Data Shows How to Recover Abandoned Carts Using SMS

Updated April 22, 2024

If you run an ecommerce business, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on sales every day. The culprit? Abandoned carts.

Statistics gathered by the Baymard Institute show 70.19% of 2024 ecommerce shoppers abandon their carts. That means most of your potential sales are falling into an abandoned cart black hole — and recovering even a small fraction of these cart abandonments can have a major impact on your company’s bottom line.

What if improving your revenue was as easy as introducing a text message marketing service to recover abandoned carts? That might sound too good to be true, but the data speaks for itself: the right text can earn up to a 58% recovery rate when it comes to abandoned carts online.

It takes a lot of energy and resources to get customers to put an item in their cart. With text marketing, you could retain up to two-thirds of those who wouldn’t otherwise complete the checkout process. 

Here’s what we’ve found out about abandoned cart rates, plus tips on how to start recovering your lost sales.

Average abandoned cart rate

Just how big of a problem are abandoned carts, anyway? According to the Baymard Institute, that number varies by device. Here’s the breakdown:

• Desktop: 69.75%
• Mobile: 85.65%
• Tablets: 80.74%

Shoppers abandon their carts for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the common causes for abandoned carts:

• Frustrating user interface
• Too much friction in the checkout process
• Website takes too long to load
• Cost of shipping is too high
• The site seems untrustworthy
• No “checkout as guest” option
• Shipping wait times are too long
• Need more time to consider purchase

Even though statistics compiled by Statista show 31% of those who abandon carts will return to purchase from your website at a later date, 26% actually purchase from a competitor. Increasing your abandoned cart recovery rate is essential to growing your ecommerce store and outpacing the competition.

Our customer data on abandoned carts

Between June 2019 and July 2019 we gathered internal data from our clients who use a feature that sends abandoned cart text messages to people who didn’t complete their purchases on Shopify sites. Here are our findings. 

• Money talks: $156,915 was the most order revenue a single client recovered in the 30-day period we reviewed. This was a recovery rate of 20%. 
• Critical mass: One client completed 792 extra sales within 30 days. They started with 1,365 abandoned carts, making their retention rate after using this strategy 58%. Almost two-thirds of customers who walked away came back after receiving a text. 
• Size doesn’t matter: We looked at companies that had over 1,000 sales a month and those with less than 100. Both sizes benefited from using this strategy to win back sales. 
• Words have power: Not every client has had success with this tool. Those who aren’t seeing results typically aren’t crafting their copy with the right message. They make three common text marketing mistakes. 

1. $156,915 recovered in 30 days

We looked at a customer of ours who had 20% recovery rate during the 30-day period stated above. They were able to capture $156,915 in revenue in that period.  

That’s a significant revenue boost that was secured just by programming an automatic texting campaign. 

How did they do it? By sending automated texts encouraging customers to return to their cart to complete the sale. Statistics show that people are addicted to their smartphones, so a text is almost guaranteed to be seen — instantly. Texts can include a link to each individual’s cart so that as much friction is removed from the process as possible for the end user. 

2. Nearly 2 out of 3 lost sales recovered

One client’s success was so pronounced they saw 58% of their abandoned carts recovered. That means about two out of every three people who walked away from their carts returned after receiving a text reminding them to finish their purchase. 

What goes into a success like this? 

• Timing: Send follow-up texts soon after the cart has been abandoned. Don’t let days or weeks go by before customers are contacted. You should test different timings to zero in on the best timing for your customers.
• Wording: Be clear and concise with a compelling call to action. 
• Simplicity: Provide a link that takes customers directly to their personal abandoned cart. 
• Software Choice: Make sure that you find a mass texting service that can support not only outbound campaigns but the series of drip messages outlined above.

3. Works for stores of all sizes

Just to make sure there wasn’t something unique about ecommerce stores with high sales volumes, we also looked at clients who have a much smaller monthly sales volume. We were able to determine that when they use the same strategies they see levels of success that are on par with our larger clients. 

4. Avoid common mistakes

Not every client who used this tool saw success of the same magnitude. The average recovery rate is between 17% and 20% and can be used in addition to other revenue-building strategies. Among those who are not maximizing the full potential of using broadcast texts to recover abandoned carts, here are some of the common mistakes we see:

• Murky CTAs: Make sure customers know exactly how you want them to take action, and provide them with a simple, straightforward path for doing so. 
• Inconsistent follow-through: You can, and should, follow up with those who’ve abandoned a cart more than once if they don’t take action the first time. Keep trying to engage them by sending texts at different intervals. 

• No testing: Every demographic is different so that’s why you need to test elements such as timing or copy to continually tweak your message and delivery. Don’t settle for the first round of results you get, keep trying to improve your numbers. 
• Untrusted Numbers: Some organizations use pools of 10-digit numbers to send abandoned cart notifications at scale. These numbers can look spammy and untrustworthy. If you can, make use of a dedicated short code for all of your messaging as it’s a signal to consumers that your messages are from a trusted brand.

Recover Abandoned Carts with SlickText

Ready to start recovering abandoned carts and stop missing out on sales? Get started today for free with SlickText.