Acquisition gets all the attention...
But for FMCG brands, driving that second or third purchase can make the difference between a loss-leader and a flagship product.
And the fastest way to do it?
SMS.
It’s fast, personal, and already in every shopper’s pocket.
In this Telerivet article, we''ll show you how leading brands are using SMS rewards to turn everyday buyers into loyal customers - and doing it in just two weeks:
- First time purchasing vs repeat purchasing
- Why is SMS an important channel?
- The SMS play that rockets FMCG repeat sales
- Does the SMS rewards play work?
- How you can set up and run this play in as little as two weeks
First time purchasing vs repeat purchasing
Acquisition and repeat purchasing are two different games often run by different teams, using different tools, and requiring entirely different ways of thinking.
Acquisition is about visibility.
It's how you show up in the market, get noticed, and convert that first purchase. It’s loud, competitive, and usually built around promotions, packaging, and reach.
Repeat purchasing, on the other hand, sits closer to lifecycle marketing and customer success. A quieter discipline focused on long-term value.
The truth is, product quality is always the biggest driver of whether someone buys again.
But even great products can benefit from smart systems that keep customers engaged and make that second or third purchase easier. With the right nudge, a one-time buyer becomes a regular.
That’s where the economics shift.
It costs far less to retain a customer than to acquire a new one. And in FMCG, where margins are tight and the battle for shelf space never ends, even small improvements in repeat rate can unlock meaningful gains in profit.
Why is SMS an important channel?
SMS offers something no other channel can match: near-universal coverage.
Almost everyone with a phone can receive a text message, regardless of device type, data access, or location. For FMCG brands trying to reach broad audiences, that reach matters.
It also delivers the highest open rates of any marketing channel.
Messages are typically read within minutes, not hours or days. That makes SMS ideal for time-sensitive nudges, rewards, and reminders that influence purchasing decisions in the moment.
SMS also doesn’t have to operate in isolation.
With Telerivet’s automatic failover features, brands can combine SMS with channels like WhatsApp or Viber depending on the market. WhatsApp users can be reached on WhatsApp, while everyone else receives SMS.
If a message fails on one channel, it can fall back to another automatically, without teams worrying about delivery gaps.
Most importantly, SMS is a real-time, notification-enabled, personal channel. It’s part of how people communicate every day. That familiarity makes it well suited to repeat purchasing use cases, where consistency, timing, and trust are key.
The SMS play that rockets FMCG repeat sales
The mechanic is simple. That’s why it works.
A customer buys your product and finds a unique code under the bottlecap or inside the packaging. They text the code to a number, and in return, they get a reward. It could be a discount, mobile airtime, a digital voucher, or something else that drives them back to the store.
This isn’t just a one-time promotion.
Every redemption adds to your first-party database, giving you a direct line back to the customer. You can re-engage them with future discounts, product launches, or limited-time offers - all via SMS, WhatsApp, or Viber, depending on the market.
The result is a pattern. A simple, repeatable habit where customers know that buying your product means getting something extra.
It makes your brand more rewarding to engage with and much harder to walk away from.
Does the SMS rewards play work?
Yes - and the numbers back it up.
One leading FMCG brand used this exact SMS rewards play to drive repeat purchasing across Southeast Asia. The campaign was live in under a month and delivered measurable impact fast:
- $28.2 million in new retail sales
- 11.2 million additional units sold
- 526% increase in first-party customer contacts
- 24% reduction in cost per acquisition
- A rollout completed in just 2–4 weeks
The brand didn’t built loyalty and grew sales.
Customers redeemed rewards at an average rate of 86%, showing how well the mechanic resonated. Behind the scenes, the marketing team gained real-time visibility into campaign performance, regional activity, and customer behavior.
This wasn’t a one-off success.
It’s a repeatable playbook that FMCG teams can run again and again with new products, new markets, and better results each time.
How you can set up and run this play in as little as two weeks
Most FMCG campaigns take months to scope, approve, and launch. But with Telerivet, you can run a fully functioning SMS rewards campaign in as little as two weeks.
And yes, that comes with real-time code redemption, reward delivery, and data capture. Everything set up and ready to go.
That speed comes from experience.
Telerivet’s dedicated solutions engineers work directly with your team to design and deploy campaigns that are fast, effective, and fully optimized from day one. We’ll help you choose the right rewards, configure messaging flows, and ensure compliance with local regulations.
Telerivet is a complete communication orchestration layer. That means:
- A full-featured SMS platform with multichannel messaging
- Integrations with your existing connectivity partners
- Complete data ownership and visibility
- Built-in failover logic across SMS, WhatsApp, and Viber
- Full GDPR, SOC 2, and enterprise-grade security compliance
You don’t need to rip out what you’ve got. We plug in where it matters and help you go live fast. You can spend less time managing vendors and more time driving results.
Telerivet: Enterprise Orchestration for Revenue and Operations
Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, FMCG giants, NGOs, governments, cutting-edge tech firms, and universities in 150+ countries, Telerivet's cloud-based platform makes it reliable, resilient, and flexible to communicate at scale via text and voice.
Engage your audience anywhere
Ensure complete global service reach that supports large-scale communication via SMS, voice, chat, WhatsApp, RCS, MMS, and micropayments.
Trust our tech when you need it
High reliability for essential communication needs. A CPaaS built to thrive in challenging use cases, from small teams to large enterprise communication.
Tailored solutions for your needs
Create engagements and workflows that fit your needs and networks with our solutioning engine, APIs and campaign builder.
“Our lives are a million times easier because of Telerivet. We're growing exponentially, doubling our reach every year... and it's Telerivet's technology that makes this all possible.” - MyAgro
"The user interface is very intuitive and detailed, making it easy to set up. The few times we have required technical support, or had a query about a needed feature, the response has always been quick" - Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)
"One of the most important aspects of a tool like Telerivet is the user interface. We have hundreds of people across the region relying on Telerivet for their daily tasks, and we need to provide them with the most efficient way of accomplishing that." - Grab
Sign up now or contact us to chat about how we can help you implement reliable, resilient, and flexible communications.