How "Text to Buy" Works — and How to Implement It in 2025

Most traditional sales channels are barely converting.

Popular mobile sales channels like email (0.44%), Google Search ads (3.75%), and social media (3%) have a hard ceiling of 2% to 5%.

As a business owner, you surely want better ROI numbers for your efforts.

That's where text-to-buy comes in. It is one of the few sales channels that have consistently achieved above-average conversion rates between 5% and 20% for businesses of all types.

Its secret is its convenience.

It doesn't require multiple clicks or steps, customers simply need to ignore or reply "Yes" to your text message.

So, how do you get customers to buy your product or service with a single text message?

We'll show how in this article. We'll cover how text-to-buy works, proven text-to-buy strategies, and how it can be implemented in your business.

"Text to buy" vs traditional sales

Text-to-buy is an SMS-based sales medium that lets customers purchase from you by simply replying with a keyword (often "Yes") to a sales pitch text message.

The entire process is conversation-based, and customers aren't required to download an app or even have Internet access to complete a purchase.

This is in sharp contrast to the long or complicated process that defines other popular sales mediums.

Here is what a typical virtual sales process looks like from start to finish:

Each additional step of this lengthy process worsens the risk of cart abandonment.

This is illustrated by the fact that the average cart abandonment rate is 70%, and 15% of customers say a too-long/complicated process is their reason for abandonment during checkout.

Text-to-buy simplifies the customer's shopping experience, letting the customer go from awareness to purchase in an instant.

Here is what a simplified text-to-buy purchase journey looks like:

By eliminating most of the roadblocks in the buyer's journey, you make things more convenient for your customers and drastically reduce the chances of cart abandonment.

How does a "text to buy" sale work?

Here is the process that makes it possible for customers to shop goods and services directly from their text messaging app:

First, you send text-to-buy offers to customers

A text-to-buy offer must be easy to understand and make it clear that customers can buy directly from the message.

It usually consists of:

• An image or GIF: will include a visual depiction of the product, the price/deal attached to the item, and your branded name for the product
• A concise message: these are the full details of your offer, including product specifications, applied discounts, shipping fees, and any other relevant information
• A CTA: usually positioned a line break after the main message, it will spell out in clear terms how the customer can complete the purchase

Customers reply to your offer

The customer's response is always a keyword specified in the CTA of your text-to-buy offer. The reply is usually a "Yes" or the quantity of the order.

Below are some of the most common text-to-buy CTA keywords:

• "Text 'Yes' to buy" (used for individual items)
• "Reply with the QTY to order: (ex: 1,2,3) Max QTY of 5" (used for items that are typically bought in multiple quantities)
• "Reply back the # of X item you'd like to order: (ex: '1,' '2,' '3'). Limit 5 per customer" (also used for items that are typically bought in multiple quantities)

Customer orders are fulfilled

The order fulfillment process is automatically set in motion, provided you have all of the customer's relevant billing and shipping information attached to that phone number.

At this stage of the process, having an SMS marketing solution that natively integrates with your ecommerce, inventory management, and order fulfillment software platforms is very important.

You will be able to sync order information across all relevant platforms, which makes order management, inventory tracking, and sales tax collection seamless.

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Thanks for your order with SmartFit Pro! Your order is on its way and you'll receive an email with tracking info. Here's your receipt: [link]

Best ways to use "text to buy" to sell your goods and services

Here are five ways to instigate instant purchases using text-to-buy offers:

Send instant checkout offers to new customers

This strategy involves sending text-to-buy offers to customers as soon as they opt in to your business's SMS marketing program.

The idea is to give them an immediate taste of how text-to-buy reduces the entire shopping process to a simple text message exchange.

For example, Iron Mule Coffee, a Boise-based coffee company, gets an impressive 38% conversion rate from its instant checkout SMS offers.

To successfully implement this strategy, you must be able to predict the products or services that will spark the new customer's interest.

Personal information provided by the customer during sign-up is a good place to start.

