Quick answer. Retail and e-commerce brands use RCS for product showcases, promotions, order and shipping updates, back-in-stock alerts, abandoned-cart recovery, and loyalty, all with carousels, full-resolution imagery, and buy buttons in the native inbox. The results are some of the strongest in the category: Mexican retailer Club Comex reported a 115% revenue increase moving its loyalty club from SMS to RCS, Nespresso saw a 2.3x higher click rate and 3.7x uplift in purchase intent versus SMS, and Clarins hit a 79% read rate with 22% click-through on a campaign.
Top use cases
- Retail promotions with RCS, branded carousels of products and offers with imagery, prices, and "Shop now" buttons, a storefront-quality promo in the inbox.
- RCS for e-commerce, order confirmations, real-time shipping/delivery updates with tracking and "change delivery," and back-in-stock alerts that drive immediate repurchase.
- Shopping-cart / abandoned-cart recovery, a rich reminder showing the exact product image, a limited-time incentive, and a one-tap "complete checkout", recovering carts that plain SMS or email miss.
In practice
An online store recovers abandoned carts with a branded RCS card showing the item photo and a checkout button, sends shipping updates with live tracking, and runs seasonal carousels. Real signals: Club Comex (+115% revenue, SMS→RCS), Nespresso (73% open rate, 2.3x click rate, 3.7x purchase-intent uplift), Clarins (79% read, 22% CTR), and Picard (click-through tripled, +42% engagement). In 2026, brands like Dooney & Bourke launched their first RCS marketing campaigns, a sign retail is moving in.
Key facts & results
- Club Comex: 115% revenue increase moving its loyalty club from SMS to RCS; CTR rose from <3% to ~8% (Infobip).
- Nespresso: 73% open rate, 2.3x higher click rate, 3.7x purchase-intent uplift vs SMS.
- Clarins: 79% read rate, 22% CTR on a campaign; Picard: CTR tripled, +42% engagement.
- RCS adoption surged ~111% during the 2024 BFCM season vs 2023 (industry data).