Harnessing Email and SMS Marketing Automation to Boost eCommerce Conversions
Discover how email and SMS marketing automation can transform your eCommerce business. Learn how to drive conversions with targeted, timely messaging strategies.
Published June 26, 2025.
Effective communication with your customers is crucial in today’s competitive market. Email and SMS marketing automation allows you to engage with your audience at the right moments, boosting conversions and building lasting relationships. By using the right marketing services, you can create targeted, personalized campaigns that deliver relevant content and support your merchandising efforts.
With the right strategy, your marketing efforts will be more efficient, driving both immediate and long-term success. This blog will explore how email and SMS marketing can enhance your engagement strategies.
» Learn more about the AI-based tools for email and SMS marketing
Meet the Expert
Courtney Sharp is a marketing and eCommerce expert. Her marketing agency, Sharp Media Agency, specializes in digital marketing, branding, ads, and social media, with a strong focus on fashion, retail, and beauty commerce.
What Is Email and SMS Marketing Automation?
Email and SMS marketing automation uses software to send timely, targeted messages based on user actions or set schedules. It helps streamline communication and improve engagement without manual work.
Email & SMS Marketing Automation
Use Fast Simon’s advanced customer data to make sure you’re sending the right messages to the right people—at exactly the right time.
» Read more: Should I use email or SMS marketing?
3 Ways Email and SMS Automation Can Transform Your Marketing Strategy
1. Timing
By targeting customers at key moments when shopper's intent is naturally high, email and SMS marketing automation works without you having to lift a finger. That’s the real benefit. You’re not just staying in touch, you’re hitting customers at the exact right time when they’re most likely to buy.
These flows work in the background—automatically nurturing leads and existing customers across their journey and bringing them back when it makes the most sense.
2. Personalization
Personalization goes beyond simply inserting the customer’s name in the subject line. With automation, you can tailor product suggestions based on what customers have browsed or purchased.
These personalized offers feel more helpful than sales orientated, which is why they convert far better than generic campaigns.
» Check out these best practices for personalized SMS messages
3. Segmentation
Manually segmenting your audience becomes overwhelming as you scale, and it's neither sustainable nor a smart use of your team's time. Email and SMS automation platforms solve this by dynamically segmenting your audience in real-time based on their actual behavior, such as:
- What they browse
- What they buy
- What they engage with
This means every message is more relevant, timely, and likely to convert—without the need to constantly pull lists and update tags.
» Learn more: Customer segmentation vs. personalization
4 Best Practices for Email and SMS Marketing Automation
1. Set Different Goals for Different Stages of the Journey
Contrary to popular belief, not every automation should aim to close a sale. Pushing a discount in every email or SMS is lazy marketing—it cheapens your brand and conditions people to expect it. Instead, build flows that guide customers forward naturally with helpful content, useful resources, relevant offers, and timing that actually makes sense.
For example, a skincare brand might set up different flows depending on the customer’s stage:
- A new customer receives a welcome sequence with info on how to build a routine, product FAQs, and real reviews—no hard sell.
- After their first purchase, they’re sent usage tips, ingredient spotlights, and a reminder when it’s time to reorder.
- If they’ve gone quiet for 60 days, a re-engagement flow checks in with a “How’s your skin doing?” message and recommends a new product based on their past order—before offering any discount.
» Discover how to create relevant personalized product recommendations
2. Use Personalization
Your workflows should feel personal, not templated. Use dynamic content blocks that adjust based on the customer’s purchase history, location, preferences, engagement, and more. For example, a high-value customer who just placed a big order should be nurtured differently than someone who hasn’t bought from you yet.
Smart personalization within automation shows customers you understand them, which can significantly improve key metrics like:
- Click-through rate
- Return rate
- Conversion rate
- AOV
- Lifetime value (LTV)
» Here are 6 techniques to personalize emails that drive customer engagement and LTV
3. Automate With Intent
To avoid overwhelming people, don’t just send messages on a fixed schedule. Start by adding smart delays between flow messages. This creates natural breathing room and lets customer actions—or inactions—guide what happens next.
For example, if someone doesn’t click an email, you might follow up. But if they visit your site, you could trigger a different message or remove them from the flow entirely.
If engagement is low or unsubscribe rates are rising, use your CRM’s built-in frequency caps. Exclude people who’ve already received an email or SMS in the past 24 hours.
4. Match the Message to the Channel
Whether it’s email or SMS, your opening line matters. It needs to grab attention and quickly show value.
Tailor the format to fit the channel. SMS should be short and direct with one clear CTA. Email can be longer, with visuals and extra context. The core message stays the same, but how you deliver it should match the medium.
For example, an email from a clothing store might use the subject line "Style Upgrade: 20% Off Jeans + How to Wear Them" followed by product images, quick styling tips, and a clear CTA.
An SMS from the same store might say: "20% Off All Jeans – Today Only! Tap to shop now: [link]."
» Understand how to use AI in personalized email marketing
Industry-Specific Email and SMS Marketing Automation Approaches
Product-based businesses
- Automation focuses on purchase intent and timing, using flows like abandoned cart reminders, post-purchase upsells, reorder reminders, and back-in-stock alerts.
- SMS is used for urgent, time-sensitive promotions, while email is ideal for education, storytelling, and personalized offers based on customer behavior.
Service-based businesses
- Automation is focused on building trust and ongoing communication, such as appointment reminders via SMS and treatment plan advice through email.
- Flows are timed around sessions or treatment stages, with messaging tailored to be personal and relevant to ensure customer engagement.
Smarter Email & SMS Campaigns
Launch personalized campaigns that drive conversions.
Reach the right shoppers at the right time.
Use behavior insights to craft timely, relevant messages.
5 Metrics to Track in Email and SMS Automation Marketing
1. Open Rate
Open rate helps you gauge how effective your subject lines and send timing are—especially for email. While it's not the most important metric on its own, consistently low open rates can signal deliverability issues or that your audience just isn’t connecting with your messaging.
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR shows how many recipients are actually engaging with your content after opening the message. It’s a strong indicator of how relevant and compelling your copy, layout, and CTAs are. If your open rate is high but CTR is low, your messaging might not match user intent—or your layout may need to be simplified to drive clearer action.
3. Conversion Rate
This is the ultimate success metric, measuring how many people complete the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, booking a service, or signing up. It reflects the effectiveness of your entire flow, including timing, messaging, the offer, and the landing page.
4. Unsubscribe Rate
Unsubscribe rate measures how many recipients opt out after receiving your messages. A high or increasing rate often indicates that you're sending messages too frequently, targeting the wrong audience, or providing content that doesn't resonate. Keeping this rate low is crucial for maintaining a strong subscriber list and ensuring your messages reach the right people.
» Understand how AI can improve conversion rates in eCommerce
Smarter Automation With Fast Simon
Fast Simon acts as an AI plug-in that enhances your marketing automation, directly integrating with common email and SMS platforms like Klaviyo. It allows you to trigger flows based on more specific shopper intent beyond basic behaviors, such as targeting customers who are browsing a collection or searching for a product.
This real-time data and precise triggers make personalization more accurate, ensuring customers are presented with products they’re genuinely interested in. The result is smarter automation, more relevant content, and ultimately, higher conversion rates.
» Ready to take the next step? Book a demo with us and learn more about our email and SMS marketing solutions