The SMS opt-in form can request key data that will be helpful with your targeting. These can include their product preferences, applicable sizes (e.g., apparel), email address, phone number, shipping details, and billing information.

A quality SMS marketing solution will let you automate the entire process, and relevant offers will be automatically sent to new customers without any manual input from you.

Promote new product drops to existing SMS subscribers

This approach involves notifying your existing SMS subscribers about the immediate or near-term release of a new product and asking them to purchase it right away.

The main attraction of this sales pitch to customers is that the new product will get delivered to their doorstep with little effort on their part, and they won't have to wait in line at your physical store or go through the hassle of visiting your website and completing a lengthy checkout process.

Oakland United Beerworks, an Oakland-based brewery, used an SMS product drop campaign to promote a new brew to its SMS list subscribers at a discounted price.

Subscribers would order via text and pick up their beer later from the company's Taproom at their convenience.

The highly successful campaign had a 12.9% conversion rate, much higher than the 3.1% average for the food and beverage industry.

This strategy isn't restricted to new product drops, and it can also be used for limited edition products and flash sales that are only available for a limited amount of time.

The idea is to create a sense of urgency, convincing customers that they may miss out on the product if they don't purchase it immediately.

Send exclusive offers with discounted product prices to loyal customers

You must nurture the customers who have consistently been loyal to your business to keep them coming back.

Most SMS marketing solutions give you the tools needed to introduce premium SMS subscriptions like VIP clubs with exclusive perks and offers for members.

Text-to-buy is a perfect medium for sending exclusive offers to your VIP customers that aren't available elsewhere.

These loyalty programs are a win/win for you and your customers. They buy more products and services from you, and you reward them with discounted prices.

A perfect example is a grocery store that used a 24-hour limited exclusive offer strategy to make $17,640 in new revenue on Cinco de Mayo.

Send "text-to-reorder" offers to prior purchasers

This strategy primarily works for everyday-use products, and it involves sending timely messages to established customers, reminding them that it's time to restock, and asking them to do so immediately.

The traditional approach in this situation is to introduce subscription plans that let customers restock essential items on autopilot, but data shows that an increasing number of consumers are avoiding subscription pop-ups.

Text-to-reorder SMS lets your customers get their items when they need them without having to complete another lengthy subscription process.

The strategy requires an SMS marketing platform that will integrate seamlessly with your CRM platform. This will let you leverage its analytics tools to consistently target relevant customers with your text-to-reorder offers precisely when they need to refill their stock.

Here is an excellent example of this strategy:

Cross-sell and upsell complementary products to recent buyers

The idea here is to push for repeat purchases by identifying complementary or premium products that a recent customer will love and then sharing it with that customer via text-to-buy.

You can cross-sell a product that enhances the value of the original item the customer purchased, or upsell a superior alternative to the product the customer recently viewed during a visit to your website.

A good example of cross-selling is an athleisure wear ecommerce store sending a text-to-buy SMS for sneakers to a customer who recently purchased tracksuits from their store.

With upselling, a campaign by Estée Lauder, the multinational cosmetics company, shows how effective an SMS upselling strategy can be.

The company sold out its entire inventory of 290 units of a premium cosmetic product by targeting customers who often visited pages of lesser quality alternatives on the company's website.

How to implement "text to buy" in your business

The three-step process below outlines how to introduce text-to-buy into your current business sales ecosystem.

Step 1: Create automated flows for your text-to-buy program using the right SMS marketing solution

Automated flows encompass the sequence of events, including triggers, text, and order fulfillment tasks that enable the initiation and completion of the text-to-order process.

You will need an SMS marketing solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing ecosystem of business operations software apps to ensure everything works smoothly.

It must also give you all the features you need to facilitate user-friendly texting experiences for your customers.

Once you have selected and onboarded the SMS marketing app of your choice, you can then create your text-to-buy workflows.

You must tailor your text-to-buy strategies to the preferences and verifiable habits of your target customers. Of course, your business objectives (revenue, profit margins, growth targets, etc.) will also have a huge influence on your choices.

