Discover how SMS marketing delivers 98% open rates and 300-3000% ROI for eCommerce businesses through strategic abandoned cart recovery, win-back campaigns, and post-purchase upsells. Tadej Bogataj reveals the three-message framework that recovers 300% more sales than email alone, geographic performance patterns across markets, and why most businesses fail by treating SMS like email with fewer characters. Learn the five-minute integration process, proven message sequences, and testing approach that eliminates risk whilst maximizing returns from this underutilized marketing channel.
What if 98% of your marketing messages were actually being read? Not sitting in spam folders. Not getting lost in crowded inboxes. Actually opened and read by real customers.
That's the reality of SMS marketing. Yet most eCommerce businesses either ignore it completely or implement it so poorly they wonder why it doesn't work. Tadej Bogataj, co-founder of CartBoss, has spent years helping eCommerce brands recover abandoned carts through text messaging. His clients consistently see returns on investment between 300-3000%—not over years, but within weeks of implementation.
The most striking revelation? 98% of text messages get read within three minutes of being received. Compare that to email marketing's dismal open rates, and suddenly SMS doesn't just seem interesting—it becomes essential. But here's what stops most businesses: they treat SMS like email with fewer characters. That approach fails spectacularly because SMS operates on completely different principles.
Before exploring tactics, we need to understand the psychological difference between email and SMS marketing.
"When you get a text message, you open it usually quite immediately because your phone is constantly with you," Tadej explains. "That's why text messages are such a powerful tool in marketing."
This isn't just about open rates—it's about timing and context. Email gets checked when convenient, often hours or days after sending. Text messages interrupt whatever you're doing, demanding immediate attention. This creates both opportunity and responsibility.
The opportunity lies in reaching customers whilst purchase intent remains fresh. Someone abandons a cart because they're distracted, uncertain, or comparing prices. Within minutes, whilst they're still thinking about the purchase, your text message arrives. The timing alone dramatically improves conversion probability.
The responsibility comes from that same immediacy. You're interrupting someone's day, appearing on their personal device. The message must justify that interruption with genuine value, relevant timing, and respectful frequency. Get this wrong and you'll see those unsubscribe rates climb quickly.
GDPR and various country-specific regulations govern SMS marketing, but Tadej's approach goes beyond mere compliance to strategic permission gathering.
The most successful method? A simple checkbox at checkout stating: "Would you like to subscribe to our text messages for special offers and updates?"
This works because timing matters. Someone completing a purchase has just demonstrated trust in your brand. They're engaged, interested, and more likely to want ongoing communication. The conversion rate on SMS opt-ins at checkout far exceeds pop-ups or landing page forms.
For existing customers, your privacy policy and terms of service can permit post-purchase messaging—but tread carefully. Just because you legally can doesn't mean you should bombard customers without explicit consent. The brands seeing 3000% returns focus on quality over quantity, permission over presumption.
Interestingly, unsubscribe rates tell the permission story clearly. "On average, on 1000 people that are contacted, one person unsubscribes," Tadej notes. Compare that to email marketing's typical 0.5-2% unsubscribe rate per campaign, and SMS's superior targeting becomes evident.
Abandoned cart recovery represents SMS marketing's highest-impact use case. Tadej's three-message framework consistently outperforms email-only strategies by 300% or more.
"The first one is honestly just the best way—to have it as a gentle reminder, not to offer any discount at all. And why I'm saying this is because that text message actually offers the best results."
This counterintuitive approach works because many cart abandonments happen accidentally or due to distraction rather than price objections. Someone gets interrupted, forgets to complete checkout, or simply needs a nudge. A simple "Hey John, you forgot the basketball in your shopping cart" with a link back to pre-filled checkout often converts immediately.
The link matters enormously. Customers clicking through should land directly at checkout with all their information already populated, discount codes pre-applied, and zero friction to completion. Making them re-enter details destroys conversion rates.
If the gentle reminder doesn't work, assume a specific objection exists. The second message should address the most common barrier for your product category—usually price or shipping costs.
