Commentary

It's Text Time: Most Consumers Are Open To Mobile Messages

As if marketers didn’t have enough reminders that their emails should be designed for mobile, here’s one more: A new study from SimpleTexting shows that most consumers are using their phones to browse and purchase. 

What’s more, most shoppers are signing up for texts that offer promotions and offers.

Of the consumers polled, 97% have made at least one purchase from their mobile device in the past year, and 54% have made from one to 10. And 36% make from 20% to 40% of their purchases on mobile devices.  

Texting is also becoming widely acceptable — 86% of consumers have signed up for for text messages from at least one brand, the study says.  

In addition, 61% are likely to sign up for a text message loyalty program.  

The respondents are most likely to sign up for these types of messages (a roster that is also likely to cover email opt-ins): 

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Coupons or special offers — 64.9%

Product updates — 35.4%

Sales alerts — 35.3%

Loyalty programs — 34.4%

New product launch — 29.9% 

Customer service — 26%

Restock alerts — 25.2%

Event updates — 11.9%

Other — 2.8% 

In addition, 61% are likely to sign up for a text message loyalty program. And 41% will sign up with three to four brands. 

Please keep in mind that the study was conducted by a texting company, one with integrations with Mailchimp and HubSpot. 

Of the consumers surveyed, 39.3% spend from 15 to 30 minutes per day browsing/shopping on their mobile device. Another 25.1% expend 30 minutes to an hour, and 11.2% more than one hour. And 24.4% spend less than 15 minutes. 

But 18% also say they spend 30 minutes to an hour more mobile shopping than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mobile shopping lends itself to impulse buying, with 65% of respondents saying they are more likely to make those kinds of purchases on mobile than on desktop, along with 83% of Gen Zers. 

But here’s a caveat for anyone trying to operate in a single channel: 78% are more likely to make a mobile purchase when it is supported by user-generated content on social media. 

And here’s one other research finding that bears watching: the percentage of emails opened on mobile devices dropped from 63% to 54% in 2020 as people spent less timing commuting and waiting on lines at Starbucks for coffee, according to according to The Ultimate Email Benchmarks For 2021, a report by Campaign Monitor.

SimpleTexting surveyed almost 1,000 U.S. consumers. 

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