10 abandoned cart text messages that fit in one SMS

1. What goes in a cart reminder text

Four parts, in this order: your store name, the item, a link back and the opt-out line. “Solara: the Daily Cleanser you picked is still in your cart” tells the shopper who is writing and why.

Make the link do what the text says. If it opens the product page rather than the saved cart, say “See it here,” not “Back to your cart.”

Keep the opt-out words, such as “Reply STOP to opt out.” Your texting app may add its own, so check the final text before you count it.

2. Keep it to one SMS

One SMS holds 160 characters of plain text. One emoji, or even one curly apostrophe, switches the whole text to Unicode: 70 characters fit in one SMS, and only 67 fit in each part once it splits.

Example 03 below uses 149 units and one part, with a straight apostrophe in “we'll”. Swap in a curly ’ and the same text needs three parts.

Count the whole message: store name, link, spaces and the STOP line. If your app shortens links or adds a first name, count the version it will send.

Paste your final text into the SMS character counter to see its parts and which characters cost extra.

Source: Twilio: SMS character limits and segments

3. Who should get a cart text

Only shoppers who agreed to get marketing texts from your store. An email signup is not a text signup, so check the shopper’s text consent before the first send.

Stop the reminder once they buy. A text about a cart that is already an order wastes their attention and yours.

Source: Shopify: collecting customer contact information and marketing consent

4. If you send an email too

Give the text its own job: a shorter way back, or an answer to a question the email can’t give. Don’t send the same words by email and text minutes apart.

Read the two side by side before you turn them on.

Need the email version? Pick from 44 abandoned cart subject lines.

5. Only promise what’s true

Free shipping, a code, low stock or a sale end time belong in a text only when they are true for this shopper and this cart. Test the code on the item before you send.

Give the time zone with any end time. “Ends Sunday 11:59pm ET” is clear. “Ends soon” is not.

Thinking about a discount? Check how many more orders it needs to make the same profit.

6. Texts for a sale week (Black Friday, Cyber Monday)

Name the sale, the item and the real end time with its time zone, and stop these texts when the sale ends.

7. When can you send marketing texts?

The FCC’s rule on telephone solicitations, calls or messages that encourage a purchase, bars them before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time. Its definition leaves out messages to people who gave you prior express permission or who already do business with you, but some states set their own calling hours, so check the rules where your shoppers live. This is general information, not legal advice.

myuser.ai holds its automatic texts, such as cart reminders and pop-up follow-ups, until 8 a.m. in the shopper’s time zone when one would go out before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.

Source: 47 CFR § 64.1200, delivery restrictions (Cornell LII)