Options include:
The key lies in testing which offer converts best for your specific audience. If free shipping consistently outperforms discounts, that signals shipping costs represent your primary conversion barrier—information you should use to optimize your site-wide strategy.
The third message escalates the offer or introduces scarcity. If message two offered free shipping, message three might include a discount as well. If message two included 10% off, message three might bump it to 15%.
After three messages, stop. "If they didn't convert now, they just won't," Tadej advises. "You're just losing money at that point." The customer either isn't genuinely interested or faces barriers beyond what SMS can address.
This tight timeframe—all three messages within 24 hours—capitalizes on fresh intent whilst the product remains top-of-mind. Contrast this with email sequences that might stretch across days or weeks, by which point interest has completely evaporated.
Abandoned cart recovery drives immediate sales, but win-back campaigns build long-term customer relationships and recurring revenue.
The framework is surprisingly simple: four weeks after a customer's last purchase, send a personalized message acknowledging their loyalty with an exclusive offer.
"Thanks for being a loyal client of ours. Here's a coupon code for 20% off on anything on our site."
These messages consistently achieve 200-300% ROI—lower than abandoned cart sequences but still remarkably profitable. The key differentiators:
Brand-Specific Success - Win-back campaigns work best for brands with cohesive product lines where repeat purchases make sense. Fashion retailers, beauty brands, and consumables see excellent results. Marketplaces selling random assortments struggle.
Message Variation - Change the text each month to prevent habituation. Customers shouldn't think "Oh, it's that monthly discount text again." Fresh copy maintains engagement and prevents the offer from becoming expected rather than special.
Exclusive Landing Pages - Rather than generic discount codes, create SMS-subscriber-only landing pages featuring curated product selections. "Because you're a loyal customer, you get this link—choose five different products and they're all discounted for you 20%."
This exclusivity transforms a simple discount into a VIP experience. Customers feel recognized and valued rather than marketed to, building emotional connection alongside transactional benefit.
Most businesses focus acquisition energy on pre-purchase moments, but Tadej's data reveals a golden window immediately after purchase completion.
"Post-purchase text messages get a return of investment of around 200%," he shares. The strategy involves sending a targeted message 5-10 minutes after order confirmation with complementary product recommendations.
Example: Someone purchases a £3000 camera setup. Five minutes later: "Thanks for your order! Professional photographers also love this lighting kit—20% off for the next hour since we're already shipping to you."
This works for several psychological reasons:
The product recommendations must be genuinely complementary and relatively inexpensive compared to the main purchase. Someone spending £3000 might add a £200 accessory, but probably won't impulse-buy another £3000 item.
SMS marketing doesn't perform equally across all markets. Tadej's data across thousands of campaigns reveals clear geographic patterns.
Top Performers (300%+ ROI):
Moderate Performers (150-200% ROI):
Lower Performers (100-150% ROI):
"Germany isn't that good because they're not into that kind of thing. They don't enjoy receiving a text message all of a sudden," Tadej explains. Cultural attitudes toward marketing privacy and mobile communication significantly impact SMS receptiveness.
However, even "lower performing" markets still deliver positive ROI. A 100% return means every pound spent generates two pounds back—hardly a failure. The variation simply means expectations and strategies should adjust based on your primary market.
Technical complexity kills adoption of marketing tools. Tadej's team built CartBoss specifically to eliminate implementation barriers that stop businesses from trying SMS marketing.
The integration process:
Total time: under five minutes, including account creation.
"Everything works out of the box," Tadej emphasizes. "The recipients will always get their text message in their own language. The links are automatically detected and linked to the checkout. Everything is there."
This plug-and-play approach removes the most common objection: "It sounds complicated." It isn't. The technology handles language detection, link customization, timing optimization, and message delivery automatically. Store owners simply decide which campaigns to activate and what offers to include.
The sophistication happens behind the scenes. The simplicity shows up in the interface.
Despite overwhelmingly positive data, some businesses remain skeptical. Tadej's advice? Test with free credits to eliminate financial risk.
"Just register and we'll give you 50 bucks free credits, just try it out and you'll see how it goes. Because you know, people are just like, 'Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'm just going to lose money.' And yeah, no, you're not. You're definitely not going to lose money."
