to initiate a text message specifying their order and preferred delivery timeline.
Both strategies hint at a transition towards an interactive e-commerce model, in which consumers are spared the hassle of app downloads or website log-ins for purchases.
The “text-to-order” model also bypasses traditional mobile checkout procedures, often perceived as awkward and time-consuming. Plus, text messaging fosters a more intimate link, allowing brands to communicate with customers in a more personalized manner.
The success stories of brands that currently leverage text to order are noteworthy. Bev, a canned wine brand, introduced its “Text to Order” service in Los Angeles County and witnessed an astonishing 1000% increase in online orders during the first quarter, with roughly 350% directly associated with text-to-order. Another alcohol brand, Loverboy, saw an influx of 1,500 customers ordering a newly introduced product within a single day.
How Text to Order Works
Text to order is fairly straightforward. Merchants will send campaign deals via text, and customers can purchase with just a simple reply to the text. This reply can either be a word like “yes” or a quantity they want of that product. The transaction is complete, and the customer will receive a confirmation via text.
LunkerText, a customer of BuddyText, is a great example of Text to order.
To subscribe to the service, customers provide their email, phone number, address, apparel sizes, and billing details. They then receive a daily deal and can reply with the quantity they desire.
An automated response is triggered if the reply isn’t numerical, alerting the customer that the system couldn’t process their message.
If the stored credit card information is no longer valid, an automated text is sent asking the customer to update their card on file.
WineText.com, another text-based ordering brand, follows a similar path.
Transforming Online Shopping with Text to Order
For years, e-commerce brands have been battling issues like slow website performance and unwieldy checkout experiences.
While strides have been made, there’s still nothing that compares to the simplicity of sending a text to secure an item
