SMS · Attentive
Attentive SMSwith a real opt-in.
Two-tap consent, a few flows, and a campaign cap. The text does not borrow the email program's permission.
The short answer
A phone number is a different promise.
Attentive fits an ecommerce brand that wants a texting program beside email, including stores that are not on a single platform. The work is the opt-in, the quiet hours, and a short set of flows tied to real intent. It is a weak fit when you only want a popup discount and have no one to watch opt-outs. A checkbox on an email form is not consent to text. Revenue from texts is reported on its own line so email and SMS cannot claim the same order as two victories.
Consent first
Use it when the brand can keep a promise in 160 characters.
Choose Attentive when the store can support a proper opt-in on the site, the offer in the popup is honored at checkout, and someone will stop a campaign that is irritating people. Browse and cart messages make sense if those events exist. A back-in-stock text makes sense only when inventory is honest. If the item is not back, do not send.
Skip it when the list would be built from purchasers who only left a phone for delivery. Skip it when email is still a mess of daily blasts. Adding a louder channel will not organize the quieter one. A Shopify-only store that wants texts inside that admin may be a better conversation for a Shopify-native tool. We will say which operational fit is real.
- Opt-in is explicit, and the offer on the screen is real.
- Someone can honor quiet hours and stop words.
Short flows
Welcome, cart, and a campaign with a ceiling.
The welcome text states who you are, how to stop, and the offer if there is one. Cart and browse messages fire only when that behavior happened, and they do not stack on the same afternoon as a campaign. Campaigns are rare relative to email. One link, one action, no essay. Keywords and replies that need a human get a rule for who answers.
Legal quiet hours and the stop request are not a creative choice. We set them and we test them. The list is segmented by engagement and by recent purchase so a buyer is not offered a discount on the order they just placed. Creative is reviewed against the checkout. A code that does not work is a trust problem, not a copy edit for later.
- Welcome includes identity and a working stop instruction.
- Flows and campaigns cannot hit the same person in a pile on the same day.
Mistakes
A popup that buys a number you will annoy.
The failure is a sitewide popup with a steep code, aimed at every visitor, including people who are already customers. The list jumps. Opt-outs follow. The code trains everyone to wait. Email then repeats the same offer. The customer hears the brand twice and the finance team counts the order twice if nobody splits the credit.
The second failure is treating SMS like an extra email send: long copy, several links, no quiet hours, and a blast on the morning of every campaign. The channel is more interruptive. The calendar has to be shorter. We will not 'catch up' a missed email week by texting the same asset the next morning.
- No opt-in that hides the stop expectation.
- No delivery-phone import treated as a subscriber list.
Its own line
Opt-outs, revenue per send, and new subscribers who buy.
We watch new subscribers, opt-out rate, and revenue attributed to SMS without folding it into email. A climbing list with a climbing opt-out rate is not growth. Revenue per send keeps a campaign honest. A flow that texts and does not produce orders gets rewritten or removed, the same way a weak email flow would.
We also check that the popup offer matches redemption. If the code is ignored at checkout, the opt-in was a bait. That is fixed before the next traffic push. Paid media does not get to claim every text-assisted order. The channels share a definition of a new customer or they will both celebrate the same one.
- Opt-out rate beside list growth.
- SMS revenue separate from email-attributed revenue.
Example engagement
A specialty retailer texting the email calendar.
Specialty retailer. Attentive was installed with a popup and a large welcome code. Campaigns mirrored the email calendar, including the morning after a blast. Quiet hours were defaulted and never tested. Opt-outs rose after a holiday week. The revenue slide added SMS on top of email and called the sum incremental.
We rewrote the welcome, confirmed the code worked, and cut campaigns to the sends that were not already covered by a flow. Cart texts suppressed anyone in a campaign that day. Opt-outs and SMS revenue were reported alone. Email kept its own number. The list grew more slowly. The opt-out rate was something the team was willing to look at.
Opt-out
List growth read next to opt-outs, not instead of them
Own line
SMS revenue kept out of the email total
The example uses anonymized results from a Quorum engagement. It is one account, not a benchmark you should budget against.
Questions
Attentive questions.
Can we text people who only joined email?
No. Email consent is not SMS consent. The opt-in has to be for texts, with the expectations visible. A pre-checked box or a buried line in a footer is not the program we will run.
How often should we send?
Far less often than email. Flows cover intent. Campaigns cover the few moments that are not already a flow. If opt-outs jump after a send, the next week does not repeat it. There is no catch-up blast.
What if we are only on Shopify?
Attentive can still be right if you want this program shape. A Shopify-native tool can be the simpler home if the team wants texts beside the Shopify customer and nowhere else. We pick from the stack you will actually maintain, not from a logo.
Do you count SMS revenue as incremental?
Not by adding it to email. Some orders would have happened from the flow or the site anyway. We keep the channel's attributed revenue visible and separate. We do not invent a percent of the store and assign it to texts.
Who handles replies?
Someone named, during hours you publish. A keyword that asks a question and then goes nowhere is how a compliant opt-in still feels careless. If nobody can reply, the program should not invite replies.
More in this lane
Other SMS platforms.
Talk through attentive.
One conversation. A diagnostic. A plan you can kill if it is not the work.