What is SMS Order Bumps?
SMS Order Bumps are post-purchase upsell offers delivered inside a text conversation immediately after a customer completes a text-based purchase.
What is SMS Order Bumps?
An SMS Order Bump is a complementary product offer presented to a customer immediately after they complete a purchase via text message. The offer appears in the same text conversation — the customer has just bought one product and is prompted to add another related item to their order.
Order bumps have long been a staple of ecommerce checkout pages (the "Add this for $X" checkbox), but SMS Order Bumps bring the concept into text-based commerce. Because the customer has just demonstrated purchase intent and their payment method is already authorized, the friction to accept an order bump is minimal.
The key difference from traditional upselling is timing and channel. The offer arrives seconds after a purchase, in the same text thread, while the customer is still in a buying mindset. They accept by replying — no additional checkout required.
How does SMS Order Bumps work?
After a customer completes a text-to-buy purchase, the platform automatically sends a follow-up message offering a related product. For example, after buying a bag of coffee, the customer might receive: "Great choice! Want to add a bag of our new Guatemalan blend for $18? Reply YES to add it to your order."
If the customer replies to accept, the additional item is added to their order (or created as a new order) and their stored payment method is charged. If they don't reply, nothing happens — there's no lingering cart or abandoned checkout to follow up on.
Order bumps are configured by the brand based on product relationships. A coffee brand might bump a different roast. A supplement brand might bump a complementary product. The offers can be personalized based on what the customer just purchased and their purchase history.
Why does SMS Order Bumps matter for DTC brands?
Average order value (AOV) is one of the most important levers for DTC profitability. Increasing what each customer spends per transaction directly improves margins. SMS Order Bumps increase AOV by presenting relevant offers at the exact moment a customer is most receptive — right after they've just bought something.
The psychology is straightforward: the customer has already committed to a purchase and is in a buying mindset. The effort to add one more item is minimal (just reply "YES"), and the product is relevant to what they just bought. This combination drives acceptance rates that are higher than traditional cross-sell emails.
Order bumps also improve the customer experience when done well. Offering a complementary product that genuinely adds value — a matching roast, a popular add-on, a limited-edition pairing — feels helpful rather than pushy.
Key points
Increases AOV
Post-purchase offers in the same text thread drive incremental revenue by catching customers while they're in a buying mindset.
Perfect timing
The offer arrives seconds after a purchase — when the customer is most receptive to adding a complementary item.
One reply to accept
No additional checkout. The customer replies to add the item, and payment is captured using their stored method.
See SMS Order Bumps in action with AudienceTap
AudienceTap is the text-to-buy platform that powers sms order bumps for DTC brands.
Related terms
Text-to-Buy
Text-to-Buy is a mobile commerce model where customers purchase products by replying to a text message — no links, no carts, no checkout pages.
Reply-to-Buy
Reply-to-Buy is a text commerce interaction where customers complete a purchase by replying to an SMS message — typically with "YES" or a quantity.
AI-Timed Replenishment
AI-Timed Replenishment uses machine learning to predict when each customer will run low on a product and sends a personalized reorder prompt at the right moment.
SMS Order Bumps FAQ
Timing and friction. An order bump arrives seconds after a purchase, in the same text conversation, while the customer is still in a buying mindset. A cross-sell email arrives hours later, competes with other inbox messages, and requires clicking through to a checkout page.
Yes. Brands configure order bump relationships based on their product catalog. You define which products trigger bump offers and which complementary items are presented. Offers can be personalized based on what was just purchased and customer history.
They simply don't reply. There's no abandoned cart, no follow-up sequence, and no pressure. The original purchase is already complete and unaffected.
Coffee brands on AudienceTap use order bumps to offer complementary roasts after a drop purchase. For example, after a customer claims a limited-edition roast, they might be offered a different blend or a gear item. This increases average order value without any additional checkout friction.
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