How cross-channel orchestration and the rise of text messaging shaped BFCM 2025

This BFCM showed a simple truth: shoppers don’t experience email and text as separate channels. They move between them as they browse, compare, and decide what to buy. Brands that embraced true cross-channel orchestration reaped the biggest gains.

Klaviyo’s data shows this was a moment when shoppers didn’t just browse across channels. They bought across them, too. This points to a future of commerce where both discovery and buying are orchestrated and omnichannel. 

And text messaging is emerging as one of the most powerful conversion tools in that mix.

Cross-channel shoppers become BFCM’s MVPs

The data couldn’t be clearer: shoppers who received both email and text (including SMS and RCS) over BFCM were dramatically more productive than their single-channel counterparts.

Sending both email and text to the same customers gave brands more chances to show up at the right moments, supporting discovery, following up on intent, and helping their customers move seamlessly from browsing to buying.

And that played out in the data. Cross-channel shoppers:

• Placed 11% more orders
• Added 34% more items to cart
• Viewed 71% more products

Each channel has a role to play:

• Email drives discovery, browsing, and consideration.
• SMS and RCS delivers immediacy, is conversational, and closes the gap between intent and purchase.

When you use them together, these two channels create a shopping journey that supports a consumer on their path to purchase, rather than pressuring them. 

Text messaging takes off, and shoppers respond faster than ever

If there was one breakout channel of BFCM 2025, it was text. During the biggest days of the season, email and text messaging collectively drove 42% of GMV throughout BFCM. But text messaging’s singular rise was even more striking:

• Text revenue grew 25% YoY.
• Send volume increased 34% YoY.

Even as send volume increased, shoppers continued to engage and convert through SMS and RCS. The brands seeing the strongest results focused on timing and relevance, using text in moments of intent rather than as a constant broadcast channel. That discipline helped drive efficiency and revenue even as volume increased.

CRM-driven revenue powers the season

This year’s BFCM performance was nearly identical to our early-season forecast of 11.5% growth, and CRM channels were the force behind that outperformance. 

Email and text alone grew 15% and 25% respectively, easily outpacing other channels, which rose a more modest 8%. $2 of every $5 spent with Klaviyo customers this BFCM came from CRM channels.

Why cross-channel orchestration won this year

Several forces converged to make cross-channel orchestration the winning strategy of BFCM 2025:

1. Shoppers are browsing more and buying smarter

Shoppers spent more time evaluating options before buying, often comparing products across multiple channels and touchpoints.

Product views were up 41% across the BFCM period, with product views per order up 28%. Consumers are comparing products across channels, tabs, and devices, and text messaging is the best way to meet them exactly where that decision is happening.

2. Brands are leaning into relationship-building

Repeat purchases grew nearly 14% YoY. Brands used segmentation, early access, and VIP pathways to create more personalized journeys. This kind of relationship building is particularly effective over text, where shoppers expect messages to feel relevant and responsive. When a text feels generic, it’s easy to ignore, but when it reflects prior behavior and invites engagement, it builds trust quickly.

3. AI is changing the game

This was the first BFCM where AI meaningfully influenced how shoppers arrived at brand interactions. AI helped shoppers find deals, compare prices, and narrow choices earlier in the journey, often before they engaged directly with a brand. As a result, brands increasingly entered the journey later, when customers were closer to a decision.

In those moments, shoppers were not looking for broad promotion. They wanted fast confirmation or clear answers in a channel that was easy to return to. That shift is why more of these interactions are now happening over text, where the conversation can continue without interruption.

AI is also beginning to support these moments on the brand side. By helping scale responsive, conversational experiences within text, AI allows brands to keep pace with shopper expectations during peak periods, while still handing off to human support when needed. The result is a smoother path from decision to purchase, without forcing shoppers to restart the conversation.

4. Mobile is now a default buying path

Many shoppers now complete the entire journey–from discovery and comparison to purchase—on mobile. But the critical shift isn’t just where shoppers browse. It’s how they expect conversations to work in a mobile-first world.

Text messaging fits naturally into this behavior because it doesn’t require a persistent browser tab or an app window. Unlike mobile chat widgets, which are easy to lose in a sea of open tabs, SMS threads stay pinned in a shopper’s everyday communication feed. Brands can show up there with reminders, curated product suggestions, and time-sensitive nudges without interrupting the flow or risking conversation drop-off.

And with AI accelerating response times and powering smarter recommendations, SMS becomes more than a messaging channel. It becomes a real-time decision support layer that travels with the shopper across the entire journey. It is mobile, persistent, personal, and increasingly indispensable for the last mile of conversion.

Your new blueprint for peak moments

BFCM 2025 was defined by channel precision. Shoppers didn’t just open emails or click texts. They navigated seamlessly between them. They expected the journey to feel cohesive, and rewarded the brands that delivered it.