It's important to know that SMS marketing is consent-based. For legal and privacy reasons you need to make sure to send messages only to customers who have explicitly agreed to receive SMS marketing from your store.

Shopify customers can subscribe to your SMS marketing program through a checkbox in the checkout section of your store.

Once the customer has provided the phone number, and agreed to receive offers via the dedicated sign-up checkbox, and complete the purchase process - they become SMS subscribers.

We'll walk you through the steps required to customize your checkout opt-in box for both new and existing Shopify customers.

Step 1. Go to Shopify Settings and click on Checkout (here you can make edits)

Step 2. To add a sign-up checkbox to your checkout, in the Marketing consent section, check Show an option to subscribe at checkout.

Step 3. Click Save.

Please note that, if you haven’t already done so, Shopify will require you to set up your terms of service and privacy policy in your legal settings for your store to be fully compliant. In order to do it, click on the link in the blue box above, or go to your Shopify Admin → Settings → Legal and insert the full compliance text in the Privacy Policy section, as shown below.

TEXT MARKETING NOTIFICATIONS

By subscribing to [CompanyName] text notifications, you agree to receive automated marketing text messages from us about our products and services at the phone number you provided when you subscribed, and that the messages may be sent via an automatic telephone dialing system or other technology. Message frequency is recurring. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE or QUIT to opt-out and HELP for customer support. You may receive an additional text message confirming your decision to opt out. You understand and agree that attempting to opt-out by any means other than texting the opt-out commands above is not a reasonable means of opting out.

Text Marketing Terms and Conditions:

We are using a text messaging platform, which is subject to the following terms and conditions. By opting in for our text marketing and notifications, you agree to these terms and conditions.
By entering your phone number in the checkout and initializing a purchase, subscribing via our subscription form or a keyword, you agree that we may send you text notifications (for your order, including abandoned cart reminders) and text marketing offers. You acknowledge that consent is not a condition for any purchase.
Your phone number, name, and purchase information will be shared with our SMS platform "TxtCart, LLC", an European Union company with an office in Sofia, Bulgaria, EU. This data will be used for sending you targeted marketing messages and notifications. Upon sending the text messages, your phone number will be passed to a text messages operator to fulfill their delivery.
If you wish to unsubscribe from receiving text marketing messages and notifications reply with STOP to any mobile message sent from us or use the unsubscribe link we provided you within any of our messages. You understand and agree that alternative methods of opting out, such as using alternative words or requests will not be accounted as a reasonable means of opting out. Message and data rates may apply.
For any questions please text "HELP" to the number you received the messages from. You can also contact us for more information. If you wish to opt out please follow the procedures above.

Step 4. Customize checkbox

From your Shopify Admin Settings go to Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit Languages → Checkout & System.

This is where you get to customize your checkout checkbox or edit the compliance language. You can fill in:

If you send abandoned cart reminders, this needs to be mentioned in the description. You can customize the language of SMS consent collection, while Privacy Policy and Terms of Service can be hyperlinked.

How it looks in the admin panel:

How it looks on your checkout page:

Both Privacy Policy links (#2 and #3 in the screenshot above) lead to the compliance text you added to the Legal section of your Shopify Admin. The same applies to the two Terms of Service links (#2 and #4 in the screenshot above).

Customers have the option to choose a different phone number, other than the one provided for shipping purposes.

Keep in mind that for the SMS marketing subscription preference to be saved, the customer needs to complete the checkout and finish their order. If the customer doesn’t complete the checkout process, they won’t be signed to your text marketing services, and no SMS messages will be triggered.

Here is an example of a checkout page with email and SMS subscription options:

If you are an existing Shopify customer and you want to switch to the new checkout opt-in method, just make sure to first remove all existing compliance content from your checkout page via Shopify admin.

Step 1: Switch the text "Email or mobile phone number" in the Contact information section to "Email" from Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit Languages → Checkout & System. Section: Email or phone label.

Step 2: Switch the checkbox text below from "Sign up for exclusive offers and news via text messages and/or email" to "Email me with news and offers" from Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit Languages → Checkout & System. Section: Accept marketing checkbox label.

Step 3: Remove the old consent copy above the footer of the checkout page Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit Languages → Checkout & System. Section: Checkout shop policies, subsection Privacy Policy.

Then, follow the setup instructions as if you are a new Shopify customer, as shown above.

This was a tutorial on how to set up and customize your Shopify Checkout Opt-in Box. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.