Dataships Q3 2025 Retro: SMS Expansion, Smarter Compliance, and Accelerated Growth
The best growth infrastructure is invisible to customers and indispensable to brands. Q3 proved that doing consent right doesn't just protect you from regulatory risk—it unlocks revenue across every channel.
While the industry debates how to handle new SMS regulations and navigate shifting European privacy rules, we focused on a simpler question: what more can we do with compliance infrastructure to actually accelerate brand growth?
Here's what we built.
Closing the SMS Gap
SMS is now a core retention channel for US brands, but most were treating consent as a legal checkbox rather than a growth lever. We changed that.
Our Attentive integration launched with full SMS support, and customer demand immediately pushed us to add email. Brands using Attentive for their entire retention stack now see Dataships-driven audience growth across both channels—with every subscriber properly opted in and fully compliant.
More importantly, we brought our A/B testing capability to SMS. Brands can now compare their current setup against our optimized version and measure exactly how many additional compliant opt-ins they're capturing. When each SMS subscriber is worth $50 in LTV and Dataships drives 500 additional compliant opt-ins per month, that's $25,000 in monthly revenue potential—from infrastructure that takes minutes to implement.
Getting Smarter About Personalization
We're investing heavily in our rules engine and AI product offering. Soon, brands will be able to personalize consent experiences based on shopper behavior, geography, cart value, and purchase history. AI will optimize consent language in real-time, testing variations to maximize opt-ins while maintaining compliance.
This matters because one-size-fits-all consent doesn't work. A first-time browser in Berlin needs a different experience than a repeat customer in Texas. We're building the infrastructure to make that personalization seamless.
Navigating Regulatory Shifts in Real-Time
Q3 brought significant regulatory changes in two major markets, and we adapted immediately.
Germany relaxed email consent requirements from double opt-in to soft opt-in. German shoppers now see a pre-ticked box instead of the more restrictive double opt-in flow. This removes friction while maintaining full compliance—a meaningful win for brands operating in Europe's largest economy.
In the US, Texas SB140 went into effect on September 1st—essentially a stricter, more punitive version of TCPA. While our consent-first approach meant no emergency changes to our infrastructure, we expanded our service offerings to help brands navigate registration requirements. Anyone working with Dataships on SMS was already operating with the proper consent permissions.
This is the value of compliance infrastructure done right: when regulations change, you adapt, not rebuild.
The Numbers That Matter
Q3 was our strongest quarter in sales and pipeline growth:
- 30% quarter-over-quarter pipeline growth
- 30+ new brands implementing Dataships, including Loop Earplugs, YETI, Filson, Lovisa, Aurate, and BodyBio
- 15 million total consent records processed through our platform, up from 12 million in Q2
That's 15 million shoppers with their marketable status properly captured and documented. For DTC brands, we're becoming the essential layer between checkout and every marketing channel.
Building for Scale
Growth at this pace requires expanding the team strategically. We're hiring for two roles that reflect where we're heading:
US Partner Manager – Partnerships drove significant growth in Europe and are following the same trajectory in North America. This role will formalize programs with agencies and tech partners, accelerating our footprint across the US market.
US Account Executive – As we shift toward enterprise Shopify Plus brands, we need deeper strategic engagement. This role will guide larger DTC brands ($10M+ in revenue) through evaluation and implementation.
What's Next
Q4 is when everything comes together. Black Friday and Cyber Monday represent the single biggest opportunity of the year to convert peak traffic into consented, marketable contacts.
This is what Dataships was built for: ensuring every checkout during the holiday rush becomes a properly opted-in subscriber who can be marketed to throughout 2026 and beyond. We're working directly with our largest brands to maximize consent capture during this critical window—turning their biggest traffic days into their biggest audience growth days.
Beyond BFCM, we're exploring WhatsApp as the next frontier. As brands expand beyond SMS and email, WhatsApp represents untapped potential for consent-driven marketing—especially in markets where it's the dominant messaging platform. We're working through Meta's requirements and regional variations to capture WhatsApp opt-ins at checkout, opening up an entirely new channel for compliant, revenue-generating communication.
The thesis remains simple: compliance infrastructure should accelerate growth, not constrain it. Q3 proved that's not just possible—it's measurable.
Try Dataships for free and see how proper consent infrastructure translates into revenue.
Questions? Reach out to our team or connect with me directly.
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