E-commerce brands are thriving since customers seek convenient shopping options. Smartphones have become an essential part of your customers’ lives. They spend a great deal of time chatting, checking SMS, social media, emails, and shopping online.
E-commerce success could be attributed to excellent marketing and quality support service. But, what if, we were to tell you that one-third of online shoppers end up exiting the cart without checking out? In the worst cases, they never come back. You may find it hard to absorb that this cart-abandoning behavior costs 4.67 trillion worth of revenue every year.
Cart abandonment is common among online shoppers. It’s a tragedy for the business and immediate action is needed to remedy the staggering rate of 68% cart abandonment. Imagine your customer adds everything they love from your collection to their cart. But, they didn’t check out. The experience is heart-wrenching, isn’t it? You didn’t get to close the deal. No sale!
A customer exiting without a checkout is not what you want. Your customer may have liked everything about the design of your site, the product, price, and color. Everything that attracts them! But, still, they didn’t convert.
Common Reasons For Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment is the enemy of your conversions. It’s essential that you track the reasons for this tragedy, and strategize to overcome them. The Baymard Institute has reported the following three key reasons for cart abandonment;
Around 20% of customers complain about the checkout process, marking it as slow and difficult.
More than 27% argue about the Sign-up requirement. A customer may have bought a single item only. So, how can you expect them to sign up with all the important details for just one product?
Anyhow, more than 50% of people don’t check out because they consider the fee unjustified.
SMS Marketing To Remedy Cart Abandonment
It’s high time you understand the evils of cart abandonment. You surely don’t want to see a drop in your sales and create a poor impression on your customers. As a remedy, we recommend you include SMS marketing in your cart abandonment strategy.
Most brands work with emails and try to interact with their customers. Emails may work fine. Surprisingly, only 20% of customers open their emails and read them. Most people don’t check their mailbox unless they see a pop-up notification related to work. So, your chances of persuading successfully are not much with email.
However, SMS marketing may just do the trick for you since it has a check rate of more than 90%. Plus, the good thing is most people read their texts within 3 minutes. So, you may want to choose SMS marketing to remedy cart abandonment.
But, you ought to be careful since it too has a 5-10% chance of getting your prospect to convert. However, you shouldn’t be bothered. We have compiled a list of SMS marketing tricks to help you reduce checkout abandonment. These SMS marketing tricks are not only good over email marketing but will also give you a chance to win back customers who don’t check out.
Why Do You Need Two-Way SMS Communication?
There is ample research showing that most people are not satisfied with the details of the product. Some of their concerns regarding quality, size, and shipping remain unaddressed. Though SMS marketing could have a powerful impact, its potential is wrongly understood by many. You would not want to waste money on sending texts that are overlooked by your customers.
Suppose you send a text with an abandoned cart link, telling your customer to check out if they’ve forgotten. But, your customer is worried about the quality and size. And, assume that the details on the site are not enough to convince them.
In that case, you need a support person to induce two-way SMS communication. It’s extremely good, fixes all the loopholes of one-way SMS marketing, and will ensure that you stand a better chance of winning the customer back! Now imagine a whole new scenario.
The same customer now gets texted by an intelligent support member. With a less formal tone, they will inquire about what’s bothering the customer from checking out. If the concerns are resolved, congratulations! You’ve won back a lost customer! That’s how you remedy cart abandonment.
We highly recommend using a Two-way communication strategy. The following are the tips and tricks to have a powerful impact on the customer with a Two-way SMS campaign.
How To Create Your SMS Campaign?
Prioritize Collecting Phone Numbers
Your obligation is to collect the phone number of your customer. On your site, get them to fill out the contact number field. This is the origin of your campaign. Once you’ve got the number, you may want to use the remaining tricks to pull your customer back to the abandoned cart.
Don’t Wait And Pray. Emphasize On Two-Way Communication
While texting your customer, you ought to be careful. A common practice with SMS inviting a return to cart is that the text is usually sent 2 hours after the customer exits. You may want to send another text after 2 days. In addition, you send the last text with the link after the completion of a week’s time. No response means not interested.
Alternatively, if you go with the Two-way SMS strategy, this won’t happen. What’s amazing about the Two-way SMS communication is that your support member is already talking. So, you don’t have to wait and pray for an entire week. You’ll be much clearer about what caused your customer to abandon the cart. Plus, you are immediately notified whether they would convert or not. So, choose to go two-way with SMS.
Include Product Images
This is another important SMS marketing trick. This is something that would work perfectly with shopaholics and help you with abandoned cart recovery. When you send the SMS to your customer, double-check the following:/span>
Include A high-quality Picture Of The Product
If the cart has multiple items, include the picture of the most high-value item.
