An SMS opt-in is a customer’s clear permission to receive marketing texts from your business. In Australia you need that consent before you send the first marketing message. You also need to identify your business in every text and give people a simple way to stop. Do those three things well and your list grows on permission, which is the only kind of list that converts reliably.
This guide covers what counts as consent, what each message must contain, where to collect opt-ins on an ecommerce site, how to word the consent, and how to set up welcome and abandoned cart texts without breaking the rules.
TL;DR
- Marketing texts to Australians need consent first. The ACMA recommends express consent, such as a ticked box on a form, based on clear terms.
- Every message must name your business and carry a working unsubscribe, honoured within 5 working days.
- Collect opt-ins at checkout, in pop-ups, on post-purchase pages, on packaging and in store, with SMS consent kept separate from email consent.
- A phone number given for delivery is not marketing consent, and a abandoned cart text needs a proper opt-in behind it.
- Keep a record of who agreed, when, how and to what wording, then track opt-ins by source.
Table of Contents
- What SMS opt-in means for an Australian store
- What counts as valid consent
- What every text must include
- Where to collect SMS opt-ins on an ecommerce site
- Write consent wording people understand
- Set up a welcome series that earns the second text
- Abandoned cart texts: consent first
- Measure opt-in growth and quality
- Our perspective on SMS opt-in
- Get SMS working inside a bigger growth plan
- FAQ
- Sources
What SMS opt-in means for an Australian store
Opt-in is the moment someone says yes to marketing texts from you. The text you send straight after, usually a welcome message, confirms the subscription and delivers whatever you promised.
The legal backbone is the Spam Act 2003. The ACMA states that its expectations apply to any business marketing to Australian consumers by phone, email or SMS, regardless of size or turnover. A small Shopify store with 300 subscribers is held to the same standard as a national retailer.
SMS is also a personal channel. Your customer reads it on the device in their pocket, so a text they did not ask for does more damage to trust than an unwanted email. Clean consent protects you from regulators and it protects the relationship.
What counts as valid consent
The ACMA describes express consent as the person knowing and accepting that they will receive marketing messages. According to the ACMA, it can be given by ticking a box, accepting clear terms, over the phone or in person. Consent can sometimes be inferred from an existing relationship and the product being marketed, but the ACMA recommends express consent with clear, easily accessible terms.
Two practical points follow.
You cannot text someone to ask for consent. The ACMA’s guidance says a message asking for permission is itself marketing. Collect the yes on a form, a checkout, a call or face to face, not by a cold text.
Keep SMS consent standalone. Do not bundle it into email consent, and at checkout do not fold it into acceptance of your terms. A separate, unticked box is the cleanest design. It also gives you better data, because everyone on the list chose to be there.
For a deeper pre-send review, our six step SMS compliance checklist walks through the rules in order.
What every text must include
Consent gets you in the door. Each message then has to meet three requirements.
Identify your business
The message must make clear who sent it. If someone else sends on your behalf, it must still identify you as the business that authorised it, using your legal business name or your name and ABN, and that detail must stay correct for at least 30 days after sending.
Branded senders have a further step. business.gov.au says businesses sending branded text messages must be on the SMS Sender ID Register. If you are not registered, telcos and message providers label your messages as “Unverified”, which groups them with scam messages on the customer’s phone. For a store trying to build a list, that label undoes a lot of good work.
Give a working unsubscribe
The ACMA lists what the opt-out must do. It must present clear instructions, be honoured within 5 working days, cost no fee, cost no more than the usual amount for using the address, work for at least 30 days after the message is sent, and not require extra personal information or a login. See the ACMA’s full list.
In practice, “Reply STOP to opt out” at the end of the message does the job, and most platforms process it automatically. Process it instantly and you stay well inside the five-day limit.
Keep records
business.gov.au advises keeping a record of who gave permission, when and how. In practice we suggest storing the exact consent wording shown, the timestamp, the source (checkout, pop-up, QR code) and the phone number. If a customer disputes how they got on your list, that record is your answer.
Where to collect SMS opt-ins on an ecommerce site
The ACMA confirms consent can come from a form, a ticked box on a website, a phone call or a face-to-face sign-up. That leaves a lot of room for ecommerce touchpoints. Here is how we rank them for most stores.
| Touchpoint | Why it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout | Highest intent: the customer is already handing over details | Box must be separate and unticked |
| Pop-up or flyout | Catches visitors who leave before checkout | Show the offer and the consent wording together |
| Post-purchase page | A warm audience that just bought | Keep the ask short |
| Order confirmation email | Reaches buyers who skipped the checkout box | Link to a sign-up form, not a pre-filled text |
| Packaging QR code | Turns unboxing into a sign-up | Landing page must carry consent wording |
| Text-to-join keyword | Works on social, in store and on signage | Display consent language beside the keyword |
| In-store sign-up | Face-to-face consent is valid | Record it at the time |
Checkout
Checkout is where most stores should start. Add a short line explaining the value (early access, order updates, offers), then a separate unticked box. Do not make it a condition of purchase.
Pop-ups and flyouts
An exit-intent pop-up offering a first-order discount captures people who would otherwise leave. Ask for the phone number first, then show the consent line under the button. Keep the form to one field if you can. If you also run an email pop-up, consider a two-step flow that asks for email, then offers SMS as an extra with its own consent.
Lead magnets
A guide, quiz result or size finder can earn a phone number if the value is clear. Our lead magnet playbook maps magnets to pages and automations, so each sign-up lands in the right flow.
Check your cookie and tracking setup
SMS consent and tracking consent are separate things, but they often sit on the same page. If you measure sign-ups with pixels, review your cookie consent setup so your banner and your reporting agree.
Write consent wording people understand
Good wording is plain, specific and short. Cover four things:
- What they will get: marketing texts, cart reminders, order updates.
