The Power of SMS for Cart Abandonment

Imagine your sales numbers reflect one-third of your potential. If you can convince those that got away, the opportunities are endless.

Cart abandonment is a common term in the eCommerce universe. Some online shoppers add an item to their checkout shopping cart, then, for whatever reason, drop out of the process before finishing the purchase or transaction. These items are considered ‘abandoned’ by the shopper.

60-80% of shoppers abandon their carts before they buy. That’s why eCommerce businesses, especially those in retail, have made friends with cart abandonment emails. As a response to this challenge, marketers have found these savvy emails help recover lost sales.

SMS for abandoned cart messages

Most of us have our phones within arms reach throughout the day. That’s why people are more likely to check their phone rather than emails. The open rate for SMS is 98% and, on average, 90% of messages get opened within 3 minutes, compared with 90 minutes on email.

All these numbers make SMS a mighty and responsive tool. With a CTR of 36%, it’s a no-brainer to include SMS in your cart abandonment strategy.

The benefits of abandoned cart messages

Customers abandoning your product or service is a bad thing, right? The irony is – it’s a great way to recover sales and enhance revenue and conversion rates. Ultimately, cart abandonment allows you to keep connected to interested prospects, reducing the costs of getting new ones.

Cart abandonment messages also provide an opportunity to personalise your content for your customers. Personalisation makes your customers feel important; re-engaging with the people who abandoned their cart lets you develop a relationship. With more relevant communication, your business becomes thoughtful and unique – this ups trust and results in more loyal customers who make future purchases.

There’s another positive – automating, rather than relying on manual messaging, saves loads of days and dollars. In one communication, you can connect with forgetful customers to remind them of their item of interest, assist the hesitant by suggesting other suitable items, or incentivise price-driven people. If you add in something customer-unique, your SMS message can increase the recovery rate even more.

SMS messages are a way to be curious about your abandoners. When you know why they left, you can find a solution and stop them from abandoning again for the same reason. Discover this in your way, whether that’s by asking straight out, getting them to fill out a survey or providing ways to contact you: email, phone, live chat.

How SMS and Email work together

These two marketing machinations make a superb team. As permission-based means, these approaches allow you to interact and personally address your target audience.

Emails are great for long-form content; include additional information and benefits of their abandoned item and products that would complement their purchase. SMS on the other hand are short and to the point; provide a quick call to action and a limited-time offer to encourage your interested prospects to complete their purchase. By leveraging both channels, you can ensure that the interested product is top of mind and make the purchase process easy and efficient.

SMS and email can also be used to build a relationship with your customers post-purchase. Use email for regular newsletters, product launches, or big announcements, then use SMS to complement your email content.

Give your customer’s a heads-up via SMS; let them know what to expect from an incoming email. This way, you can use more words than just your email subject line, and if there’s no scrolling – it’ll get read.

Let insights from your email list influence you; as your marketing expands, you’ll find out what content evokes conversion and interest. Use these a-ha moments to pinpoint and personalise SMS messages from the get-go.

SMS templates for abandoned carts

Be helpful. When a customer abandons their purchase, there could be a myriad of reasons. Your SMS could be the friendly elbow they need to finish their order.

Here are 5 simple templates that can help you push them over the purchasing finish line.

1. Universal template

2. Add a sense of urgency

Stir up a sense of priority. Let customers know the product they’ve got their eye on is short-lived. With a timeline put on the purchase, they’re more likely to follow through.

3. Add some personality

Make your copy stand out. If your texts are all same-same, there’s nothing to catch attention and create a connection with wit or creativity. Think outside the boring.

4. Use the power of social proof

Use reviews and social proof. There’s no better way to convince customers to act. Let them know the people they value, value your product or service.

5. Include an incentive

To up the ante – think about including an incentive. Offering to put the icing on the cake can have a surprising influence. Make sure what you offer is what those customers want.

Make abandoned cart work for you

If you’re in retail, you probably use Shopify and are no stranger to cart abandonment. The capacity to harness SMS to communicate directly with lost customers allows you to get them back on-side. Zapier can help here: it connects Shopify and Burst SMS accounts so you can trace and send customised SMS messages to complete their purchase.