We Added SMS to an Email-Only Strategy. It Tripled Click Rates on the Same Offer.
By Steve Merrill | May 14, 2026
Same offer. Same audience. Same week.
Email version: baseline click-through rate. The kind of number you've probably seen from your own campaigns. Solid, not exciting.
SMS version: three times that.
That's the Mack & Rex result, a jewelry and crafting brand we work with. They were running email campaigns competently. Open rates fine, click rates fine, revenue predictable. What they weren't doing was SMS.
When we added SMS alongside their existing email flows, the same offer sent to an SMS-subscribed segment generated 3x the click-through rate. Not better copy. Not a bigger discount. Same offer. Different channel.
Here's what's actually happening and what Shopify merchants should do about it.
---Why Does SMS Outperform Email on Click Rates?
It's not magic. It's context.
Your email inbox has hundreds of messages competing for attention. Someone might open your email four hours after it arrives, on their lunch break, while mentally doing four other things. The moment of decision is diluted.
A text message lands differently. SMS open rates run around 98%, with most messages read within three minutes of delivery. That's not a channel advantage, that's a completely different behavioral moment.
When someone clicks in an SMS, they're clicking fresh, usually on mobile, often in a purchase mindset. That's why the same 20%-off offer that generates a 2% email click rate can generate a 6-7% click rate via SMS. The math isn't about the offer. It's about when and where the decision happens.
---Is SMS Replacing Email, or Working Alongside It?
Alongside. This is the part most Shopify merchants get wrong when they hear stats like "3x click rates."
Mack & Rex didn't cut their email budget. They added SMS as a parallel channel reaching the segment of their audience who opted in to texts. Email still does what email does well: longer content, educational sequences, post-purchase education, re-engagement over time.
SMS does something specific: it captures the moment-of-impulse buyer. The person who wasn't going to dig through their email that day, but did see your text while waiting for coffee.
The channels reach different psychological moments in the same customer. Running both captures more of those moments than running either alone.
---When Does SMS Work Best in a Shopify Marketing Stack?
Not every campaign is a good SMS campaign. The ones that consistently over-perform:
Abandoned Cart Recovery
Cart abandonment via SMS sent within one hour of the abandonment, not 24 hours. By 24 hours, the buying moment has passed. Within an hour, you're catching someone who got distracted, not someone who decided against it. Klaviyo's benchmark data shows cart recovery SMS clicking at 20-30x email cart recovery rates when timed correctly.
New Product Drops
Early access framing, "SMS subscribers get it 24 hours before the site goes live", creates a legitimate reason for someone to be on your SMS list. The exclusivity does real work. A jewelry brand with a limited-edition drop texting their SMS list first is a strong match between channel and content.
Flash Sales With Real Deadlines
48-hour sales sent via email often drag. A 4-hour flash sale sent via SMS hits differently because the medium itself signals urgency. The format (short, direct, time-stamped) matches the message.
What Doesn't Work as Well
Mirroring your email calendar directly to SMS. If you send email every Tuesday and Thursday and now you also send SMS on Tuesday and Thursday, you're not getting the channel benefit, you're just annoying people on two channels. SMS earns its place when the timing and content are specific to the moment.
---How Do You Build an SMS List Without Starting Over?
The fastest three channels for growing an SMS subscriber base from an existing Shopify store:
Checkout opt-in: Shopify's native checkout already has a phone field. Enabling SMS marketing consent there captures buyers at the highest-intent moment, they're already purchasing. Mack & Rex built the majority of their initial SMS list this way.
SMS-specific pop-up offer: A separate pop-up from your email capture pop-up, with a different offer. "Text us for 15% off" alongside an existing "Email us for 10% off" gives people a reason to subscribe to both. Using the exact same offer as your email pop-up removes the incentive to subscribe to SMS specifically.
Post-purchase email invite: An automated email in your post-purchase sequence with a single CTA: "Get exclusive SMS has and early access." Buyers who just purchased are at peak brand trust and the best moment to ask for another contact channel.
One compliance note: email opt-ins don't carry over to SMS. SMS requires explicit separate consent under TCPA and CTIA guidelines. This isn't just legal, it's also why SMS click rates are high. The list is genuinely opted-in.
---What's a Realistic Expectation for Adding SMS to an Email-Only Strategy?
For a Shopify brand doing email well and adding SMS for the first time, here's what's realistic:
- List size: SMS lists typically build to 20-40% of email list size in year one, depending on how actively you promote opt-in
- Click rates: 3-5x email on comparable campaigns is a reasonable benchmark
- Revenue attribution: SMS typically contributes 10-20% of total email+SMS channel revenue despite the smaller list size, because click quality is higher
- Unsubscribe rates: Higher than email, SMS is a lower-tolerance channel. Frequency matters. Most brands do well at 4-8 SMS per month; beyond that, unsubscribes climb.
The Mack & Rex 3x result is real but it's not magic. It took a list they'd built through checkout opt-ins over several months, campaigns timed to match their product calendar, and the discipline to not over-send. The channel works when you respect what it is: a high-attention, low-tolerance, high-intent channel that earns results when used precisely.
---FAQ
Why do SMS campaigns have higher click-through rates than email for Shopify?
SMS messages arrive in a different context than email. Inboxes are crowded and emails sit unread for hours or days. A text message typically gets read within three minutes of delivery. The combination of high open rates (around 98%), personal channel feel, and short message format means SMS click-through rates consistently run 10-20x higher than email on comparable offers.
Should Shopify stores use SMS or email marketing?
Both. The Mack & Rex data shows that adding SMS to an existing email strategy triples clicks, not replaces email, triples. Email is better for longer content, educational sequences, and re-engagement campaigns. SMS is better for time-sensitive offers, launch announcements, and cart abandonment at the moment of decision.
What SMS platform works best with Shopify?
Klaviyo handles SMS alongside email in a single platform, which simplifies segmentation and automation. Postscript and Attentive are SMS-first tools that offer more advanced text marketing features. For most Shopify brands starting with SMS, Klaviyo's native SMS feature is the lowest-friction entry point since the subscriber data and flows are already there.
How do you build an SMS subscriber list for a Shopify store?
The fastest list-building channels: checkout opt-in (phone field with SMS consent), pop-up with SMS-specific offer (different from email pop-up offer to justify separate subscription), and post-purchase SMS opt-in via follow-up email. Do not add customers to SMS lists from email opt-ins, SMS requires explicit separate consent under TCPA and CTIA guidelines.
What types of Shopify SMS campaigns get the highest click rates?
In the brands I work with, the highest-performing SMS campaigns are: abandoned cart recovery (sent 1 hour after abandonment, not 24 hours), new product drops with early access framing, and limited-time flash sales with real deadlines. Campaigns that mirror what you send via email, same offer, same timing, same cadence, typically underperform. SMS works best when the message feels urgent and personal.
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