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Attentive hit 620 million texts on Black Friday; Klaviyo sent 420 million messages (email + text) in just one hour that day. Building on last week’s Shopify announcement, they, along with Sinch, Infobip, and Vibes, all posted impressive year-over-year (YoY) growth. Attentive also recorded a 38% increase, and Infobip saw a 41% growth across SMS, email, and OTT channels. Postscript saw a 90% YoY increase in messages sent. While it saw a 230% lift in attributed revenue, Klaviyo customers using SMS generated $100M in GMV, a 20% YoY lift. These results not only set records this Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM) but also raised the bar for future holiday campaigns.
Eye-Popping SMS and Email Growth
Three hours after sending 420 million emails and texts in a single hour, Klaviyo recorded a peak order volume of 1.3 million orders. Attentive, Klaviyo, and Vibes confirmed that SMS outperformed email in both conversion (CVR) and click-through rates (CTR), with SMS nearly doubling the conversion rate. But this is not an endorsement of SMS over email. In fact, it is the opposite.
If the goal is to connect with consumers across all channels, then email acts as a yes-and margin multiplier when combined with SMS and other formats. Klaviyo observed that successful BFCM campaigns built micro-moments of personalized interaction by blending multiple channels. If nothing else, consider this: Infobip reported a 94% YoY increase in email, and Sinch saw a 33% gain, proof that a multi-channel approach works.
RCS Sees Triple-Digit Growth
Infobip reports a 349% YoY increase in RCS interactions, while Sinch posted a 111% gain. Triple-digit growth signals that RCS remains in its early adoption phase. Though RBM is not widely available across North America, it is expanding rapidly in the markets where it is supported, opening up greenfield opportunities for the messaging industry.
What We’re Learning
There’s a lot to learn about e-commerce, customer segmentation, user journeys, and the effect of AI from the Attentive and Klaviyo reports. For example, AI-assisted campaigns had a 23% lower opt-out rate; the sooner you start your BFCM campaign, the better your campaigns perform; and deep discounts are counterintuitive.
Finally
These results highlight the fundamental strength of the e-commerce use case. Of course, other use cases also have seasonal spikes. For instance, most North American HCM apps are currently seeing an uptick in 2FA and other step-up security notifications as employees log in to select their medical benefits for the new year. However, those spikes are predictable. In contrast, e-commerce and marketing use cases not only reflect customer buying behavior but also provide a peek into consumer sentiment.