What this helps you do
Sending a Blast delivers your message to the phones and computers of everyone in the audience you pick, and by email to the customers who chose email. You can send now, schedule for later, or repeat weekly. The composer supports formatting, links and images (a photograph of the thing that arrived), up to three attached files (a class schedule or a lookbook PDF), a YES or NO reply the Hub counts, and Send a test to me so you see exactly what customers will receive.
When to use it
Use it for the messages a customer is glad to get: an unexpected or weather closure, a change of hours, holiday hours and order deadlines, something that just arrived or came back in stock, a limited run where the count matters, launch night, a trunk show or a class, first access for your loyalty tier or VIP list, a safety or recall notice your supplier asked you to pass on, and, among all of that, an honest sale.
How to do it
- Open Send, or start from one of the starter templates your Hub seeds for hours changes, closures, arrivals, limited runs, pickups, events, first access and holiday hours.
- Pick an audience: regulars, VIP, new arrivals, events and classes, sales, one store, or All Customers.
- Type the message and add a photograph of the piece. Attach the class schedule if it helps (up to three files, 5 MB each).
- For a limited run or a class, ask for a YES or NO reply and the Hub counts the answers, so you know how many to set aside before you open.
- Read the Delivery panel: one Blasts credit per customer on Blasts, one email credit per email.
- Click Send a test to me, then choose Send now, Schedule for later, or Repeat weekly for a what-is-new note.
- If you are sending to All Customers, confirm with your passkey or on your phone when asked.
Example
The power goes out on the block at nine on a Saturday. The manager picks All Customers, says the store is closed today, that anything on hold is safe and that Sunday is normal hours, and clicks Send now. On Tuesday the restock lands, so the same manager sends a photograph of the wall to New Arrivals & Restocks with a YES or NO reply, and holds twelve pairs from the answers before the doors open.
Good to know
- An immediate send is held for about a minute so you can cancel it from Sent & Scheduled; nothing is charged for a cancelled Blast.
- Delivered and read counts come from confirmed actions in the Blasts app, not from open pixels, so you know how many people actually saw the closure. A read is not an acknowledgement: ask for a YES or NO reply when you need one.
- Recurring Blasts, such as a weekly what-is-new note, are managed under Sent & Scheduled: pause, resume or delete them there.
- If a manager's Blasts require approval (Settings), their send waits under Sent & Scheduled until an administrator approves it.
- Write the holiday hours in October and schedule them for the week before. A scheduled send costs the same as one you type on the day.
- The Hub suggests the hour your Blasts are read most, based on the last 60 days.