When your automated flows are ready, make them live, and then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Use incentives to collect SMS opt-in consent from customers

It is against mobile carrier regulations to contact customers via SMS without first obtaining their written consent, so your text-to-buy workflows will just be lying fallow until you grow your SMS list.

Once you get a customer to subscribe, you can instantly send that customer a text-to-buy message.

A top-quality SMS marketing solution will equip you with the tools to build your subscriber list in the way that's most convenient for you.

Here are four popular ways to grow your SMS subscriber list:

• Website pop-ups: You can add an opt-in pop-up or form to your website that lets visitors subscribe to your SMS marketing program.
• Email campaigns: This involves promoting your text-to-buy program to your existing email subscribers who are already familiar with your business.
• QR codes: You can add QR codes to your physical products and brand packaging that direct customers to your SMS marketing subscription sign-up page.
• Text-to-join campaigns: This involves sending text messages that guide customers to automatically join your SMS list by sending a particular keyword to a specific phone number.

Step 3: Leverage customer segmentation to ensure you are sending the right offer to the right customer at the most optimal time

Powerful segmentation lets you tailor your text-to-buy messages to each customer's unique interest, which will inevitably help you sell more products and services.

Each customer segment will be a group of individuals with similar parameters based on their demographic information, location, past purchase history, browsing patterns, and more.

This ensures each campaign only targets individuals who are most likely to respond to that specific offer.

For example, you can use past purchase data to determine customers who will be more interested in a particular variant of a product (let's say coffee) that comes in multiple flavors or models.

Here is a "text to buy" service you can count on

Are you ready to set up text-to-buy for your business?

Mobile Text Alerts is a complete plug-and-play SMS marketing platform with robust text-to-buy functionality that lets you easily build your subscriber base, send text messages imbued with your brand voice, and generate new revenue for your business.

You can get a complimentary strategy session to see how Mobile Text Alerts could fit in your own tech stack today.

FAQ

Q1. Can I legally text my customers?

Yes, you can send text messages to customers. However, must obtain the customer's consent..

The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) is the primary law that regulates telemarketing activities. It's meant to protect consumers from poor business practices, and non-compliance with its guidelines can put your company at risk of significant fines.

The act requires your opt-in form or message to include the following information:

• An adequate description of the SMS marketing program
• The phone number or shortcode behind the incoming text blasts
• The frequency of incoming text messages that the subscriber should expect
• The phrase "Message and Data Rates May Apply"
• Clear instructions on how to opt out
• A hyperlink to your privacy policy doc or web page
• Contact information

Q2. Does text message marketing cost money?

Yes, SMS marketing solution providers will charge you messaging fees to send and receive text messages.

The cost of messaging depends on your service provider and the message type.

Most providers use a subscription model where you pay a fixed fee each month for a specific number of daily text messages (e.g., $20 per month for a daily maximum of 500 texts).

These messages can be standard SMS messages that include only text, or MMS (multimedia messaging service) messages with attached files like a photo, video, hyperlink, or audio file.

Text-to-buy messages, by their nature, are often MMS messages, which are a bit more expensive than standard SMS.

The cost remains very affordable for businesses of all sizes, and high conversion rates vis-à-vis email and other telemarketing channels make them worth your investment.

Q3. Is text to buy safe?

Yes, text-to-buy transactions are safe provided you use a provider that fully complies with relevant industry regulations.

Facilitating transactions over text using customer credit card data on file falls under the scope of PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

It is a financial industry regulation that mandates all businesses that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information comply with its data security guidelines.

Responsibility for compliance lies primarily with your SMS solution provider. A quality provider will offer a secure portal for the collection of customer billing information and use industry best practices like encryption and tokenization to protect sensitive customer financial information.

Conclusion

So there you have our complete guide to how text-to-buy works and the many benefits it offers your customers and business that are unmatched by other virtual sales mediums.

You have all the information you need to take the plunge and start selling more products and services via text messaging.

With Mobile Text Alerts, you can get a complimentary strategy session to see how you might be able to work text to buy into your current strategy now.