RCS Business Messaging for Ecommerce: Is It Worth Switching From SMS?

Quick answer: RCS business messaging lets your brand text customers from a verified sender with your name and logo, with read receipts, buttons and product cards. On Klaviyo, a text-only Basic RCS message costs about the same as an SMS in most countries, and phones that can't receive RCS still get the SMS. So if you already send SMS, Basic RCS is worth setting up now. Rich RCS has to earn its higher cost in a test first.

Most brands we talk to have heard of RCS.

Very few have actually turned it on.

That's understandable. It sounds like one more channel to manage. It isn't. In Klaviyo, RCS takes over from SMS on every phone that supports it, and everyone else still gets the SMS. Same list, same consent, same flows.

Here's what RCS is, what it costs next to SMS, how to set it up in Klaviyo and where we think it's actually worth paying for.

By Emiel Dingemans, Founder of Magicianly

Updated November 2026

What Is RCS Business Messaging?

RCS (Rich Communication Services) business messaging is how brands send RCS messages to customers' phones. The message lands in the same messaging app as a normal text, but it comes from a verified brand sender with your name and logo instead of a phone number, and it can include images, buttons and product cards.

Google now calls its business product RCS for Business. You'll also see RBM, short for RCS Business Messaging. Same thing.

It works on RCS-capable phones: Android 5.0 and up, and iPhones on iOS 18 and up, on supported networks. Phones that can't receive RCS get a regular SMS instead.

For an ecommerce brand, three things matter more than the tech:

• Trust. A verified brand name with a logo looks a lot less like spam than a random number.
• Room. No brand prefix or opt-out line in every message, and emojis don't shrink your character limit.
• Data. You can see opens, which SMS never gives you. With a big caveat we'll get to.

RCS vs SMS: What's the Difference?

SMS is plain text from a number, and it works on every phone. RCS is a branded, richer text that only works on RCS-capable phones, with SMS as the fallback for everyone else.

What's the Difference Between Basic RCS and Single RCS?

Basic RCS is text only. Single RCS is the rich version, with images or video, buttons, rich cards and carousels. In Klaviyo you choose "Text only" or "Rich cards" in the editor, and the pricing category follows from what you build.

• Basic RCS: text only, from your verified sender, with read receipts. In the US it's billed per 160 characters, and a text-only message with quick actions (link or quick reply chips) is still billed as Basic RCS. Outside the US, quick actions or more than 160 characters turn the message into Single RCS.
• Single RCS: a rich card with an image or video and up to 4 buttons, or a swipeable carousel of up to 10 cards. Think of it as a mix of MMS and WhatsApp.

How Much Does RCS Cost Compared With SMS?

Basic RCS costs about the same as SMS on Klaviyo in most countries. Single RCS costs more. And Basic RCS can end up cheaper than SMS, because one RCS message can fit what SMS needs two segments for.

On Klaviyo's public pricing calculator (checked November 9, 2026), 10,000 US messages a month cost:

Same price per message. The difference is in the segment count.

Klaviyo's own pricing example uses a sale text that comes to 186 characters as an SMS, once the brand prefix and "Reply STOP to opt out" are added. That's 2 SMS segments. The same offer as Basic RCS, without the prefix and opt-out line, is 154 characters. 1 segment. At equal rates, that's half the cost of the send.

Single RCS is a different story. Under Klaviyo's legacy credit pricing, a US rich card used 3 credits, against 1 credit per Basic RCS segment. Before you build anything rich, check the Basic RCS and Single RCS rates for your plan and your countries in Klaviyo under Settings > Billing.

Klaviyo doesn't charge a fee to register an RCS agent right now, but says that could change.

Our full breakdown of rates, plan math and what each text really costs is in SMS marketing cost.

Which Format Should You Use: Basic RCS, SMS, Rich RCS or MMS?

Our default order is Basic RCS where it's available, SMS as the baseline everywhere else, rich RCS only in tests, and MMS almost never.

1. 1Basic RCS, where you can. Better branding and a better experience for about the same cost. Sometimes less.
2. 2SMS as the baseline. It reaches every phone, it's the fallback for every RCS message, and it's the control we test everything else against.
3. 3Rich RCS for moments that need visuals. Product launches, new collections, bestsellers, restocks, gift guides and product discovery. Test it against Basic RCS or SMS before you roll it out.
4. 4MMS, rarely. Now that rich RCS exists, we don't see much reason to pay MMS prices for an image.

The trap is thinking of it as cheap, better, best. Richer isn't automatically better. A carousel that costs more and brings in the same orders is just a more expensive text.

How Do You Set Up RCS in Klaviyo?

