How to Lower Your Cart Abandonment Rate in Shopify

Mara Lam on Oct 28, 2021 1:51:00 PM

Your Shopify store is bringing in plenty of interested customers. But for one reason or another, most of your shoppers will leave your website before they make a purchase. These abandoned carts can certainly throw a wrench in your plans, and it’s an issue that many Shopify store owners don’t plan for.

The thing is, abandoned carts are a common (and expensive) issue for all eCommerce stores. The average cart abandonment rate is 69.57%, but mobile shoppers abandon at an even higher rate of 85.65%.

This means that a majority of your shoppers will add items to their cart and never buy anything. That adds up to thousands of dollars in lost business over time, which means every Shopify store should learn how to reduce its cart abandonment rate.

Chances are good that you’ll need a cart recovery solution to bring those shoppers back to your site. While tactics like email or social media can work, SMS marketing is your best bet for winning back abandoned carts.

Average email click rates are 8.49% while SMS click rates average 29%.
Customers are 4.5x more likely to reply to SMS than to email.
It takes an average of 90 seconds for shoppers to reply to SMS compared to 90+ minutes for an email.

The good news is that you can use SMS marketing to bring more shoppers back to their carts. After all, you worked hard to bring these shoppers to your store; why not make a few small changes to keep your customers around?

Follow these five simple SMS marketing tricks to lower your Shopify cart abandonment rate and rake in more sales.

1. Encourage people to subscribe to your SMS list

You can’t send cart abandonment messages unless a shopper is on your SMS list first. You need this data to make SMS marketing work for your Shopify store.

You can encourage people to join your list with:

A popup on your website that offers 10% off in exchange for subscribing
An easy subscription option during the checkout process
Giveaways and contests
Referrals from existing shoppers

However you decide to grow your list, make sure you’re following the law. It’s also a good idea to get double opt-ins from every subscriber.

2. Offer an incentive

If you’re trying to convert more abandoned carts into sales, offer an incentive for shoppers to come back. Customers love a good discount. In fact, 90% of shoppers use incentives like coupons.

It’s not a good idea to discount your products all the time, but sometimes the right promo can bring unsure or forgetful shoppers back. Try offering incentives like:

A percentage off their order
Buy one, get one (BOGO) deals
Free shipping
A free gift

3. Send social proof

Did you know that social proof increases conversions by 15%? You can lower your Shopify cart abandonment rates by sending social proof to your SMS subscribers in the form of:

Star ratings
Testimonials
Influencer reviews
Unboxing videos
Use cases, like styling tips

Shoppers want to buy products that other people love. Since shoppers trust fellow shoppers more than they do brands, this is a great way to boost conversions for little added effort.

4. Address shopper objections

Why are so many shoppers leaving your store without buying something? Sometimes they have anxieties, fears, or objections about your products. If that’s the case, you can use SMS marketing to assuage their fears.

Lean heavily into the benefits of your product. For example, if shoppers frequently say your product is too expensive, you could say, “Too rich for your blood? Our product is built to last, so when you buy it once, you buy it for life. Finish checking out now!”

Of course, it helps to know what your shoppers’ objections actually are. You might need to survey past customers or install a heat map on your website to figure out what their issues really are.

5. Time your reminders right

Don’t send a cart abandonment message a week after a shopper abandoned their cart. Chances are good that they won’t remember you at all.

You need to send your cart abandonment messages pretty soon after the shopper leaves your site. For example, you can program your SMS marketing cart recovery to contact shoppers an hour after they leave.

You can also try contacting shoppers when they’re less distracted. Ninety percent of all abandoned carts happen on Saturday and Sunday. Since most people tend to check out their carts on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it might be a good idea to follow up with your abandoned carts every Tuesday or Wednesday. Experiment with your cart abandonment message timing to see which option works better for your shoppers.

Reduce your cart abandonment rate on Shopify

Cart abandonments are increasing because more people are shopping online. Whether they’re window shopping, estimating costs, or becoming distracted while browsing your site, plenty of shoppers will leave without buying anything. You can’t reclaim all of these lost sales, but with these five smart SMS marketing strategies, you can certainly bring more customers back into the fold.

Approach cart abandonment as a serious, systemic problem in your Shopify store. When you take it seriously, you’ll be able to increase revenue over time and recover more abandoned carts. And you don’t have to do it alone, either. Sign up for a free trial of Winback to see the power of SMS cart abandonment reminders.

Topics: Cart Abandonment