From the moment that it became socially acceptable (and technically possible) to send marketing text messages, brands have eagerly jumped on the bandwagon; consumers are now accustomed to receiving SMS messages from all kinds of companies. And yet, despite the fact that text messages are a wildly different medium from email, marketers’ approach to SMS has tended to follow email parameters: one-way messaging blasts with no expectation or encouragement of a response. That approach ignores the fundamental nature of SMS, which we all use in our personal lives as a conversational channel rather than a broadcast platform.
“It’s a huge miss that SMS has evolved this way,” said Alex Beller, Co-founder and President of SMS marketing platform PostScript in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Not to say that marketing campaigns should go away, they should definitely be on there, but everyone should be comfortable and trained to ask questions and follow up if they need to. SMS should be a mix of more human conversational interactions and more traditional marketing.”
To solve for this, Postscript developed an SMS-friendly conversational AI tool called Shopper, supporting two-way interactions that not only supercharge the efficacy of SMS marketing but also solve a fundamental ecommerce problem: “Online shopping has a fundamental gap that brick-and-mortar stores don’t — customers can’t easily ask questions or get guidance when they need it,” explained Beller. “As a result, customer service teams are overwhelmed with support tickets and SMS subscribers aren’t getting useful responses because brands lack the resources to manage conversational SMS at scale.
“Shopper was developed to address this disconnect by creating an AI shopping assistant that operates over SMS,” he said. “The goal was to provide the kind of immediate, helpful interaction that customers expect, but in a way that could scale across thousands of conversations simultaneously while maintaining each brand’s unique voice and approach.”
The Proof is in the Wallet Sales
DTC brand Proof, which sells men’s wallets and key holders, has seen phenomenal results from turning SMS into a two-way channel, including a 21X increase in ROI from customers who engage in SMS conversations.
“It’s been a major shift,” said Dana Peters, Founder of Proof Wallets in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Before, SMS was used to send one-way messages, announcing product drops or mass-distributing discount codes. Occasionally, someone would respond with a question, but we didn’t have a consistent way to manage replies, especially not at scale, and certainly not personalized. With Shopper, we can actually have natural conversations in our brand voice, even when we’re not the ones typing out each message. SMS has gone from a marketing tool to a service channel.”
The company now has nearly 1,200 subscribers actively engaging over SMS every month, leading to $6,000 in monthly attributed revenue. But perhaps the most telling metric has been retention: customers who chat with Proof over SMS are 22% more likely to stay subscribed, which Peters sees as evidence that “they’re finding value in the interaction itself, not just the discounts or promos.”
Leveraging SMS to Boost Customer Confidence
Peters said Proof now uses SMS to proactively reach out to customers if, for example, “someone’s opted in but hasn’t made a purchase yet or if we think a subscriber might benefit from a little nudge, like a reminder about a popular item or a limited-time offer.” However, it’s often customers who are initiating the exchanges. “In one instance, a customer was unsure what color keychain would best match the wallet they already owned, so Shopper jumped into chat, asked friendly questions, helped them think through the options and gave guidance,” said Peters. “By the end of the conversation, the customer felt confident enough to complete the purchase.
“That’s been one of the most exciting developments,” he added. “It’s not just about nudging people to buy, it’s about making them feel informed and confident. Customers have asked whether the leather or nylon materials would suit their lifestyle best, questions about RFID [to block skimmers] or [when they] are looking for gift suggestions. Providing this kind of education used to require a lot of manual effort, but now it’s baked into our SMS experience.”
Peters said the company also has found that these conversations are helpful from a strategy and product development perspective: “We’ve learned a lot about our customers and our product just by giving them space to communicate,” he said. “When the conversation is open-ended and responsive, people are more willing to share what brought them to us and the questions they have about our products. It’s helped us understand not just what people are buying, but the reasons why or why not. It’s influencing how we talk about our products, what kinds of products we develop next and even the kinds of questions we answer in our FAQ section on the website.”
AI Unlocks Conversational Texting at Scale
According to PostScript’s Beller, this kind of payoff from using SMS the way it was intended isn’t unique to Proof. In fact, PostScript’s internal data shows that subscribers who engage in two-way interactions with a brand end up being worth 4X as much on average. Another thing the company has noted through the years, however, is that only 25% of customers who sign up for SMS end up going on to buy a product, which speaks to the opportunity brands are missing today.
As it has in many arenas, AI has been the unlock here, making it possible for brands to have relevant, natural conversations with clients, at scale. PostScript’s Shopper tool is trained on brand-specific data, everything from how the brand likes to talk to customers (casual vs. formal) to who their typical buyers are, plus all the content pulled from their website, FAQs and social media. It also pulls in practical stuff like their full product lineup, what discounts can be offered and even which emojis the brand prefers using.
“What’s pretty cool is that brands can actually test-drive their AI and tweak it in real time,” Beller said. “If the AI’s responses feel off-brand or not quite right, they can make adjustments and immediately see how it changes the conversation. So the AI doesn’t just learn the basic product details, it picks up on all those subtle ways each brand wants to connect with their customers, making every chat feel like it’s coming from that specific company.”
To Get SMS Sign-ups, be Clear About the Benefits
Of course, none of that matters unless you get shoppers to sign up to receive texts, which has become more challenging as consumers have grown weary of blast messaging onslaughts.
“The key is making it clear from the start what subscribers will get out of texting with you,” advised Beller. “Too many brands just ask people to ‘join our SMS list for updates’ without explaining the real value. The most successful brands position SMS as getting access to personalized help and exclusive perks. Think, ‘Text us for instant shopping help + VIP discounts’ rather than generic promotional messages.
“Once people opt in, you need to deliver on that promise immediately through product recommendations, exclusive discount codes or just being genuinely useful when customers have questions,” he added. “The brands seeing the best results are the ones treating SMS like a premium experience rather than just another marketing channel to blast promotions through.”
