How to Recover Abandoned Carts for eCommerce with SMS Marketing Automation?

If there's one scenario that every online store dreads, it is when a customer loads up their cart with products, gets ready to buy, and then vanishes! Shopping cart abandonment is a challenge that plagues many businesses, with 70% of carts being abandoned on average. 

But there’s good news—you can turn these abandoned shopping carts into revenue by setting up an abandoned cart recovery flow using SMS. 

Let's explore how you can set up a cart recovery strategy and recover abandoned carts using SMS effectively!

Why Send Cart Abandonment SMS?

Cart abandonment is a big deal for ecommerce and D2C brands. In fact, as per recent abandoned cart statistics, about 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned and on average only 5% of those abandoned carts, are recovered. 

That’s why the abandoned cart rate and cart recovery rate are some of the most important eCommerce metrics to track to gauge the health of your eCommerce business.

To recover these revenue losses, many ecommerce marketers use text marketing as their go-to marketing channel. With SMS open rates soaring at 98%, SMS marketing is the perfect tool for ecommerce brands to bring back lost customers.

It gives you a direct line of communication with your customers at a relatively low cost, making it an effective and affordable marketing channel to send timely and engaging abandoned cart recovery messages.

By using cart abandonment SMS in your abandoned cart recovery strategy, you’re not only maximizing visibility but also significantly increasing the chances of recovering lost sales. In an era where attention spans are short and inboxes are cluttered, SMS cuts through the noise and puts your message right into your customer's hand—literally.

How to Set Up Cart Recovery SMS Flow & Improve Conversions Using The Convertway?

Setting up an abandoned cart flow is very easy with our user-friendly automation flow on The Convertway. Our WhatsApp & SMS marketing tool lets you send personalized text messages to subscribers shortly after they abandon their checkout, encouraging them to return and complete their purchase. 

With The ConvertWay you can easily enable Cart Recovery automation via SMS by following these simple steps:

Go to Flows > SMS Tab > Abandoned Cart Recovery 

Step 1: Enable the trigger

Setting a Minimum Cart Value 

To trigger an Abandoned Cart notification, specify a Minimum Cart Value below which the alert will not be triggered.

For example, if you set the minimum order value at $100, customers who have added items below $100 will not be notified of an abandoned cart order. On the other hand, if the customer has added items worth more than $100 and abandons the cart they will be sent an alert.

You can also enable UTM tracking to track the sources of your website traffic and the performance of your abandoned cart campaigns by specifying the UTM parameters- utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign

Step 2: Define the Condition

Setup Delay

Now, define when you want to send the abandoned cart SMS to your customers. This is calculated from the time when the cart was abandoned. It’s best to send the first SMS within 30 minutes of cart abandonment.

Step 3: Creating the First Follow-up

Selecting the Right Abandoned Cart SMS Template

Enable the first abandoned cart follow-up and set it up by browsing through the abandoned cart message templates in the Templates field.

Choose among the pre-set abandoned cart SMS templates under the Browse field

Otherwise, you can create your own Abandoned cart SMS template by clicking on Add Custom Templates

Select Who You Want to Notify

Finally, select whom you want to send the notification to. With ConvertWay you can send notifications to your customers and simultaneously to yourself by enabling Notify Admin.

Step 4: Creating the Next Follow-up

The flow ends once the customer places their order, but in case they haven't, we've got two more engaging follow-up texts all set to go!

Select the time after which the shopper receives the second follow-up, this time is calculated after the first follow-up in the Delay field.

For example, after the first follow-up, we specify a period say 10 hours during which the customer should have placed their order if they haven’t then they receive the second follow-up and if they don't checkout even after the second flow for the stipulated time then a third follow up is sent.

However, if the customer makes the purchase after the first or second follow-ups the next ones aren't sent even if enabled.

Note: The time you choose is calculated from the time when the cart was abandoned, say you schedule the second follow-up at 10 hours then the customer will receive the follow-up 10 hours after cart abandonment.

Sending the Follow-ups Strategically

Send these follow-ups strategically by selecting the Time and Template. You have the flexibility to rearrange the follow-ups without any hassle.

For instance, if you prefer the sequence of second, first, then third, you can achieve this by adjusting the timings accordingly: the first one after 10 hours of cart abandonment, the second in 30 minutes, and the third after 72 hours of cart abandonment.

You can also disable a follow-up if you don't want to send it and send another follow-up directly after the previous one that too in any order.

Step 5: Analyze Your Performance

Want to know how effective your Abandoned Cart Recovery messages are? With The ConvertWay you can do it in just 1 single step!

Check the Number of Abandoned Carts Recovered with SMS

To check the performance of your Abandoned Cart Recovery Flow go to Analytics > Abandon cart. The Abandon Cart Analytics displays the following information:

• Total Order Recovered: This is the number of orders placed by the customers after the cart abandonment recovery messages.
• Amount Recovered: This is the total sum of the order value of orders placed by repeat customers after the cart recovery SMS.
• Cart Recovery Messages Sent: This is the total number of cart recovery notifications sent to your subscribers.
• Order Logs: This gives detailed information for the orders recovered, including Order ID, Customer Name, Cart Value, and Abandoned Date.
  

Best Practices for Crafting Your SMS Abandoned Cart Recovery Flow

Setting up abandoned carts SMS automation is a smart move— but doing it right is even smarter. Here’s how you can maximize your chances of success:

1. Timing is Everything

When a customer leaves their cart behind, time is of the essence. Don’t wait too long to reach out—send your first abandoned cart SMS within 30 minutes of the cart being abandoned. The quicker you act, the more likely you are to bring the customer back while their interest is still high.

2. Make it Personal

No one likes a generic message, right? Personalization is key to standing out. Use the smart segmentation techniques and personalize by using customer’s name and reference the specific items or products they left in their cart to make the abandoned cart SMS template feel tailored just for them.

3. Offer Sweet Incentives

Sometimes all a customer needs is a little nudge. Entice them back by offering incentives in the cart abandonment SMS like 10% off, free shipping, or a limited-time offer. These rewards can tip the scale and motivate them to complete their purchase. 

But beware, some customers intentionally abandon their carts to receive additional discounts. To combat this, you can skip sending an incentive in the first message and just give a friendly nudge to your subscribers.

4. Multi-Channel is the Way to Go

Why stop at SMS? Use a multi-channel approach to recover abandoned carts by combining SMS with platforms like WhatsApp or email to increase the likelihood of your message being seen and acted upon. The more touchpoints, the better!

5. Track, Tweak, and Improve

The work doesn’t stop after sending your cart recovery SMS. Keep an eye on your cart recovery metrics—such as the open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate—to understand what’s working. Use this data to refine your copy, messaging or strategy.

Conclusion: Time to Turn Missed Sales into Revenue

Recovering abandoned carts through SMS is a game-changer for eCommerce stores. By following abandoned cart best practices like timely, personalized abandoned carts text messages, offering compelling incentives, and using a multi-channel ecommerce marketing strategy, you can start reclaiming lost sales and drive more revenue. Don't forget to monitor and optimize your results to continuously improve your cart recovery rate.

It's time to start your SMS abandoned cart recovery journey. The quicker you act, the faster you’ll see those lost sales coming back into your eCommerce store!

By setting up your SMS abandoned cart flow with The Convertway, you’re not only reaching your customers directly but also giving them a gentle push to complete their purchase. So go ahead—turn abandoned carts from a headache into a profit-driving opportunity!