How to Leverage RCS for Ecommerce Success in 2024: A Guide

Consider yourself as an e-commerce business owner. As someone operating in a very competitive market, constantly engaging your customers is crucial for driving interactions and repeat business. 

In order to achieve that, you need to implement a multi-channel outreach and sales engagement strategy that encompasses various avenues to let you stay in touch with your customers. And one of the channels that you need to include in your infrastructure. 

RCS can allow you to communicate with your customers in a robust way. As the next evolution of SMS messaging, RCS brings rich media, interactive features, and enhanced engagement to mobile messaging, making it a powerful tool for your e-commerce store looking to boost customer interaction and improve conversions. 

With that said, in this guide, I’ll explore how RCS can be leveraged for e-commerce in 2024, the benefits it offers, and how you can integrate it into your business strategy. 

What is RCS Business messaging?

RCS Business messaging is an advanced form of mobile messaging that combines the features of traditional SMS with interactive multimedia capabilities. It allows businesses to send rich content messages to customers, including high-quality images, videos, carousels, buttons, and more, all within the messaging app. 

It essentially turns messaging into a mobile web experience but stays within the comfort and familiarity of a phone’s messaging app. It bridges the gap between traditional text messages and app-based communication, offering both simplicity and advanced features. 

Why should you use RCS?

As I mentioned above, e-commerce is a cutthroat market, and to stand out from the crowd, businesses are constantly searching for ways to engage their customers. RCS provides numerous unique ways using which digital stores can look more appealing than their physical counterparts. Some of the benefits of using RCS include:

Improved engagement

RCS messages have the ability to better engage customers because of their eye-catching images and interactive elements, making them a step above common text messages. 

Using RCS, you can highlight your offerings with the help of multimedia-rich cards, videos, stickers, and GIFs. Plus, interactive components like CTAs or carousels can direct customers through the stages of the sales pipeline, thereby streamlining the shopping experience. 

Higher conversion rates

Since RCS works from the same messaging app as SMS, it enjoys the 98% opening rates as traditional messages. However, due to its modern engagement functionality and giving customers the ability to directly take action from the message, RCS reduces friction in the buyer’s journey. 

For instance, by sending tailored product suggestions to your customers, they can browse through your offerings and complete the checkout—all from the comfort of the messaging app. 

Enhanced customer support

With the real-time chatting capabilities of RCS, you can use the channel to offer quick customer assistance. Your audience can reach out to you over RCS and send their questions, problems, and concerns. 

Since these messages are part of a single chat window, you can easily access past communication and see how well the conversation is progressing. 

Build customer trust

Unlike SMS where you cannot tell who is sending you the message, RCS messages require you to verify your business profile before you can start connecting with your customers. This authenticates your business and lets your customers know that you are a legitimate brand. 

This RCS verification builds trust amongst your customers as they don’t have to worry about being scammed, thereby increasing engagement and boosting your bottom line.

How to utilize RCS in e-commerce

Now, that you are aware of the benefits of RCS, let’s look at the ways to use it to enhance your overall business and bring in more deals. For example, you can use multiple kinds of RCS messages to handle different e-commerce situations. So, let’s get into it!

Promotional messages

The primary use case of RCS for e-commerce is the capability to run marketing campaigns to promote your products in a personalized manner. With RCS marketing initiatives, you can send interactive, media-rich messages to encourage customers to make a purchasing decision directly from the message.

Furthermore, you can tailor your outreach with exclusive discounts and limited-time offers to drive more sales. By using product carousels, you can showcase your offerings, allowing customers to swipe through and click on the ones they are interested in.

Abandoned cart recovery

One of the biggest issues in the e-commerce space is the abandoned carts. Almost 70% of customers add items to their carts and leave without completing the checkout. 

So, reminding customers with visually appealing messages about their abandoned cart items along with a purchase button can allow customers to complete their orders quickly. 

On top of that, you can provide real-time assistance to customers using the same chat thread, addressing potential sales objections and reducing friction across the final stages of the sales process. 

Order tracking & delivery updates

You can provide detailed order updates using RCS to inform customers about the live status of their shipments. You can send interactive messages to let your customers monitor when they can expect their order to arrive. 

These messages highlight your eagerness to provide all-round customer satisfaction and make the shopping experience enjoyable for your customers. 

Additionally, RCS is integrated with other Google apps like Maps. This way, customers can use this capability to see the current location of their package and identify points of interest on the map. 

Product recommendations

Another great way to make use of RCS is to suggest personalized product recommendations based on purchasing history and browsing behaviors. These kinds of relevant suggestions have a higher chance of getting a conversion as customers already bought or interacted with similar products. 

You can also offer bundle deals, where you group together multiple products that complement each other and send them to your customers. These deals allow you to cross-sell your products while also providing value to the customer. 

For example, if someone purchased a phone from your store, you can offer accessories like a phone case, screen protector, or earbuds to your bundle. 

Loyalty programs

You don’t always have to reach out to customers with potential selling opportunities. Sometimes it can be beneficial to show your appreciation and gratitude towards their long-standing trust in your brand. 

Having said that, RCS can be an effective tool for nurturing customer relationships and building rapport to help you get more sales.

For example, you can implement a loyalty program, where your customers can earn points or milestones that they can redeem to unlock special perks or exclusive privileges. 

Using RCS, you can inform customers about the milestones and loyalty points they have accumulated in an engaging manner. You can also celebrate redemptions using visually appealing images and GIFs. 

Gathering feedback

Using the interactive elements of RCS, you can run polls and send surveys to capture customer feedback. This feedback will enable you to make the changes that your customers want to see in your platform, resulting in increased customer lifetime value. 

Sending questionnaires, surveys, and forms is a great way to gather customer feedback. And since RCS can use the functionality of other native apps, your customers can submit their inputs straight from the messaging app.

Skyrocket e-commerce engagement and drive revenue with RCS

RCS is set to become a game-changer for e-commerce companies in the coming years. Its rich features, interactivity, and ability to engage customers in new ways make it a valuable tool for driving sales, improving customer satisfaction, and enhancing the overall performance of your operations. 

As adoption continues to grow and now Apple supports RCS with the latest launch of iOS 18, it is time for you to explore how RCS can be integrated into your marketing and customer service strategies.

By staying ahead of the curve and leveraging the power of RCS, you can create more effective communication with your customers, allowing you to establish solid relationships and obtain long-term success for your online store.