When sending messages, whether for campaigns, abandoned cart recovery, or other notifications - it's key to ensure only customers and guests who have opted in to receive SMS marketing will be sent these messages. You can do this by selecting the correct consent option for your region when syncing contacts during installation.
Important: Before choosing inferred consent, confirm that this option is compliant with the legislation in your region and include an opt-out or unsubscribe option every message you send.
Inferred consent
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 correspondence.
Send SMS to customers that have implied consent
Inferred consent means you're choosing to treat customers as opted in to SMS marketing based on their actions, rather than an explicit sign-up. If a customer or guest knowingly provides their phone number, and it is reasonable for them to expect your store to use it for marketing messages, they can be considered subscribed. Even if they don't tick a check box or complete an explicit opt-in form, providing their umber with the understand that it will be used for marketing qualifies as inferred consent.
We recommend checking the guidelines for the locations that you operate/send within.
Explicit consent
Your region may require you to only send SMS marketing to recipients that have opted-in specifically to SMS marketing.
Send SMS to customers that have explicitly opted-in to SMS marketing
Explicit consent means you're choosing to only treat customers as opted in to SMS marketing if they have actively given their permission. This usually involves a clear action, such as ticking a checkbox or completing an opt-in form, to confirm they want to receive marketing messages.
To ensure that customers are able to opt into SMS and update the above field, you need to set up your checkout to collect SMS consent:
- In your Shopify store, click on Settings.
- From the left-side navigation, click Checkout.
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Scroll down to Marketing options and ensure the SMS toggle is turned on.
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Once you Save these settings, your checkout should display an option for your guests and customers to opt into SMS marketing.
When a customer opts in using the SMS marketing field at checkout, their Shopify customer record will be updated to show SMS Subscribed in their profile. The Sinch MessageMedia platform will then sync this contact as Subscribed in their record.
Although Shopify doesn't create a customer profile for guest checkouts, the Sinch MessageMedia platform still syncs their details to the web portal, including their SMS subscription status.
Opt-outs
If a customer opts out of SMS by replying STOP or clicking an unsubscribe link in a Sinch MessageMedia message, their status in the Sinch MessageMedia platform will be updated to Unsubscribed. This change will also sync to Shopify, updating their customer profile to show SMS not Subscribed.