11 Top eCommerce SMS Marketing Opt-in Tactics To Drive More Subscribers (2025)

💬 SMS marketing as a channel can be really effective for eCommerce brands to scale revenue/sales numbers, but it only becomes a more 'serious' channel when there's enough scale in terms of those opting into receiving text-messages (i.e. subscribers).

And that's the key - how can brands increase subs and getting more visitors/customers to opt into their SMS flows?

Well, I've got some areas worth considering that you as a marketer/founder can try.

Tests and experiments for increasing SMS opt-ins for eCommerce stores

💬 Below I'm sharing some initiatives you can experiment with to encourage more customers/visitors to opt-in - and when subscriber counts do go up, the benefits can be massive for sales generation.

Personalisation is certainly a key factor when it comes to improving exit-intent popup conversion rates, and especially something that's important when you want people to exchange phone numbers (being one of the harder collection data points to collect from visitors/customers).

The great news is that there are numerous applications that exist on the market (with easy integration with Shopify or your chosen eCommerce CMS) that can do behavioural triggers which make contextual sense to the customer.

In relation to the above, another element to gathering numbers is ensuring there's a reason for a customer/visitors to exchange a number in the first place - with the most popular being providing some sort of great/special offer.

Offers can be for certain seasonal campaigns, waitlists for new early product releases, "instant wins", or other special initiatives that customers can potentially save on.

Taking into account personalisation, segmentation and offers, to persuade customers/visitors to maximise conv. rate potential to exchange a number is through FOMO-based deals and messaging - i.e. "receive an instant win within the next 48 hours" or "receive early access and a discount when new product X launches".

Limited-time/limited stock scarcity tactics really do work wonders.

Plus, you can remind subscribers that they can opt-out anytime from deals.

Make sure to highlight SMS opt ins via your email automation sequences - for instance, adding a reminder towards the footer of emails that they can "unlock more rewards and offers" - or even angle it as "be the first ones to hear when..."

Having website pop-ups is one one, but reminding via emails is key. I'd also segment CTA sections of emails to lists which aren't subscribed - good to setup dynamic email content placements for this.

A potential way to drive some "virality" through text-based messaging amongst customers is to give visitors/customers the option to recommend friends to check our your store's referral campaign via SMS sharing.

You can do this with many referral marketing tools, which then can integrate with popular CRMs/email automation tools, such as the likes of Klaviyo.

If you run rewards program for your eCommerce store, then consider adding an easy points perks for customers to receive points when they subscribe via SMS to receive updates. It's an effective tactic which is low-hanging fruit if you've got the rewards system setup (and again, integrations are available to know when someone has subscribed).

One of my favourite marketing initiatives for driving acquisition of emails/sms/social followers is viral competitions. For these types of competitions, you can create a multi-tiered "entries" system, where those who have entered can receive extra "bonus entries' when they do other actions - such as social sharing, referring friends, or in this case, sign up to receive SMS updates to your brand.

Like with any key campaign you want to run, it's worth having remarketing ads setup. Whilst it may not always be for a particular campaign, having an "always on" remarketing adset with ads driving SMS opt-ins is a good idea.

You'll get more cut-through with these ads in conjunction with a campaign and a special offer (like a discount/free samples/gifts), but you'll certainly get some low-hanging fruit opt-ins - plus, you don't have to have high budgets to do remarketing.

Another opt-in idea to test as an angle is asking for numbers for occasions like birthdays/anniversaries. This won't work for all brands out there, but if this does make sense for your brand, it's certainly a tactic worth considering. Prompt to ask via pop-ups and also through segmented email automation flows.

Another potential touchpoint to gently ask for text opt-ins is from engaging with customers post-experience with reviews and surveys.

For your next product launch or even a "drop", ask for mobile number opt-ins over say email address - totally worth testing and seen a few brands do this within the beauty and fashion space.