Text only the people who clearly agreed to receive marketing texts from your shop, in a way you could show someone later. A number written in an order book, on a delivery slip, on a raffle ticket or on an invoice was given for something else, and on its own it is not permission to send a promotion. When you are unsure whether a number counts, treat it as a no and check with ACMA, the regulator that enforces Australia's rules on marketing messages. Below are the places shops usually find numbers, and which ones you can use. It is a plain-language guide, not legal advice.
The rule in one paragraph
Under the Spam Act, a commercial text or email must be sent with the person's consent, must identify the business that sent it, and must carry a working way to unsubscribe. The guide on texting customers without annoying them covers all three. This one is about the first, consent, because that is where shops most often slip.
The Act allows two kinds of consent. Express consent is an active yes. Inferred consent can come from a relationship and the person's conduct, but it is a judgement call, and ACMA has said that a one-off purchase is unlikely to be enough. For a small shop, the sensible course is to rely only on express consent: the person did something clear that meant "yes, send me news from this shop". They ticked a box that was left unticked for them, signed up to a list that said it sends offers, or confirmed their own number to join a club that said members hear about specials. ACMA's guidance is that a box ticked in advance for the customer should not be used.
Going through the drawer
Here is how the usual sources of numbers sort out.
Special orders and pick-ups. The customer gave a number so you could ring when the order arrived. Use it for that. A message that says only "your order is ready" is part of the service they asked for. The moment you add a promotion to it, treat it as marketing, and if a message mixes the two, check with ACMA before sending.
Delivery and catering slips. The same. The number was for the delivery, not for a newsletter.
Invoices to business customers. A cafe that buys your bread wholesale has a number on your invoices. That is an account contact, not consent to promotions. The Act has narrow rules about business addresses that are published openly; do not build a marketing list on them.
Raffle and competition entries. Only if the entry slip said clearly that entrants would receive marketing from you, and the entrant chose that. "The winner will be contacted" covers contacting the winner and nothing more.
An old paper loyalty list. It depends entirely on what the form said. If it never mentioned messages, those numbers were collected for stamps, not for texts. Invite those customers to join again properly.
Numbers bought, swapped or borrowed. Never. Consent given to another business does not pass to yours, and the Spam Act also bans using lists built by software that harvests addresses.
Your own phone and your staff's phones. Knowing someone, even well, is not consent to send them your shop's marketing.
Social media followers and reviewers. Following your page is not agreeing to texts, and you do not have their numbers in any case.
"Text me when the mangoes come in." That is a clear request for one message, so send it. If they would like to hear about more, ask them to join your list; do not quietly add them.
People who joined your list by confirming their own number. Yes, for the kinds of messages the sign-up described, until they unsubscribe.
One more case comes up often. A customer who unsubscribed tells you at the counter that they would like your texts again. They can give fresh consent, but it should be given and recorded as properly as the first time. In Counter Club, a member who opted out cannot rejoin by themselves; they ask you and you email us to clear it, as how opt-outs work explains.
Keep a record you could show
If someone complains, you need to be able to show how and when they agreed. For each person on your list, you should be able to say where they signed up, roughly when, and what words they saw. A paper form with a date on it does that. So does a sign-up that records the moment a person confirmed their own number. In Counter Club, that record is the six-digit code a customer confirms on your join page, and no owner can add a number by hand.
The Do Not Call Register is a separate thing
Owners sometimes ask whether a number on the Do Not Call Register can be texted. That register covers telemarketing calls, not texts. A marketing text needs consent under the Spam Act whether or not the number is on the register. If you plan to ring customers to sell to them, different rules apply, so check with ACMA first.
A worked example: Cobbler's Row Butchery
Cobbler's Row Butchery is a fictional butcher with numbers in four places. There are 230 in the Christmas order book from the last three years, given so the shop could ring about pick-up. There are 75 on slips from a meat tray raffle, which said only that the winner would be phoned. There are 40 on catering invoices. And there are 160 members who joined the shop's club by confirming their own mobile, on a page that said members would hear about specials and orders.
That is 505 numbers, and the shop may send its Christmas text to 160 of them.
The owner is tempted. If one in ten of the other 345 numbers ordered a ham at $95, that would be 34 orders and $3,230. But none of those 345 people agreed to marketing from the shop, any one of them could complain, and a few would be annoyed enough to stop coming.
So the butcher texts the 160 in November. A sign goes on the counter, and as each order-book customer collects in December, the person serving asks if they would like to join the club for next year's order reminder. Of the 230 in the book, 190 come in, and 128 of those join, about two in three. The raffle slips are kept until the draw, the winner is phoned, and the slips go in the shredder. The catering invoices stay with the accounts.
By the following November, with ordinary joins through the year, the club has well over 300 members. Every one of them chose to be there, and the Christmas text reaches twice as many people as the year before.
Mistakes to avoid
"Just this once." A single send to the order book is still a send to people who did not agree.
Treating silence as yes. A customer who did not object to giving their number has not consented to marketing.
Burying consent in fine print. A line at the bottom of a delivery form about "occasional news" is not the clear yes the rules expect.
Assuming consent carries to your other business. If you own the cafe next door as well, the butcher's club agreed to hear from the butcher. Ask separately, and check with ACMA if you are unsure.
Adding someone "because they would want it". Ask them to sign up themselves. It takes them a minute and it protects you both.
What to do this week
- List every place your shop keeps customer numbers, and label each by what it was collected for.
- Set aside every number without clear consent, and use it only for its original purpose.
- Put a sign at the counter inviting customers to join your list properly.
- Write down how your list records consent, so you could show it if asked.
- Tell your staff never to add a number for a customer, and to ask the customer to join instead.