BigCommerce | SMS Opt-In Consent

When sending out abandoned cart recovery messages, you need to ensure that only customers or guests who have opted-in will receive these messages.

When you install the BigCommerce/MessageMedia Integration, there's a step during setup where you'll be prompted to set up a checkbox at the checkout that allows your customers to opt-in to SMS marketing. This will then instruct our integration to check for the customer's consent before sending any SMS marketing messages.

There are three options for obtaining opt-in consent:

1. Option 1 - Your region may require you to only send SMS marketing to recipients that have opted-in specifically to SMS marketing.
2. Option 2 - Your region may allow you to send SMS marketing to recipients that have opted-in to marketing in general, without the need to specify that it'll be SMS marketing.
3. Option 3 - Your region may allow you to send SMS marketing to recipients that have provided inferred (or implied) consent, without the need for them to specifically opt-in to any marketing correspondents.

Option 1: Send SMS to customers that have explicitly opted-in to SMS Marketing

To create an opt-in checkbox at checkout specifically for SMS Marketing, toggle the button for SMS marketing opt-in. You'll then be asked to provide the URLs for your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy - providing this information is mandatory as it will be linked via the SMS Marketing consent terms at your store checkout.

Once you've provided your terms of service and privacy policy, click on Connect:

Now when your customers are at the checkout, there should be an option to opt-in to SMS Marketing: 

It'll be a checkbox with consent terms for SMS Marketing that will look like this:

Note - you can see in blue text where your Privacy Policy and Terms of Service have been linked.

Option 2: Send SMS to customers that have opted-in to General Marketing

To create an opt-in checkbox at checkout for General Marketing, the first thing you'll need to do is enable this feature in your BigCommerce store, then you can send SMS to your customers for abandoned cart reminders, upcoming sales, and lots of other fun marketing stuff.

To do this, log into your BigCommerce store in a new tab/window, select Settings in the navigation menu, and under the General heading you can click on Miscellaneous:

Under the Email Settings heading, find where it says Require Consent and make sure you tick the checkbox:

Now that you've got the BigCommerce side of things sorted, circle back to the tab/window where you're setting up the integration and toggle the button for General marketing opt-in. Then check the box to confirm that you've activated the checkout opt-in for BigCommerce, click Connect and you're done:

Now when your customers are at the checkout, there should be an option to click the checkbox and opt-in to General Marketing:

Option 3: Send SMS to customers that have provided Inferred Consent

If your regional legislation allows, you can automatically opt-in your customers using Inferred (or Implied) Consent. This means that by the customer willingly providing you with their phone number, they have consented to the reasonable expectation that they will receive SMS Marketing - without the need to expressly opt-in to SMS or General Marketing.

To automatically opt-in your customers using inferred consent, all you have to do is toggle the button for None, then click Connect: