50+ text message templates for marketing & ecommerce [2025]

Reading Time: 10 minutes

If you plan to send SMS campaigns or automations, then you need a text message template covering each touchpoint. 

I like to keep texts under 100 characters (even though I can use 160 in one SMS) and add my customer’s name to create a connection. My texts also have appropriate timing and frequency, clear opt-out instructions, and respect my customers’ contact preferences.

A crucial point to remember is that text templates should deliver important information as quickly as possible. If you want detail and granular content, do it in emails.

Join me below to discover 50+ SMS templates you can use, plus best practices for writing and sending texts your customers will appreciate.

What is a text message template, and why does it matter in ecommerce?

A text message template is a pre-written SMS that your marketing automation platform sends when triggered by customer actions like purchases or cart abandonment.

Text templates matter in ecommerce because:

• You need consistent messaging for order confirmations, shipping notifications, cart recovery, and promotions across thousands of customers
• Every marketing SMS requires compliance text, like opt-out instructions, that templates include automatically
• Customers expect instant updates at key moments — payment confirmation, dispatch alerts, delivery status — which SMS delivers faster than email
• SMS templates let you personalize at scale using merge tags like [FirstName] and [OrderNumber] without writing individual messages

I’ve found that SMS marketing is the best channel for flash sales, time-sensitive promotions, and cart recovery with VIPs. However, it’s most effective combined with email — SMS for fast engagement, and email for more detailed product presentations.

How to write a high-performing SMS template

Your customers scan text messages in seconds while walking, waiting in line, or between tasks, so your writing needs to deliver value instantly without requiring careful reading.

Follow these steps to create text message templates that encourage engagement:

Keep it under 160 characters

SMS splits into multiple texts after 160 characters, doubling your costs and confusing customers who receive half a sentence about their order, followed by the rest minutes later.

Start with what matters

“Your parcel arrives tomorrow” beats any greeting or context because customers glance at texts while doing other things. They want the news, not the newsletter.

Put deals and offers first

Phone notifications truncate around 40 characters, so “SAVE30 expires midnight” needs to appear before explanations about why you’re running this promotion.

Make personalization count

[[order.number]] and [[product.name]] help customers identify which purchase was shipped or what’s back in stock. [[contact.first_name]] could consume too many characters. Consider stripping unnecessary personalization in your post-purchase messaging if your texts are long.

Test your templates thoroughly

Different phones crop messages differently, shortened URLs might get blocked as spam, and tags can produce unexpected results. A quick test prevents embarrassing mistakes at scale.

Include required compliance text

TCPA regulations require your marketing texts to have opt-out language like “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”. Additionally, opt-out text prevents customers from reporting you as spam and blocking your number.

Watch this short video to discover more SMS template tips:

Marketing and promotional SMS templates

SMS is the fastest and most direct way to reach customers with marketing, offers, and promotions. Your marketing texts could include campaigns that you bulk send, or automations that trigger for subscribers who enter segments.

I use Omnisend to create text marketing campaigns and automations to reach customers at every stage of their journey. You can do the same and use segmentation to target people with unique offers that increase the chances of conversion.

Here are some SMS templates you can use in your efforts:

Flash sale SMS templates

Template 1

Template 2

Template 3

VIP and loyalty offer templates

Template 4

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Template 6

Back-in-stock or product drop templates

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Template 9

Seasonal promotion templates

Template 10

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Template 12

Transactional and confirmation text message templates

Transactional text messages trigger when orders, payments, and fulfillments update within your ecommerce platform. They should be concise, informational, and personalized with your customer’s name and purchase information.

Use these text templates to update customers about their order quickly:

Order confirmation SMS templates

Template 13

Template 14

Template 15

Shipping & delivery updates templates

Template 16

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Template 18

Appointment or booking confirmation templates

Template 19

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Template 21

Payment confirmation SMS templates

Template 22

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Template 24

Abandoned cart and re-engagement SMS templates

Customers who abandon their cart, checkout, or browsing session can automatically enter abandonment flows for retargeting. Your abandonment flows can include links to personalized shopping baskets or invite them to log in.

Omnisend has prebuilt email + SMS abandoned cart automations. I’ve found that email is the best channel for detail and product displays, and texts are best for the quick nudge that makes customers grab their phone and complete checkout before their items sell out.

Check out these text templates to bring customers back:

Cart reminder SMS templates

Template 25

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Template 27

Win-back/re-engagement templates

Template 28

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Template 30

Holiday and seasonal text message templates

Shopping events and seasonal occasions are enormous revenue opportunities for your ecommerce store. Texts can target your most highly engaged customers, such as those who were active in the last seven days, to generate sales.

These SMS templates will help you target customers with offers:

Black Friday templates

Template 31

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Valentine’s Day templates

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Christmas or end-of-year templates

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Template 39

Customer service SMS templates

Automated customer service text messages should only contain information relevant to your customer’s inquiry or your internal processes. Being as clear as possible, with templates that deliver information fast, will help you improve engagement.

For example, when I create SMS feedback surveys, I provide the scale customers should use in the first eight words to reduce friction around how long it will take.

Use these SMS templates to provide the best customer service:

Support ticket follow-up template

Template 40

Template 41

Template 42

Customer satisfaction request

Template 43

Template 44

Template 45

Order status inquiry

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Template 47

Template 48

Internal team communication SMS templates

It isn’t just customers who can receive text alerts — your drivers, store workers, chefs, and everyone else in your team can subscribe for updates in their day-to-day roles. For instance, you could send pickup requests to couriers.

Here are some SMS templates to get your internal communications started:

Shift reminder SMS

Template 49

Template 50

Template 51

Warehouse pickup notification

Template 52

Template 53

Template 54

Emergency team alert

Template 55

Template 56

Template 57

Best practices for using SMS templates effectively

Running successful SMS campaigns requires balancing legal requirements with what encourages engagement. Compliance keeps you sending, while strategy determines whether anyone reads your messages. 

These practices cover rules you must follow and techniques that turn template messages into revenue, helping you avoid regulatory fines and unsubscribes.

Personalize your SMS templates

Adding [[contact.first_name]] feels personal, but [[order.number]] and [[product.name]] provide utility — customers need to know which order shipped when they’ve placed three this week.

Omnisend’s personalization variables pull data automatically from customer profiles, so “Hi [[contact.first_name]], your [[product.name]] order ships today” becomes “Hi Sarah, your Blue Sweater order ships today.”

Test fallback values like [[contact.first_name|default: “there”]] to avoid blank spaces when data is missing. Remember, personalization costs characters. Sometimes, “Order #1234 successfully shipped” works better than “Hi Christopher-Alexander, order #1234 has shipped”.

Use short links and clear CTAs

Long URLs destroy your character count — nobody wants to receive “track at https://yourstoreeyet.com/tracking/2025/april/orders/12345678” when “track: om.sd/abc123” delivers the same information in a fraction of the space.

Test shortened links before campaigns launch, since some carriers block them as spam, leaving customers with dead links instead of order updates.

Landing pages must work on mobile since that’s where customers click from — if they can’t tap buttons or fill forms on their phone screen, you’ve wasted both the text and the click.

Respect timing and frequency

TCPA mandates quiet hours from 9 PM to 8 AM in the recipient’s time zone — your California customers shouldn’t get midnight texts because you’re sending from New York at 9 PM Eastern.

Most successful SMS programs send two to four promotional messages monthly, finding the balance between staying visible and becoming the brand people block. 

Transactional messages operate differently since customers track packages obsessively, but respect for sleep still matters.

Stay compliant with regulations

You need a separate checkbox explicitly stating that customers agree to receive text messages, not just “marketing communications,” which could mean anything. 

Document everything, including the date, time, consent language shown, and how they opted in, keeping records for four years. 

Add opt-out to all text templates, such as “Reply STOP to opt out.” One of my favorite Omnisend features is that it automatically processes STOP requests the moment customers reply, updating their subscription status across all lists to prevent any future SMS sends. 

It’s also good practice to avoid SHAFT (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco) content, and link to your SMS privacy policy wherever customers provide phone numbers.

Start sending effective SMS campaigns with Omnisend

Omnisend has native apps for Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix, and other ecommerce platforms for instant connection and customer data transfer.

For instance, I let Omnisend sync my customers’ order information and then create custom landing pages for VIPs with personalized product recommendations — my marketing texts then include a link to that landing page.

Its intuitive interface has no learning curve, and prebuilt automation templates get you started immediately with abandoned cart recovery, shipping notifications, flash sales, all ready to customize and send. Additionally, it has prebuilt email templates to save you design time.

Your email + SMS flows can trigger based on what customers do, such as browse a product, abandon checkout, hit VIP status, and more.

Unlimited segmentation means you can group your customers by who bought what, when they last ordered, where they live, and their engagement level, to send messages people want.

Built-in compliance keeps you safe with automatic STOP processing and consent tracking. Plus, you can see what’s working with reports that track clicks, conversions, and revenue per text, helping you send less while earning more.

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