Even conservative testing reveals the channel's potential. Send 100 abandoned cart texts. Track revenue generated. Calculate ROI. The numbers typically speak clearly enough to justify continued investment.
For businesses operating in "lower performing" markets like Germany, testing becomes even more critical. Rather than assuming SMS won't work based on averages, validate with your specific customers and products. Market-level data shows trends, not destinies.
Ready to implement SMS marketing? Follow this proven sequence:
Week One: Foundation
Week Two: Optimization
Week Three: Expansion
Week Four: Refinement
This phased approach prevents overwhelm whilst building confidence through early wins. Start with the highest-ROI campaign (abandoned carts), prove the concept, then expand systematically.
Open rates and click rates provide interesting data, but SMS marketing lives or dies on one metric: return on investment.
Calculate it simply:
ROI = (Revenue Generated - SMS Costs) / SMS Costs × 100
If you spend £100 on SMS and generate £500 in sales, your ROI is 400%. That's the number that justifies continued investment and expansion.
Track this at multiple levels:
This granular tracking reveals optimization opportunities that generic "SMS works" advice misses. Perhaps your abandoned cart sequence delivers 500% ROI but win-back campaigns only achieve 150%. Focus resources accordingly.
How often should you text customers? The answer depends entirely on campaign type and customer relationship.
Abandoned Cart: Three messages within 24 hours, then stop completely. The urgency and relevance justify this frequency.
Win-Back: Once monthly maximum. These feel like special offers, not harassment, because they arrive infrequently.
Post-Purchase: Once immediately after purchase for upsell. Don't bombard new customers.
Promotional: Test carefully, starting with once per quarter for SMS-exclusive sales. Monitor unsubscribe rates closely.
The cardinal rule: SMS demands far lower frequency than email. Where you might email customers weekly, text them monthly at most. The intimacy of the channel requires respect for inbox boundaries that email marketing long ago violated.
SMS marketing isn't the future—it's the present that most eCommerce businesses are ignoring. Whilst competitors debate whether to try it, early adopters are already banking returns between 300-3000%.
Start this week:
The barriers you imagine—technical complexity, cost risk, customer resistance—largely don't exist. Modern SMS platforms handle the complexity. Free trial credits eliminate financial risk. And those 98% open rates prove customer resistance is far lower than assumed.
The real question isn't whether SMS marketing works. The data answers that conclusively. The real question is: how long will you wait whilst competitors capture the advantage?
Read the complete, unedited conversation between Matt and Tadej Bogataj from CartBoss. This transcript provides the full context and details discussed in the episode.
well, hello and welcome to the e-commerce podcast with me. Your host, Matt Edmundson, this podcast, this show is all about
helping you deliver e-commerce. Wow. Yes, it is. And to do that, I'm super excited to chat to today's guest today.
From boss about how to use SMS marketing for e-commerce what a great topic that
is, uh, and to do that justice and to give it a, you know, make it a bit more well-rounded and because so many new people are subscribing to the show at the
moment, uh, one of the things I want to do is just give a quick shout out to some of the past guests and episodes where.
Given that we are in fact, talking about SMS marketing for e-commerce. I thought you might enjoy the following episodes.
So what does, you've listened to this one? Check out, uh, my interview with valentyn Radu on maximizing the
lifetime value of a customer. I've got to know Valentine's since that recording is an absolute legend.
Let me tell you such a great guy full of insight. Definitely check out his episode as well as, uh, Rouse episodes.
Called referral marketing just got easy. One of my favorite titles, if I'm honest with you, uh, such a great conversation
with rod, definitely check that out too. Now this episode is brought to you by the e-commerce cohort, which
helps to deliver e-commerce wow. To your customers. What is the e-commerce cohort?
I hear you saying, well, Let me tell you, uh, now you may well have come
across folks who have got stuck with their e-commerce business, or maybe siloed into working on just one or two of their voluntary areas of their business.
And they miss the kind of bigger picture, which is what happened to me. If I'm honest with you, uh, there's a story behind that which often tell,
uh, on, on other people's podcasts when I get into and how it costs me. We lost millions as a result of that.
