Retailers take SMS sales seriously as text codes hit the High Street

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Retailers take SMS sales seriously as text codes hit the High Street.

A new way to entice customers to purchase via text message has reached the High Street, as adverts including 'txt2buy' appear on television and in newspapers and magazines.
 
Coined the 'PayPal of Mobile', the 'txt2buy' calls-to-action have featured on advertisements for AC/DC CD in Kerrang magazine, Gossip Girls Season 4 on DVD and Seasons 1-4 boxset, The Vampire Diaries season 2 DVD boxset in Star Magazine and Quarantine 2 Terminal on DVD in Nuts magazine during August. txt2buy also appeared on adverts in the Metro for Smilepod, a new teeth whitening
service and on ITV North for Magic Minerals, a JML product. 

 
More campaigns have been planned for coming months and txt2buy's managing director Simon Rabin is delighted that retailers are taking positive steps towards embracing the potential of mobile as part of the communications strategies.
 
Simon Rabin comments, "The txt2buy service offers an unrivalled opportunity for retailers to target over 50 million customers in the UK who own a mobile phone of any kind and sell to them in less than 45 seconds. There is a massive market wanting to buy products on the spur of the moment, but only if retailers make it easy for them. Adding text calls-to-action to advertising is probably one of the simplest ways to make the sales process easier for them, enabling them to react instantly to advertising and purchase 'in the moment'."
 
Payment via text message has been successfully implemented in the US but txt2buy is the first offering of its kind to be available in the UK. The team leading txt2buy forward alongside Rabin includes a number of mobile commerce, marketing & retail experts, including the ex-Head of Paypal Mobile, Roy Vella.
 
Rabin believes that like with any new technology, there will be a period of customer adaption as market awareness spreads of the service, but that 2012 will be the year that mobile commerce soars in the UK.
 
"Mobile is such an integral part of consumers' lives that it is inevitable it will form a key part of future marketing campaigns. The current trials for the 'txt2buy' service are a great indication that the retailers recognise the need to explore this channel further and don't want to miss out on valuable incremental sales that can be gained simply by adding a text code to their advertising," adds Rabin.