The reason you should include the high-value item’s picture is that it is important to your customer. So, you’re not convincing formally. You’re enticing them emotionally.
Brand Identity
The layout of the text needs to be simple and attractive. Your brand name at the start is what will catch the eyes of the reader and speak out as a powerful reminder within seconds.
Personalization
When you send a text with Dear Customer, it sounds boring. It seems more outdated. What you need to do is to address your customer by their name. People read more consciously when addressed with sincerity. When your customer will be addressed with their name, they are more likely to respond. So, add the magical touch of personalization in the text.
Cart Abandonment Link
Next, we have in the layout is the cart abandonment link. It’s mandatory. Include the link just above the Call to Action.
A Powerful CTA
This is where you trigger action. It could be a few words that are formal or you can also choose to excite the customer emotionally. Whatever it is, make sure it’s powerful enough to attract action.
In addition to these, you may want to include a link or a small code that allows your customer to cancel on Text notifications. This tactic is said to be powerful for abandoned cart recovery. By including the exit option, you don’t appear as a brand trying to oversell. In fact, you communicate a strong image of a reputable brand.
Text As A Person. Include Emojis
Since the aim is to help you with abandoned carts recovery, you should focus on this aspect of the SMS marketing campaign. Remember, you have to text as a person. An automated message is often overlooked by the customer. Plus, a small fraction of customers only hop back to the checkout window.
But, when you text as a person, you’ve to be less formal. Ensure you sound friendly and your tone aligns with the brand’s image. Real-person texts will get you more attention. Plus, you stand a better chance to resolve the problems of your prospect.
You can also choose your Emojis to appear friendlier to your customers. Emojis are exactly what will engage young shoppers. Plus, with Emojis, you seem to be inviting a friendly chat. This will surely trigger a response from your customer side.
Real-person chats are exactly what will induce your customers, assure them your brand values them, and help them trace back to the abandoned cart with ease. So, it’s important that you text with a personality.
Remember To Inquire
As a brand, your responsibility is to inquire about what is bothering your customers. In fact, you should be fully aware of what your customer needs even if you don’t manage to win them back. Knowing your needs fully will help you to bounce back.
Inquiring is also part of the fundamentals of quality customer service. So, when you text for two-way communication, make sure you inquire first. When you’ve already introduced yourself as a person, inquiring could be really helpful. Ask the customer if they have any questions regarding the product. This also communicates a sense of sincerity on the part of the brand. Your customer would understand that you’re trying to help them and you take all their concerns regarding shipping, quality, size, returns, and refunds seriously.
In addition, when you induce chat on SMS, you’re actually involved in a personal-selling role now. Unlike physical shopping, e-shopping does not have much direct correspondence. So, this chat could be your gateway to break the ice between you and the customer who never heard of your brand. You can build a place of trust and friendship. This, in turn, will encourage the customer to get back to the abandoned cart. That’s how you overcome the problem of abandoned carts recovery.
Don’t Rely Too Much On Discounts
A powerful tactic that helps you win against all odds is offering discounts. Discounts can really trigger urgent action and get your customer back to the link. However, it is essential that you don’t rely too much on discounts. You don’t want to sound like you’re trying to oversell. So, it’s better to be smart about discounts.
The problem with discounts is that you’re underplaying the brand image. Plus, you’re encouraging cart abandonment among new customers. So, as a remedy, we recommend having a loyalty program. Communicate about the points your customers can get from getting back to the abandoned cart.
Save Your Customer With The Option Of “Guest Checkout”
Apart from the SMS strategy, as mentioned earlier, more than 27% of carts are abandoned because of mandatory sign-up. Your customers are always seeking convenience. They may switch to another brand that does not necessitate sign-up. As a remedy, we recommend you have a Guest Checkout option. This option should allow the customer to checkout with ease without filling up numerous fields which is often exhaustive for them.
So, include the guest checkout option and save yourself from the problem of cart abandonment. Emphasize customer convenience. Win them back, and grow your sales.
Conclusion
In conclusion, abandoned cart recovery is really challenging. It’s unhealthy for the business as it’s disappointing for your team and no sales increase the risk of doing business. So, we recommend you use SMS marketing to remedy cart abandonment.
Communicating as a real person and inducing your customer into chat, inquiring about their needs, and offering discounts, are some of the SMS marketing tricks you might want to use to prevent cart abandonment. Besides, you can also remedy cart abandonment by including the Guest Checkout option on your site.
Trisha Ballesteros