So cohort has sort of been born out of that pain if you're like, uh, the
e-commerce cohort is a lightweight membership group with guided monthly
sprints, that cycle through all the key areas of e-commerce with the sober.
Of providing you with clear, actionable jobs to be done for your online business. So you'll know what to work on when to work on it.
And more importantly, you'll have the support and accountability to get it done. So whether you are just starting out in e-commerce or if like me
you've been around for a while, a well-established e-commerce or as I like to call us, uh, then.
Definitely encourage you to go and check out e-commerce cohort.com as it's gearing
up for its founding member launch. Now you can also email me directly at Matt at e-commerce podcast.net with any
questions that you have, because let me tell you, this is something that I. Right of we have done the online courses in the past.
Yes, we have. We have done all kinds of crazy things. All of which I'm proud of and all of which have been good and
cohort is taking all of that. Learning, putting everything together and in a very affordable monthly
membership for the founding members. Let me tell you, so do go and check it out.
Now let's jump in today's conversation. Shall we? So today's guest is the co-founder of cop boss, a text messaging solution
Intro to Tadej
for recovering abandoned cots. He's a former developer now focused on running day-to-day
operations and achieving the long-term goals for his company. This is a conversation which is literally.
Just touching the surface of SMS marketing and the power and impact it can have on your e-commerce business.
So grab your pens, grab your notebooks, have your cup of coffee at the ready, because you're not going to want to miss any of this.
Here's my conversation with. Sorry today.
Thank you for joining me on the podcast. It is great to have you beaming in from what I can only hope is sunny Holland.
Uh, but it it's great to have you. Thank you for joining me. How are you doing today? Good, good.
Uh, thank you for having me. Uh, and it's not, it's not a sunny day in Holland. Unfortunately not it's a typical Dutch wet or right now going to start raining soon.
Okay. So it's not just, um, it's not just England that has the rain Holland has its fair share as well.
Oh yeah. Yeah. We do have a, quite a fair share of rain. You can go outside and it's sunny one moment then it's raining the next.
So it's an interesting experience, uh, was not used to it too, because I'm from Slovenia and I moved here in just.
And I was quite shocked about the weather conditions here, but, uh, it's, it's actually quite nice. Uh, I, before it actually it's good.
So yeah, when I come to England, uh, yeah, I'm going to be using.
Yeah, absolutely. You're going to be used to it. Uh, which is, which is helpful. I think whenever you're, whenever you're visiting.
And so you are from Slovenia, you live in Holland and you're the co-founder
of a company called cart boss, which is all about SMS or text messaging.
As we like to say, saying in England, And one of the things that you mentioned on your website, we're going to get into the whole SMS
SMS open rate
marketing, text message marketing. One of the stats that really surprised me, which you mentioned on your website
was that % of people open text messages, which I'd never really thought about.
But I guess it's, I guess it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. Everybody just checks out the text message.
You're interested. You, you don't get, you know, as many text messages as you get emails, so
it's not a full inbox of, of them. Uh, so the space, you know, for using text messages, It's quite a good,
because yeah, you're not full of text messages the whole time, but there's
one statistics that's even better. Uh it's that % of text messages gets read within three
minutes of receiving them. Now dads, the statistics actually that I was just amazed at, and that's why
it's so powerful to use them because honestly, when you get a text message,
Open it usually quite immediately because your phone is constantly with you. And if you use text messages for remarketing or whatever you want, you
get the results results instantly. That's why text messages are such a powerful tool in marketing.
That's a really interesting idea that. % of text messages read within three minutes.
Does that mean, uh, without getting too granular in the detail just yet, but does that mean, um, if I send out an, uh, uh, a text message, um, I'm going
to see the response within the next three minutes, and if it's, I'm not going to see too much response, maybe minutes after I've sent it, you're
going to see the bulk of it within the three or four minutes of sending it out. Would that be that.
Um, well, not really. Um, when we know I can go a bit technical here because it depends
on the level of conversation here. The thing is that, uh, when you send out a text message, we can see
if a text message has been opened. We can get that information from various API calls and stuff like that.
