Which is better for your Shopify store: SMS marketing or email marketing?

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As more and more people use their phones to shop online, merchants often have to decide where to put their retention efforts. Email marketing has been the clear winner in terms of ROI for years. But SMS marketing has become very popular, with open rates that email can only dream of. It's not always clear which one is "better." Instead, you should think about how to use the strengths of each channel to make a complete plan. We think that the magic happens when these two channels work together instead of fighting for attention at The SaaS Hub.

Email marketing tells your brand's story in a long way. It lets you use lots of pictures, give detailed product descriptions, and teach people. When you start a new collection and want to share the story behind the design, materials, and inspiration, email is the best way to do it. It doesn't bother people; they can leave an email in their inbox for days before opening it. This makes it great for newsletters, building a brand, and "warm-up" sequences. Email is also a good value for the money. It costs a lot less to send thousands of emails than it does to send thousands of text messages.

On the other hand, SMS marketing is the best at making people feel like they need to act right away. People usually open a text message within three minutes of getting it. This immediacy makes it the best way to send offers that need to be acted on right away. SMS is great for flash sales, "low stock" alerts, and delivery updates. An email might not be read until the sale is over if you are running a 24-hour sale, but a text message will probably be read right away. But with this power comes responsibility. SMS is a private way to talk. You are buzzing someone's purse or pocket. The quickest way to get an unsubscribe is to use it too much. The SaaS Hub says that with SMS, "less is more." Only use it for your most important and urgent messages.

Modern Shopify strategies work best when they combine the two. You can use email to "nurture" and SMS to "close." For instance, think about a flow for abandoned carts. You could send an email with a picture of the product and a gentle reminder one hour after they left. You could send a text message with a dynamic discount code to make them feel like they need to buy right away if they haven't done so after 24 hours. This method of using multiple touchpoints gets customers who prefer different ways of talking to each other.

One important thing that sets these channels apart is compliance. Email laws, like CAN-SPAM, are strict, but SMS laws, like TCPA in the US, are even stricter. You can't just take a customer's phone number from a shipping address form and start texting them. You need to get their written permission first. If you break SMS laws, you could face serious consequences. This is why it's important to only use apps from The SaaS Hub marketplace that you can trust. They have built-in compliance features that make sure you're collecting consent legally, like "checkbox" options at checkout and double opt-in confirmations.

Another thing to think about is cost. Email usually costs a flat monthly fee based on how many people are on your list, while SMS usually costs per message. This means you need to be more careful about who you text. You wouldn't send a generic blog update to everyone on your SMS list. You would break up your list so that only your most engaged VIPs, who are sure to click, get that text. Email lets you use more general "spray and pray" tactics, but segmentation is still better. SMS, on the other hand, requires precision to keep a good ROI.