Has it ever happened that you mistakenly mentioned Magento while you wanted to talk about e-commerce in general?
Slip of tongue, isn’t it? Well, it happens and there’s a reason to it.
Magento has stood the test of time and emerged as a leading Content Management System (CMS) in the e-commerce segment. Due to its dynamic architecture and flexibility, merchants prefer it over other similar platforms in the market.
When we talk of e-commerce retail stores, simply running it on a high-end CMS platform won’t do. Customer engagement is crucial in driving the success of any virtual retail store.
With customer engagement comes various trends, tools and techniques that merchants use to accomplish the same.
So in 2018, the trends and innovations that have picked up pace are – artificial intelligence, big data, social shopping, transactional SMS, push notifications, and the list can go on.
Did you notice something peculiar about the Magento trends that I just talked about?
It’s transactional SMS!
Now, transactional SMS messaging isn’t something new in Magento and has been around for quite a while. Still it’s trending!
Why?
Let’s find out.
A Wider Outreach!
The 21st century consumer expects easy access to timely updates when shopping on ecommerce stores.Undoubtedly, SMS can easily meet this genuine expectation.
Online shoppers are becoming increasingly lazy (I’m one of them) to check their mail inbox for any updates. Half the blame for it can also be put on our fast-paced lives. Agree?
Taking advantage of this situation, many Magento extension development companies have built customised plugins that integrate SMS messaging with the Magento store. This enables merchants to deliver relevant SMS updates to their target audience (or customers) in a defined manner.
SMS is not merely a part of marketing strategy. It can serve other purposes as well. Some of these are –
a) Verifying the customers’ credentials
b) Order confirmation
c) Sending invoice
d) Shipment tracking/delivery updates
e) Recovering a lost password
Trending Plugins-
We’ll discuss three of the trending plugins or magento extensions, though there are several of them.
I. Textlocal
This free Magento extension is quite easy-to-install and can deliver automated SMS alerts effortlessly from the website. Compatibility should not be an issue; it’s compatible from Magento 1.x through Magento 2.2.2. Moreover, it’s FREE to use!
Salient features of this extension are –
Custom sender IDs, free of cost
Best-in-class delivery rates and speed
Authentic real-time delivery reports
Clear and honest pricing with zero hidden charges
Enterprise-ready reliability, security and redundancy
Robust infrastructure for near-zero downtime
Fanatic customer support with 96% reviews rated 5.0/5.0
II. Transactional SMS Messaging
Developed by Imagination Media (a Magento development company) and being the latest one in the market, it’s been featured in Magento’s Innovation Lab!
The bunch of features include –
Assign an email template to every transactional mail present in Magento.
Unique feature of shared carts to simplify shopping with friends.
III. Magento 2 SMS Notification Extension
A product of Landofcoder, it’s available in varying subscription-based plans. Along with it comes a 30-day money back guarantee and a free update.
This extension supports Magento 2.0 and above.
It has a plethora of innovative features. I am listing out some of them –
Variant SMS Service API Integrated
Powerful Test SMS functionality Support
Easily Export SMS to CSV
Ease to control SMS with SMS Debug
1-Click Creating Blacklist
Multiple Languages – RTL supports
Don’t Overdo Anything –
Anything in excess is bad. The same applies to usage of SMS messaging in ecommerce.
Never spam your target audience with unwanted texts, as this will work against you. And try to keep it short and sweet!
On a Final Note –
SMS texts can help you to reach out to people with no active internet connection.
Hence, it is definitely a powerful tool to bond with customers, and build an everlasting relationship with them.
With so many different Magento extension development companies coming to the fore, merchants are being presented with an array of custom extensions to choose from.
So, keep texting your virtual visitors and win their hearts!
