Abandoned cart SMS is a revolutionary way to reach customers who have left your site without actually completing their purchase. This isn’t a unique problem and it plagues tons of retailers, big and small. Instead of losing out on money from abandoned carts, investing in an abandoned cart SMS marketing service is a great way to help you recoup some of that money and build rapport and connections with your customers at the same time – so it’s really a win-win!
Step 1: Customer Abandons Their Cart
There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing so many of your customers abandoning their carts and not completing their purchases. After all, this is money that you’re losing out on! You’ve probably spent a lot of time wondering why they didn’t complete the purchase. Obviously, they found an item they liked enough to put in their cart – so what’s the problem? The problem is that it could be a variety of different things and it’s not like you can actually ask them personally...until now.
Step 2: Customer Is Contacted Via SMS
When a customer abandons their cart, an abandoned cart recovery SMS service like Cart Text will contact the customer directly. Cart Text is an app that you can install directly through your Shopify store so that they will have access to all your customer data and see any abandoned carts that need to be addressed. If you don’t use Shopify, it’s a pretty easy and beneficial process to convert and start using abandoned cart SMS.
When a customer is contacted about an abandoned cart, we aren’t just talking about some automated messaging service. Instead, a real, live customer support representative will be contacting your potential customer to follow-up about the item. They can ask them what their hesitations are about completing the purchase and offer personalized solutions. For example, they can give the customer a discount code or free shipping if that was causing their hesitation. Or if the customer has questions or concerns about the product specifically then they can work on addressing those as well. Most of the time they just need a little push with a call-to-action in order to actually purchase the item – and the best way to do this is through abandoned cart SMS.
Step 3: Close the Sale
The last step is the best one – actually closing the sale. After the live representative effectively resolves the customer’s concerns about buying, they are able to direct them back to their cart so that it’s easier than ever for them to complete the purchase. And just like that, you’ve converted a sale and gained valuable revenue for your company!
Why Do Customers Abandon Carts?
Now that you know how abandoned cart SMS works, you might still be wondering why customers abandon their carts in the first place. Studies show that up to 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before a purchase is made – that is a whole not! Well, you’re not alone! There are a variety of different reasons that customers tend to abandon their carts, but here are the most common ones:
- The extra costs added up too much. This is a big problem. Up to 50% of customers say that they end up not completing an online purchase because costs like shipping, taxes, and fees are more than they want to pay. They might think that they can save money on shipping and taxes if they go out to a brick-and-mortar store and buy something in-person. This is why free shipping is such a beneficial offer that helps people convert more sales.
- You had to create an account. Many people don’t like having to create a bunch of different accounts on every single e-commerce site that they visit. And we don’t really blame them! In fact, this is the reason that 28% of people say that they don’t end up buying something in their online store shopping cart. A great solution to this problem is to allow them to check out as a guest without creating a whole new account. You are still able to get their important information, like their name, email address, and phone number without potentially alienating them in the process.
- The checkout process was too long or too complicated. Up to 21% of people say that this plays a role in why they didn’t complete their purchase. It can get frustrating having to fill out pages and pages of information just to make a purchase. While it’s understandable that you want the process to be detailed and effective, it should still be as easy as possible. So by reducing the number of fields and pages a customer has to encounter as they check out, you are able to make the process easier for them and make it more likely that they get all the way through and actually buy their products.
- Unclear costs. Total costs that are unclear is another reason why up to 18% of people don’t complete a purchase. Oftentimes, these totals aren’t shown until the very end of the checkout process right before you click the “buy” button and enter your credit card information. Instead, you should be able to estimate taxes and shipping costs initially so that the customer can have a good idea about these added costs before they go through the entire process just to decide that it’s too much.
- Slow delivery. In a world with Amazon Prime, people have gotten used to getting things shipped in one to two days. However, not all stores have the resources and capabilities to get this done. However, it’s still important to offer fast shipping times so that customers are able to get their items in a timely manner. Many times, people are shopping for a specific event with a date in mind, so if they won’t be able to get the item before then – they won’t buy it. A good timeline to target for standard shipping is 3-4 business days. This is especially true if you are offering free shipping. At the same time, it’s also important to offer expedited 1-2 day shipping for those who need the item urgently and are willing to pay.
- Untrustworthy site. Finally, the last main reason why people didn’t complete their purchase on a website is that they didn’t trust the site with their credit card and personal information. In a world where security breaches are happening all the time even to huge companies, people are worried about the safety of their information. 17% of people said that this played a factor in not completing a purchase online. To address this, you need to make your website look professional and trustworthy. You also might consider adding a trust seal to the checkout page to provide more peace of mind.
- These are just the top reasons why customers abandon their carts before purchasing. Some of the other, less common reasons include: the website crashed, they didn’t like the return policy, they didn’t have one of the accepted payment methods, or their credit card was delayed.
Is SMS Really an Effective Way to Reach Customers?
Knowing some of the main reasons why customers abandon their carts, you still might be wondering if SMS is even really effective at addressing some of these issues. And while there are steps you can take to decrease your abandoned cart rates altogether, it will still happen to some extent no matter what – and that’s what SMS marketing is for.
SMS messages are a particularly effective way to reach your customers in 2020. This is because so many people have cell phones with text messaging capability, no matter how old they are! If they are tech-savvy enough to be shopping online in the first place, then odds are pretty high that they have a cell phone. People have been making the shift from email to texting for a few years now, with 71% of people preferring texts over emails. Texting is more instantaneous than emailing – with 90% of text messages being read within the first three minutes and up to 98% of them are opened at some point. This is because it’s easier to preview and open a text than it is an email – which you are more likely to just delete without even reading.
So since people are more likely to prefer text messaging and actually open the messages, it’s easier to engage with them. Thanks to live representatives, Cart Text is able to personalize the interaction and chat with them about their concerns and then address them – with impressive conversion rates that can help you save up to 21% of your abandoned carts and thousands of dollars in sales. The numbers speak for themselves, SMS really is an effective way to reach customers and save carts!
Hopefully, you now know everything you need to know about abandoned cart SMS and why it’s a useful tool for any e-commerce business to convert sales. It’s a 21st-century solution for an industry that’s constantly changing and adapting to new technology. So use that technology to your advantage and allow real-time live representatives to personally engage with your customers to improve their confidence and experience with your e-commerce store.
Sources:
https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
https://www.quicksprout.com/how-to-create-a-trust-seal-on-your-checkout-page/
