By Samuyl Joshi
In DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) operations, the most heartbreaking thing isn't lack of traffic, but watching thousands of "add to cart" actions turn into cold "abandoned orders".
Are you facing this dilemma: spent high prices on Facebook/Google traffic, users browsed for a long time, but finally "deserted" at the payment page? According to global e-commerce abandoned cart data analysis, the global average abandoned cart rate in 2026 has reached 70.22% (data from Baymard Institute). This means that without any intervention, 7 out of every 10 potential customers will be lost.
Today we won't talk about those marketing emails that sink like stones, but directly discuss the current highest-conversion "ultimate weapon" — automated SMS recovery.
Many sellers are still obsessed with sending emails, but reality is harsh: according to the latest industry research, the average open rate of e-commerce marketing emails is only about 30%, while SMS has an open rate of 98%, and 90% of SMS are read within 3 minutes of sending.
SMS isn't harassment, but "instant reminder". At the moment when users haven't closed their mobile browsers and shopping impulse is still at its peak, a decent SMS is the final blow to complete the order.
To achieve high conversion, it's definitely not as simple as sending "you still have items to buy". Here are three core points for improving e-commerce SMS click-through rates:
The timing of recovery is more important than content. Don't wait until the next day to send, by then users may have already placed orders with competitors.
Don't send cold templates. In SMS, call the user's first name (FirstName) and specific product names in the shopping cart. More importantly, you must configure "auto-login link". Through Shopify abandoned cart auto-notification plugins (like Klaviyo or Postscript), users clicking SMS links should directly jump to the checkout page with pre-filled information, without needing to re-enter addresses. Reducing each operation step can increase conversion rates by 15-20% on average.
In North American or European markets, sending SMS indiscriminately will face huge fines. In practice, you must ensure:
Take a fashion DTC brand we served as an example. The brand mainly targets the North American market, with monthly abandoned cart amount of about $50,000. Before introducing automated SMS marketing ROI optimization solutions, relying only on email recovery, the repurchase rate was less than 3%.
Solution adjustment:
Verification results:
After 3 months of actual testing, the brand's SMS recovery conversion rate reached 28.4%. According to backend settlement, for every $1 of SMS cost invested, about $1,102 of order amount can be recovered. This automated SMS marketing ROI performance is completely incomparable to social media advertising.
Don't think SMS is expensive. According to Omnisend's 2025-2026 annual report, the average return on investment for SMS marketing is $71:$1.
"In today's world where mobile shopping accounts for over 80%, SMS is no longer an option, but infrastructure for DTC sites." — Chief Strategy Officer of a leading multinational e-commerce SaaS
Abandoned orders aren't rejection, but users waiting for you to give them a "reason to come back". Through reasonable automated scripts, precise timing control, and compliant operations, this lost performance can completely become your pure profit.
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