As the holiday shopping season rolls around, retailers worldwide are gearing up for one of the year’s biggest sales events: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Once thought of as a predominantly U.S.-based phenomenon, the Black Friday season has evolved into a global shopping event, with consumers from Europe to Asia joining the seasonal rush for deals. For brands, this means not only recognizing the increasing reach of Black Friday but also crafting strategies that resonate across a broad spectrum of shoppers with different habits and expectations.
One thing is clear – connecting with today’s digitally savvy shoppers requires more than traditional advertising. Personalized and high-quality messaging is critical to stand out in a crowded marketplace, and mobile messaging channels like SMS and branded RBM (Rich Communication Services Business Messaging) are taking center stage. Here’s how companies can make the most of this year’s shopping season with effective, scalable messaging strategies.
Going Beyond Borders with Enterprise SMS and RBM
Today’s holiday shoppers expect engagement across multiple channels and seamless, highly relevant experiences. Email remains popular, but the growing appetite for mobile-first experiences is rapidly expanding. This highlights the increasing demand for businesses to engage with their consumers through additional channels like SMS and RBM (going beyond engaging solely through smartphone apps).
While retailers will find opportunities to engage customers across email, web, and social platforms, mobile messaging channels like SMS, taking advantage of the feature-rich capabilities provided by RBM, create a streamlined shopping journey. Especially with RBM’s increased reach – being now available for both Android and iOS – brands are able to deliver immersive and reliable experiences to consumer’s preferred channel.
Here are some of the statistical trends that have emerged in the past year:
| Category | Data/ Statistic |
|---|---|
| Cyber Week Messaging | 4 billion messages processed globally. Over 800 million SMS messages sent on Black Friday (22.65% increase from 2022)* |
| Consumer Spending | U.S. Black Friday spending increased by 7.4%. Cyber Monday spending rose by 9.6%** |
| Omnichannel Engagement | 77.9% of consumers prefer promotions via two or more channels. 61.3% expect email promotions. 44.9% favor at least one mobile messaging channel.*** |
| Interactive Campaigns | 51.2% of consumers likely to engage with messaging-app campaigns. |
| Personalization with AI & RCS | Nearly 80% of consumers desire personalized recommendations. RCS adoption is growing, supported by iOS 18. |
| Transactional Messaging | 50% of consumers expect immediate order confirmations. 94.4% find transactional messages important. 75.1% prefer email notifications; 42.9% prefer SMS. |
| Conversational Commerce | 56.6% want chatbots to track orders. 45.8% want chatbots to provide product info. 43.2% value chatbot support after hours. |
Every message counts during the holiday season, as each SMS interaction is a potential sale. It is no surprise that during the holiday season, most customers will likely engage with a promotional or transactional message in some capacity. It is essential for companies to prioritize quality in their communications.
With SMS enhanced with RBM, businesses can quickly send branded, personalized promotions and updates to help guide purchasing decisions. With Sender ID verification, consumers can trust that the messages they receive come from who they say they are. Along with trust, Quality is also a priority. This means timely and reliable messaging. Customers expect to receive purchase confirmations immediately. Transactional messages like these are vital to their experience.
This effective and reliable enterprise-level messaging stands out from the holiday buzz. A company’s high-quality approach to messaging isn’t only about reaching customers but also about building meaningful interactions, nurturing brand loyalty, and keeping them coming back.
Scaling Up: Leveraging Cloud-Based Messaging Solutions
The challenge during Black Friday and Cyber Monday isn’t just about getting your message out – it’s about scaling to meet demand without losing quality. Cloud-based messaging solutions make it easy to send thousands or millions of messages without skipping a beat, ensuring each customer receives the right message at the right time. Scalability is crucial to meet global demand efficiently, allowing brands to provide seamless, instant engagement and critical transactional updates, especially in a season where quick, reliable communication matters most. Providing a personalized experience that is both scalable and efficient, reinforces customer trust during the holiday shopping rush.
Embrace the Season with Strategic, Scalable Messaging
The holiday season offers tremendous opportunities for businesses to connect with customers worldwide. Retarus offers the best-in-class enterprise SMS solution. Able to be dynamically enhanced by RBM features and capabilities including branding and sender ID verification. Retarus’ high-quality, customizable, and scalable messaging products enable companies to turn the rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday into a meaningful customer engagement experience. Retarus ensures that every message is handled securely and delivered with exceptional quality, making sure messages get where they need to go (and allowing businesses to make the most out of every customer engagement and potential sale).
