Solstice Sunglasses used text messages to grab shoppers’ attention throughout the busy Thanksgiving shopping weekend.
With 70% of SolsticeSunglasses.com’s traffic coming from smartphones, it made sense for the retailer to focus on mobile marketing, says e-commerce manager Amanda Sitzer.
“People are always on their phones, so creating a mobile messaging channel seemed like a no-brainer for us,” she says.
Starting in mid-October, Solstice used mobile messaging vendor Attentive Mobile Inc. to build up its database of shoppers who opt-in to receive marketing text messages. To entice shoppers to sign up, Solstice promises to send exclusive offers, such as early access to a sale and time-sensitive promotions. The retailer promoted the program on its mobile website and with signs in its 70 U.S. stores. Sitzer declined to say how many shoppers have opted into the program but says the number has exceeded the brand’s expectations, especially because it has only offered the program for a little longer than a month.
Starting on Thanksgiving, Nov. 22, through the following Thursday, Nov. 29, Solstice Sunglasses sent eight text messages to shoppers. In that week, 17% of consumers who received a message tapped on it to click to the site, and 5.8% of consumers who received a message went on to make a purchase. This made text marketing the third-largest conversion channel for SolsticeSunglasses.com during this time period, says Sitzer, who declined to reveal more.
For Black Friday, Solstice sent a message that had an image and promotion code, and offered a free gift with purchase. For Cyber Monday, there was a similar message with a large image to grab attention, plus a 30% off discount and free gift. Those messages had a 20% click-through rate and an 8% conversion rate, she says. These were the retailer’s global offers on these days.
“We feel this is extremely strong performance for during a busy time period when shoppers are faced with many competing marketing messages from different brands, and considering that our customers are luxury brand shoppers,” Sitzer says.
The cost to use Attentive depends on how many shoppers receive the messages and the number of messages the retailer sends, says Sitzer, who declined to reveal what the program cost Solstice Sunglasses.
“Ultimately for us, we view this as a performance marketing channel and care most about incremental revenue and ROI,” she says. “Since we see more than 20-times return on our investment, it pays for itself many times over.”
In 2019, Solstice Sunglasses wants to send text messages to remind shoppers about items still in their cart. It also wants to send location-targeted messages to invite shoppers to events where Solstice Sunglasses “will have a presence,” such as a music festival where it has a promotional booth.
Favorite