Textual

Textual operates a text-to-buy (messaging commerce) platform that allows consumer brands to sell products directly inside SMS conversations. Subscribers who register through a brand-styled sign-up page can store a payment profile with Textual and then complete a purchase by replying "YES" or with a quantity to an offer text; subscribers without a stored payment profile are redirected to a QuickCart checkout page. Orders are processed in the cloud, inventory is reconciled, and orders are synchronized in real time into the brand's e-commerce system for fulfillment, with automatic updates to order statuses, fulfillment notifications and customer shipping addresses. Textual also provides its own order management system for smaller companies or for system reconciliation.

The platform's feature set includes subscriber acquisition tools (QR codes in store and on websites, phone-number registration, display ads, social media, email distribution and import of existing SMS lists), a text-to-buy campaign wizard for manual, scheduled or automated campaigns, cross-sell/up-sell and nudge campaigns, automated flows such as welcome series and purchase-triggered sequences, audience segmentation by geography, source, status and purchase behavior, preference polling, standard promotional SMS, and a reporting dashboard with attribution and subscriber management.

Primary use cases marketed by the company are product drops and limited releases, on-demand product reordering positioned as a flexible alternative to subscriptions, and loyalty/VIP club programs used to move targeted inventory through an exclusive channel.

Founding story

Blu Atwood is co-founder and CEO; a third-party profile also lists Dom Ramirez as co-founder and CTO. Atwood began his technology career in New York and Silicon Valley at Yahoo!, then worked at advertising technology startups, agencies and online marketing companies, and spent 10 years as CMO and Head of Product at FiftyFlowers.com. The company says its approach grew out of years of running technology and marketing together and concluding that innovating the customer experience is the way to compete.

Business model

Textual sells its messaging commerce software to brands as a B2B platform, building the registration flow and campaign tooling for each brand and processing payments and orders on the brand's behalf; the company positions the channel as one where the brand retains its data, AI and margin. The public material does not state pricing terms.

Traction

The company publicly cites client results of 5%-20% conversion rates, 95% text message open rates, and 25x-90x ROI, and shows campaign examples with figures such as a 16.25% conversion rate, 633 and 1,289 units sold, and revenue amounts of $25,236 and $64,232. Named references include Estee Lauder, Oakland United Beerworks and FlowerHouse.