You create an RCS agent for each country in Klaviyo, get it approved by Google and the carriers, then switch it on. Plan for at least a month: Klaviyo says carrier review typically takes 4 or more weeks.

1. 1Make sure SMS is live in that country. You can't activate an RCS agent without an active SMS sending ID in the same country, because SMS is the fallback.
2. 2Create the agent. In Klaviyo, go to Settings > Text message > Sender information and add a country under RCS countries.
3. 3Build your brand card. Agent display name (up to 40 characters), logo (224 x 224 px), banner (1440 x 448 px), brand color, a short description, contact details, privacy policy and terms.
4. 4Register. Submit the agent for Google and carrier review.
5. 5Answer the emails. Google sends an authorization email to your brand contact. US registrations also get a verification email from Aegis Mobile, and UK brands have to send approval emails to the major carriers. Until those are done, nothing moves.
6. 6Activate. Once the agent is approved, you switch it on manually.

The full checklist is in Klaviyo's RCS setup guide.

For our SMS clients, the rule is simple: start the registration now. Not the week before a launch you wanted to send as a carousel.

What Changes in Your Flows and Campaigns When RCS Goes Live?

Once your agent is active, RCS becomes the default for every text in that country: campaigns, flows and conversations. RCS-capable phones get RCS, everyone else gets the SMS fallback. You don't build anything twice.

A few things to check before and after you switch it on:

• Keep the SMS fallback to 1 segment. It follows normal SMS rules, and part of your list will still get it. Klaviyo lets you edit the fallback separately, so strip emojis and special characters there. More on that in our guide to the SMS character limit.
• Move links behind buttons in messages with images. Plain text URLs aren't clickable in rich cards. That's also why Klaviyo doesn't copy images from existing flow messages into the RCS version until you edit them.
• Remove contact cards. RCS doesn't support them. Update those messages, or use a conditional split so RCS-capable phones skip them.
• Make it obvious it's you. Your RCS messages come from a new sender, in a separate thread from your old SMS number. On some iPhones they can land in the Unknown Senders folder. Say who you are early in the message.
• Consent carries over. SMS consent covers RCS, so you don't need to opt anyone in again. An opt-out from either one stops all texts. Klaviyo still recommends a short "reply STOP to opt out" line in your welcome message.

How Should You Measure RCS Performance?

Measure RCS the way you measure SMS: revenue relative to cost. RCS opens are a useful signal, but they're incomplete, and they can inflate attributed revenue.

• Opens are partial. Read receipts are on by default on Android and off by default on iPhone. Plenty of people will read your message without it ever counting as an open.
• Opens feed attribution. Klaviyo can credit revenue to an RCS open, with a 24-hour window by default. That's more revenue credited to texts, not more revenue caused by them. We explain why that matters in Klaviyo attribution.
• Click rates aren't comparable. RCS gets significantly fewer bot clicks than SMS, so a lower RCS click rate can simply be a more honest one.

Klaviyo itself recommends comparing placed order rate and revenue per recipient across formats. We add cost to that. Test Basic RCS against SMS on the same kind of send, and look at what each one brought in relative to what it cost. If rich RCS costs more, it has to bring in enough extra contribution to cover the difference, not just look nicer.

What Mistakes Do Brands Make With RCS?

1. 1Waiting until they need it. Approval takes weeks. Start before the launch.
2. 2Going rich by default. A carousel in every campaign costs more without proving it sells more.
3. 3Ignoring the fallback. Part of your list still gets SMS. A long, emoji-heavy fallback can turn into 2 or 3 segments.
4. 4Judging RCS by open rate. Most iPhones don't send read receipts, and opens can inflate attributed revenue.
5. 5Texting more because it looks nicer. RCS doesn't change which moments deserve a text. We still text for sale launches, last-chance moments, product launches and restocks, plus welcome and abandonment flows. More in our SMS marketing best practices.
6. 6Forgetting WhatsApp in the UK and Europe. For brands selling there, WhatsApp is a different conversation, which we cover in Klaviyo WhatsApp vs SMS.

So Is RCS Business Messaging Worth It for Ecommerce?

For most brands already sending SMS on Klaviyo, Basic RCS is.

• Basic RCS gives you a verified brand sender for about the price of SMS, sometimes less.
• SMS stays the baseline and the fallback, so keep it to 1 segment.
• Rich RCS is for launches, collections, restocks and discovery, and only after a test.
• MMS mostly isn't worth it anymore.
• Judge every format on revenue relative to cost, not on opens.

Start the registration now. If you'd rather have us set it up and test it against your current SMS, that's part of our SMS marketing service.

Richer isn't automatically better. It has to earn its cost.