- Who is sending: your store name.
- How often: a rough frequency, for example “up to four a month”.
- How to stop: Reply STOP.
A workable template for an Australian store:
I agree to receive marketing and cart reminder text messages from [Store Name], up to [number] a month. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. Our privacy policy is at [link].
Place it directly beside the box or button, not behind a link. Link the privacy policy and terms for readers who want detail.
A phone number entered for delivery updates is not marketing consent. If your checkout collects a number for courier notifications, the marketing box is a separate question, and only the people who tick it receive promotions.
Set up a welcome series that earns the second text
The welcome message is your first impression, and it confirms the opt-in. We build welcome series short, usually two to four texts across the first couple of weeks.
- Immediately: thank them, name your store, deliver the promised code or perk, and say how often you will text and how to stop.
- A day or two later: remind them of the offer and show a bestseller.
- Three to five days later: add social proof, such as a review of that bestseller.
- Seven to ten days later, optional: a final nudge to subscribers who have not bought.
Stop the series the moment someone purchases, and keep each message to a sentence or two with one link. Send from a registered sender ID so the messages arrive branded, not “Unverified”. Ask people to save your number as a contact if your platform supports a contact card.
If you already run an email welcome flow, line the two up so a subscriber on both channels does not get the same offer twice. Our email welcome flow templates and launch plan show the email half of that sequence.
Abandoned cart texts: consent first
Cart recovery by SMS is one of the highest-value uses of the channel, and it is where consent mistakes happen most. The key point: a cart reminder is a promotional message, so it needs an opt-in behind it.
A shopper who only abandoned a cart has not clearly agreed to receive texts. The safe design is to send cart reminders only to people who ticked the SMS marketing box, either at checkout or earlier through a pop-up. Everyone else gets email only.
A sound cart flow looks like this:
- Send the first text within an hour or so, while intent is fresh, with a direct link back to the cart.
- Include your store name and the STOP instruction.
- Suppress the message once the customer buys.
- Prevent overlapping flows, so a person is not in the welcome series and the cart flow at the same time.
- Respect quiet hours and exclude anyone who recently opted out.
- Use discounts sparingly, so you do not train buyers to wait for a code.
Customers who reply STOP must drop out of all marketing texts, while transactional messages such as order confirmations can continue.
Pair SMS with email for carts. Email reaches people who never gave you a number, and SMS reaches opted-in people faster. Our guide to three abandoned cart emails covers the email side, and our SMS marketing for ecommerce guide covers the text side.
Measure opt-in growth and quality
A bigger list is not the goal. A list that buys and stays subscribed is. Track these:
- Acquisition rate: net new SMS subscribers divided by new orders over 30 days. It tells you how well checkout and pop-ups are converting.
- Source mix: which touchpoint (checkout, pop-up, QR, keyword) brings the most subscribers, and which brings the ones who buy.
- Opt-out rate per send: a spike after a campaign tells you the message or frequency missed.
- Click and reply rates: these show whether the content is wanted.
- Revenue per subscriber by source: this separates high-quality sign-ups from discount hunters.
Review each automation’s trigger, delay and copy before it goes live. Keep transactional and promotional journeys separate, and remove people from a flow once the message no longer applies. Then test one variable at a time: the incentive, the form position, the wording.
Our perspective on SMS opt-in
Most stores treat the opt-in as a compliance chore and then wonder why the list never earns. We see it the other way round. The opt-in is the first piece of copy your customer reads about your texts, and it sets the tone for everything after.
When we build SMS into an ecommerce strategy, we start with the touchpoints: checkout, the pop-up, the post-purchase page. We write consent wording that a customer could repeat back to you. Then we connect it to a short welcome series and a cart flow, with measurement from day one so we know which source pays back.
This is hands-on work. Our senior strategists do it with you, they do not outsource it, and every plan is built around the specific obstacle holding your revenue back. Clean consent is not a brake on growth. It is what makes a text channel something you can lean on for years.
Liza
Get SMS working inside a bigger growth plan
SMS performs best when it sits alongside email, ads and a site that converts. If you want that built around your store, our 12 Week DOUBLE Your Revenue Challenge is a structured, mentored programme for eCommerce brands that want to scale. You can also see everything we do for eCommerce brands, from email and SMS growth marketing to advertising and conversion work, on the Moor Marketing home page.
Tell us where your opt-ins come from today, and we will show you where the biggest gains sit.
FAQ
Do I need consent to send marketing texts in Australia?
Yes. The ACMA says you must have the recipient’s consent before sending marketing messages, and it recommends express consent based on clear terms. Keep a record of who agreed, when and how. This applies to every business, whatever its size.
How long do I have to honour an unsubscribe?
You must action an opt-out within 5 working days, and the unsubscribe option must work for at least 30 days after the message is sent. It must be free and must not require extra personal details or a login, as set out on the ACMA’s Avoid sending spam page. Most stores process STOP replies instantly.
Can I text someone to ask them to opt in?
No. A message asking for consent counts as marketing in itself, so you need the permission first. Collect it on a form, at checkout, by phone or in person instead, as the ACMA explains.
Do I have to register a sender ID?
business.gov.au says businesses sending branded text messages must register on the SMS Sender ID Register. Without registration, telcos and providers label your messages “Unverified”, which puts them alongside scam messages.
Can I send abandoned cart texts to anyone who reaches checkout?
Send them only to customers who ticked your SMS marketing consent. A phone number provided for delivery is not marketing consent. Everyone else is better served by an abandoned cart email.
Sources
- Dealing with spam | ACMA
- Consent expectations for businesses using direct marketing | ACMA
- Avoid sending spam | ACMA
- Promoting your business by email or text messages | business.gov.au
