SMS Marketing for Retail
TextUs is a feature-rich SMS software for retail that increases engagement with leads, prospects, and customers during holiday sales, follow-ups, and event promotions, resulting in notable gains in pipeline creation and conversion rates.
Why TextUs for Retail Text Messaging?
TextUs is the superior lead generation platform for retail companies that want to engage in real-time conversations over SMS. Our feature-rich software optimizes retail text message marketing by providing campaigns and automation to drive lead generation and enables 1:1 conversational SMS to drive close rate. TextUs’ intuitive apps seamlessly integrate to your CRM for contact management and note logging, making them natural extensions of current sales and marketing processes.
SMS Marketing for Retail
Increase engagement with leads and prospects without cutting into your selling time with rich campaign features, automated text messages, and drip campaigns tailored for your business.
Bring More People to the Show Floor
Send unlimited and personalized rich media campaigns to get people through the door.
Promote Special Offers
Reach your target audience with special offers and promotional events with Keywords like “PROMO.”
Track Texts in Your CRM
Capture messages in your database automatically through our CRM integrations.
Increase Sales Rep Productivity
Maximize the time your team spends selling by using your texting solution to send group broadcasts and drip campaigns.
Increase close rates through SMS conversations
SMS communication is now more important than emails and phone calls in engaging and retaining customers. TextUs is a leading retail text marketing solution that provides rich conversational features that allow you to be more productive, significantly increase engagement and ultimately close more sales.
Eliminate Cold Calls
Skip ineffective sales techniques and focus on a 1:1, conversational texting solution.
Leave No Sale Behind
Get dormant sales targets to respond instantly.
Build Better Relationships
Communicate and follow-up in a more personal 1:1 setting that customers prefer.
Hire Faster
Fill more positions for holiday and busy seasons.
Short Code Limitations in Retail
Short code texting has become a go-to for retailers looking to engage with their customers in a quick and convenient way. It’s certainly a popular option, but it’s important to recognize its limitations. While it may be an effective tool for some aspects of your marketing or communication strategy, the reality is that short code texting has its drawbacks.
Expensive
Short codes are not cheap – in fact, they are very expensive. Companies have to pay a monthly fee to lease them, typically in excess of one thousand dollars. Plus, every message sent and received using a short code costs the company a certain amount of money. This cost can add up quickly in just a few retail campaigns.
Marketing Limitations
Short codes come with various restrictions, such as character limits and specific keywords, making it difficult for you to tailor your SMS messaging according to your marketing objectives. With these limitations in place, your retail campaigns may fail to connect with your targeted audience.
Restrictive integration features
Short codes are restricted in their integration capabilities, which may limit how smoothly they integrate with existing workflows in your current CRM or ATS making it more difficult to follow up with consumers later.
Technical restraints
Short code numbers limit the technical capabilities that retail businesses can leverage. Since short codes can only manage limited character sets, it makes engaging content like images of a new product or other attachments challenging to implement.
SMS Compliance in Retail Marketing
Retail SMS marketing must follow strict compliance guidelines to ensure legal and ethical engagement with customers. This includes obtaining explicit opt-in consent before sending any promotional messages and providing easy, accessible opt-out options. Failure to comply with TCPA regulations and other SMS marketing laws can result in hefty fines and damaged brand reputation.
TextUs helps retail teams stay compliant with built-in tools that manage opt-ins, automate opt-out confirmations, and log consent for each contact. With customizable messaging workflows and compliance-focused automation, your team can scale SMS outreach with confidence. Our documentation features ensure that all interactions are archived properly, providing a clear audit trail for every SMS message sent.
TextUs Integration Capabilities
TextUs integrates with a wide range of CRM and ATS platforms to streamline retail operations. Supported platforms include Salesforce, Bullhorn, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Greenhouse, Workday, and many more.
These seamless integrations allow retail sales and marketing teams to:
- Sync contact data and communication history automatically
- Automate message logging within your CRM system
- Import lead and customer data efficiently
- Improve productivity with in-line communication workflows
- Align SMS marketing campaign data with broader retail marketing goals
These capabilities make it easier for retail businesses to manage conversations, track campaign success, and improve the overall customer engagement strategy.
How TextUs Can Help
While short code texting may be an inviting option for retail, it comes with limitations that diminish the effectiveness of the short code texting program as a marketing or communication tool.
However, TextUs offers businesses a solution to all these problems with options like 10DLC and toll-free numbers. Our real-time communication platform allows you to have personalized, two-way conversations with your customers at a much more affordable price point.
We allow you to leverage the power of texting and provide better engagement and response rates compared to short codes.
Retail SMS FAQs
Yes, sending marketing text messages is legal when retailers follow SMS marketing laws such as the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act). Businesses must first obtain express opt-in consent from customers before sending any SMS message for promotional purposes. TextUs helps retailers comply by managing and documenting opt-ins and opt-outs through automated tools and audit-ready logs. This ensures your SMS marketing stays compliant while maintaining customer trust.
SMS for retail is incredibly effective, with industry benchmarks showing open rates over 98% and response rates nearing 45%. Retailers using SMS marketing campaigns experience better customer engagement, faster conversions, and stronger brand recall. With retail SMS, businesses can deliver real-time updates, flash sale alerts, and event notifications directly to a customer’s phone, making it one of the most efficient forms of retail communication.
Retailers should segment audiences based on behaviors like purchase history, shopping frequency, abandoned carts, loyalty program participation, and regional proximity to a retail store. Retail SMS marketing can be highly effective when personalized to each segment’s preferences. For example, bulk SMS campaigns for VIP customers may highlight exclusive promotions, while general text message marketing may focus on store-wide events or new product launches.
The cost of SMS marketing varies based on message volume, carrier fees, and platform choice. Short codes tend to be more expensive and less flexible. Retailers looking for cost-effective solutions often choose platforms like TextUs, which offer 10DLC or toll-free numbers. These alternatives deliver high deliverability and lower per-message costs, maximizing ROI on every retail SMS message sent.
SMS marketing costs should also account for campaign features such as analytics, integration capabilities, and customer service support. TextUs provides a transparent pricing structure and tools designed to scale with your business, offering retailers the best value for high-volume SMS campaigns.
Get a TextUs Demo
Learn how thousands of retail companies use TextUs every day to communicate in real-time.