Uh, and we can see that a text message has been opened within. A specific timeframe, but if we're talking about conversions, meaning
that after a text message has been opened and a conversion will be completed within a time span of five, minutes, that's not the case.
Uh, what happens is that when a text message is sent, uh, it's usually.
And then it's opened again and then it's open again. It's opened actually a few times usually.
And then the conversion occurs in a way that a link is clicked and then
the recipient goes to the website and then dabs around the site, you know, again, and then, uh, complete the order.
It really depends, but, uh, most, if we talk about abandoned cart, text message, Those can work a lot faster than usual marketing text messages,
like most text messages or win-back text messages newsletter once.
Uh, but the abandoned cart, text messages, those can work almost instantaneous.
Okay. And so, um, so let's, we'll come back to that because I want to get into that a
little bit, but I guess before I get too caught up in the detail, which is, you know, my, my, uh, my weakness, I suppose.
Um, let's just take a step back because I, I want to. Um, I'm imagining people who are listening to the show who maybe don't do text
Benefits of SMS marketing
messaging, marketing, or SMS marketing. And so what would be the benefits of SMS messages for e-commerce marketers?
Why? I mean, you've already mentioned that, you know, % of people are gonna open them within the three first three minutes.
We don't get a lot of text messages, but are there some other reasons that we should really think about doing this if we're not already doing it?
Um, well, I mean, we can think about abandoned cart emails. If you remember them, when they started appearing, when people started using them,
what happened was they just converted. They gave more. They offered more sale to the stores, to the store owners.
And it's the same with text messages. It just gives you another marketing channel to get in contact with
your clients, with your customers. Um, doughnut difference is that the conversion rate is extremely higher.
The open rate is just unimaginable. Having a, an having been open rate of % and a return of investment
of somewhere between %. And some of our users have a return of investment of, I think around
% that outfits that's our top, uh, user, uh, and a few brands have
a return of investment of per. And not just like for a short time span.
Uh, we just like two months ago, a large, uh, brand that does, uh,
clothing, uh, started using us. I mean, started using card boss.
Yeah. They constantly just have like a two and to % return of investment.
So you don't lose money. Uh, You just sell more stuff and it's honestly a no brainer you've got nothing
to do is, um, because yeah, I mean, if you just put in a bit of money,
like euros and you get euros back, even more, you know, so yeah.
It's just useful. And even people, you know, the recipients of the text message.
W we check, you know, how many people unsubscribed from the received, receiving the text messages on average?
I mean, on average, on people that are contacted, uh, one person unsubscribes.
So yeah. Yeah, well, honestly, I thought that more people will, when you
compare them, when you compare that information to email marketing, which
of course everybody should be doing. Uh, and we, we say that everybody should be doing email marketing.
Um, but it's interesting when you compare those numbers to email marketing, because text messaging then, um, has a dramatically high.
Uh, open rate, um, I mean, dramatically higher, you know, you're talking %.
Um, it seems to have a much bigger return on investment than email marketing.
Um, and it seems to have a lower unsubscribe rate than email marketing.
At least that's from some of the numbers that you're telling me, I guess it's going to differ. From company to company and obviously a website to website.
So you're going to have to check it out, but it's, it's interesting that you call text messaging, marketing a bit of a no brainer.
So when you compare SMS marketing with email marketing, um, I guess
it is a bit of a no brainer. So when our. When I'm starting out in e-commerce, uh, today I'm, I'm thinking, how do
I build my e-commerce marketing list? How do I build my email subscribers? Right.
How do I, cause I know that long-term, I need to have a good email marketing system, but how do I do that with text messaging subscribers?
Building a SMS list
Do I need a strategy? Which says I need to do this to get new subscribers, to my text messaging, like.
It's actually no different than with emails. You know, you can share a show up, pop up on the site, uh, explain that
you are going to offer different special deals via text messages. And then the day we're going to be the first one to get it.
Uh, but the most successful way is on the checkout. You know, where you can just say, have a checkbox underneath the.
And just say like, Hey, would you like to subscribe to our text messages, text messaging, emailing, and that's it.
