Typically, an automated SMS cart recovery message includes a reminder, possibly an additional discount on the cart total, and a link that takes the shopper back to their cart. But with the changing times, when consumers crave human interactions, setting up these automated cart recovery messages isn’t enough to drive conversions.
You have to ensure that you understand why a shopper didn’t complete a purchase, address their concerns, answer their queries, and engage them with your abandonment reminders with actual conversations. This is where a human approach comes in. These are supplemental features to your automation process, not a replacement for automation.
Isn’t Automating your Abandoned Cart Text Marketing Enough?
Most merchants have set up abandoned cart text marketing campaigns to automatically reach every shopper that abandons a cart on their Shopify store.
But, according to Moosend, 21% of shoppers click on their cart abandonment emails. Out of these shoppers who clicked, only 50% of them end up purchasing. That means that only 10.5% of abandoned carts are successfully recovered.
While SMS marketing automations for cart recovery serve their purpose, these text messages are generic in nature. They assume that all shoppers are simply looking for an additional discount to complete the purchase. In the end, shoppers end up feeling like they are just being marketed to and pushed to buy, rather than being helped to make the right purchase.
Simply put, your automated abandoned cart text messages are not personalized enough to understand the different reasons behind a shopper not completing a purchase. And assumptions only go so far!
Set Up Better Abandoned Cart Text Messages with Real Human Conversations
Imagine if you could get the best of both worlds – automation and actual human conversations.
In this new approach to cart recovery SMS marketing, your messages are sent by real humans. They make your cart recovery messages more conversational and even interact with shoppers when they ask more questions. With dedicated help provided through SMS, shoppers feel like they are being personalized catered to, increasing cart recovery. Pretty much similar to how an in-store sales representative walks you through all the product options until you find the one that you want to purchase.
Abandoned cart text marketing that taps into conversation marketing, has 98% open rates, 45% reply rates, and 33% conversion rates.
For instance, with a generic automated message, shoppers would get a templatized reminder like “Hey there! Your Red T-Shirt is waiting in your cart. Checkout with a 10% additional discount in 24 hours!”.
However, with human conversations, the shopper not just receives a reminder, but also gets the opportunity to ask questions like “Is there a discount on this product?”, “When will I receive this item?”, “How do I find the right size of this product?” and get instant answers from live agents.
SMS experts use this conversation to then further tailor the cart abandoner’s journey to completing the purchase. Be it helping them by linking to a size guide, offering them an exclusive on-time discount, or providing shipping information, they focus on what motivates them the most to complete the purchase.
Brands like Totoe Eyewear have been able to recover 8K+ carts and improve conversion rates with conversational abandoned cart messages.
Best Practices for Setting Up Human Conversations Within Your Automated Abandoned Cart Text Messages
Now that you know the difference between automation and conversation, let’s show you how to make the most of it.
Here are a few best practices to maximize conversions on your SMS campaigns that leverage human conversations as well as text marketing automation.
1. Enable An App Built To Make Your Abandoned Cart Messages More Conversational
Setting up human automation for your abandoned cart text message is slightly complex. The few merchants who implement this humanized approach to their cart recovery automation have live agents on the other end responding to every query that comes in. This is an expensive and tedious process.
But, you don’t have to set up human automation yourself. Instead, you can choose an SMS marketing solution that does this for you. TxtCart is a Shopify SMS marketing app that upgrades your store with human-powered marketing.
Here’s how it works. TxtCart captures the contact details of a shopper from the checkout process. The live agents then reach out to these shoppers as soon as they abandon the cart to remind them of what they’ve left behind. But in addition to the reminder, they focus on finding out why they abandoned the cart, answering questions they may have, and tailoring the offer to convert the shopper successfully.
This strategy helps you cater to different customer needs. For instance, some shoppers may be looking for a discount while others may just want a reminder about their cart. With conversational and human-powered cart recovery strategies like this, you can cater to these different needs and successfully get shoppers to complete their purchase.
Install TxtCart to set up human-powered text marketing and recover abandoned carts successfully.
2. Make Your Abandoned Cart Message More Personalized
Besides enabling human conversations, you can make your abandoned cart message more personalized from your initial automated SMS reminder. Tailor your SMS to your shopper by adding a first name parameter. Shoppers are highly likely to notice when their name is mentioned in a message.
You can also display the name of the product that the shopper abandoned. This helps them recall the product they added to their cart.
3. Interact With Your Shoppers Through A Personality
Shoppers would warm up to your cart recovery message quicker when they see that an actual person is sending this message. You can show that your SMS is sent by real humans, making you more approachable.
TxtCart lets you choose a persona to market through. When your SMS is sent to your cart abandoners, they can see the name of the person sending the SMS and an icon displaying their headshot.
The ability to talk to an actual human behind the brand they’re making a purchase from helps you build trust. And trust leads to higher response rates as well as conversions.
4. Keep Your Message Crisp And On-Brand
Shoppers love SMS because of how instant and easy it is to consume. Unlike email, shoppers need to only take 90 seconds to read your SMS and pick up on your offer or announcement.
When crafting your SMS, keep it as crisp as possible, removing any fluff words and ensuring shoppers can grasp your message instantly. It’s best to keep your message as short as 2 to 3 sentences. This holds true for both automated as well as the messages that are sent by the live agents.
5. Use CTA Text At The End Of Your Copy To Nudge Action
Once you’ve stated the purpose of your promotion (reminding shoppers about their cart), you need to guide them to take action. Add a CTA text at the end of your cart recovery SMS to nudge shoppers to click through and come back to your Shopify store’s cart page.
Here are some CTA copy ideas for your cart recovery SMS:
- Make it yours!
- Checkout now!
- Complete your purchase
Recover Your Abandoned Carts Successfully With Conversational SMS Cart Recovery Messages
As an eCommerce store in an oversaturated market, you need to ensure that your cart recovery messages stand out among the rest of the cart recovery messages that your shopper receives.
Adding a conversational touch with human automation is the best way to make sure shoppers pay attention to your cart recovery messages and engage with them. Get started with human-powered SMS marketing automation by installing TxtCart and increase your recovery rates in no time.
Author bio
This post was contributed by TxtCart, a Shopify app that enables stores to tap into the power of SMS marketing automation and real human-driven conversations.
