Getting Started with SMS in Recapture

Before you Start
Activating SMS
SMS Configuration
Change or Cancel a Phone Number
Supported SMS Campaigns
Responding to customers via SMS

Before you start with SMS

SMS marketing is a powerful feature within Recapture to allow you to reach your audience in a new and personal way. But before you start, you need to be aware of the TCPA guidelines and the penalties for breaking the law. It's important that you use SMS within the boundaries of what your customers want, and within the guidelines of the law.

Activating SMS in Recapture

SMS can be activated in Recapture in one of two ways:

1) Add an SMS campaign in your Abandoned Carts campaigns area: https://app.recapture.io/account/abandoned-carts/campaigns

When you pick "Add Campaign" under Abandoned Carts campaigns in Recapture, you'll be given a chance to select SMS vs. Email:

If you pick SMS Campaign, you'll be asked to setup the basics of SMS integration below (See SMS Configuration and Picking a Phone Number)

NOTE: Keep in mind that using SMS will activate additional charges to your Recapture account.

For more details about what to do after activation, see Creating SMS Abandoned Cart Campaigns

2) If you enable any of the Order Updates: https://app.recapture.io/account/order-updates/campaigns

If you visit the "Order Updates" area:

And then select "Campaigns" and activate a campaign, this will also enable the SMS configuration.

NOTE: Keep in mind that using SMS will activate additional charges to your Recapture account.

For more details about what to do after activation, see Creating SMS Order Notification Campaigns

SMS Configuration and Picking a Phone Number

First you'll need to select a phone number for your texts to originate from. We recommend picking a number that is in the same state or province that your store operates from. Currently, Recapture only supports US and Canadian numbers. We are looking into international support, but this is currently not available outside the US and Canada.

When you enable SMS from the section above, you'll see this screen:

You can filter numbers by country (currently we support US and Canada), or enter an area code OR a state or province. This will filter the list of numbers for you to pick something that you like. Pick a number from the list:

And then click Reserve This Number to complete your setup. If you don't like the choices, you can click to load more numbers and scroll through available choices.

NOTE: Not all area codes will have numbers available and this is outside of our control.

Changing Your Phone Number or Cancelling SMS in Recapture

If you wish to change your phone number or stop your SMS service in Recapture, you can do this under the Account Settings area:

Scroll to the bottom and click Release Number:

And then you will see this:

Releasing your number will mean several things:

Your SMS campaigns will immediately stop sending (if you have any active ones)
You will lose your existing phone number and will not likely get it back (we cannot guarantee keeping the phone number if you release it)
Your SMS additional charges on your account will stop as of that date

Please make sure that this is what you want to do. If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to Customer Support.

What kind of campaigns can I send via SMS?

Currently Recapture supports the following campaigns via SMS:

Abandoned cart reminders
Order update notifications
Order shipped notifications
Order on hold notifications

For more info about Order Notifications, see Creating SMS Order Notification Campaigns

You can enable the Order notifications from https://app.recapture.io/account/order-updates/campaigns

For more info about Abandoned Cart Notifications, see Creating SMS Abandoned Cart Campaigns

You can enable the Abandoned Cart reminders from https://app.recapture.io/account/abandoned-carts/campaigns when you create a new campaign on the upper right.

General broadcast campaigns (similar to Email Broadcasts) are planned but not currently available. Most stores need to build up their mobile number list first in order to take advantage of that when it's available. We strongly recommend setting up these flows now so you can take full advantage of the power of SMS once SMS broadcasts are supported.

Responding to customers via SMS Inbox

Recapture allows you to have two-way conversations with your customers via SMS. We recommend responding within a day or less to ensure your customers are happiest with your level of service. The faster, the better. Remember, SMS is considered a fast, personal medium so be prepared to communicate with your customers in that way.

Your customers' replies can be found in one of the two SMS Inboxes:

These are the same inbox, just linked from two places. Here, the messages will appear on the left side. The most recent messages will be at the top, and the oldest messages at the bottom.

Clicking on a message from the left pane will show you the message in the middle pane and the full conversation back and forth to date (including any automated messages from Recapture).

On the right hand pane, Recapture will show you the order information for this customer (if any) so you can be aware of the complete situation with the customer when you reply.

If the customer replies with a known "opt out" phrase, like "STOP" or "No more texting" or similar, Recapture will automatically process opt-out notification replies and mark them accordingly in the SMS Inbox

For more details on your SMS inbox, see our article on Managing your SMS Inbox