Um, it's not a big, how do you say, um, a big, uh, mental breakthrough?
You know, it's completely the same just with emails. Um, uh, because people don't want to learn new stuff.
Like. Visitors of your website. They don't want to learn new stuff and you don't want to show
them something revolutionary. You just have to keep it as things were before.
Just introduce that. It's not going to be with emails anymore. That it's going to be with text messages, which is even better, you
know, because old people, for example, they don't usually open emails.
They don't even know what I mean. Usually they are really bad with emails.
But with text messages, they're really keen on using them. They know how to use their phone.
So it's a more personalized experience. So that's why people read, like, to, uh, subscribe to their mailing lists.
I mean, to their SMS mailing lists. Um, it's better that way.
Yeah. Okay. So putting it in checkout, um, I get that.
That makes an awful lot of sense. Um, and to be honest with you, I'm just thinking about all the websites that I've been on. Very few of them are doing SMS marketing.
Very few of them. Ask if they can send me a text message. Yeah. Is there, I guess, is there some kind of rules and regulations, like
SMS marketing and GDPR compliance
email is very highly regulated. You know, we've got GDPR now in Europe and all that sort of stuff.
Um, it's just text messaging fall under the same banner. Do we have to, you know, think about things like compliance
and GDPR compliance and. Yeah. Yeah. GDPR does comply in this case.
Uh it's there's also a special regulation in the U S um, but
regarding text messages, it's more in a way that even specific
countries have their own regulations. So it needs to be checked if you can send them or.
I mean, you are safe. If you show a checkbox, you know, underneath the phone field on
a checkout that you ask them if they comply to receiving them.
But if you want to optimize your marketing, you can check in, in each specific country.
If the chat box can be preselected or if it even needs to be shown, you know, so.
And that way you need to change those stuff out to optimize marketing. And then there is of course, the option to send post-purchase text messages or
win-back, or campaigns to your existing clients, to your existing, to the
people that already bought on your site. There was a question regarding if you can contact them without their consent.
Uh, because if someone has already bought something on your side, they have to check
that they comply with the regulations of the website of how they operate.
And if you have that insight in the privacy policy written, in that case, you might be able to send them text messages and that specific.
Uh, don't go anywhere. We're going to carry on this conversation very, very shortly, uh, about SMS messaging.
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so, uh, yeah, today before, uh, we were talking about permissions and how, you know, a simple checkbox, um, would be helpful and maybe
updating the terms and conditions on your, on your website, obviously. Um, you need to add, well, I don't want to do is get into
giving all kinds of legal advice. We're just going to recommend people, go check out rules for themselves, but these are some of the things that obviously people have, uh, some
of your clients have done before. Um, so we've got the permission of the subscriber, right?
We've. We've got they've, they've checked the they've checked.
They've ticked the checkbox. Uh, and, uh, we've got the permissions. Now you mentioned about, um, abandoned cars.
SMS marketing strategies to reduce abandoned carts
Let's talk about that for a little bit. Uh, how can SMS marketing then, uh, help us reduce abandoned carts?
How do you see it working effectively? What are some of the strategies there? Well, uh, it's simple when someone abandons their car, As soon as possible,
you automatically send them a text message saying, Hey John, you forgot something in your cart, or you can even go for it or saying like, Hey, you forgot
the basketball in your shopping cart. Don't forget to check out complete your order.
Before the stock runs out, there was a link in the text message who clicks on the
link gets to the checkout, the checkout. Already prefilled with his information, uh, because that's the thing
like % of, uh, abandoned carts actually fill out the complete form.
And then they abandoned the cart because that is the reason behind that is that when you're on the phone, you know, you write in all the
information, then you get to the price point or you see that the shipping is.
Bryce and additional fees and stuff like that. And then you live with the site. So that's why they fill out most of the form.
Anyways, they get automatically redirected to the checkout. That's already prefilled with all their information.
If you perhaps offer a discount it's already embedded and a checkout.
I mean, in the past, So, all they need to do is complete the door or, I mean, click complete.
Uh, usually what you do is you have two, three text messages set up, you
know, like the first one is honestly just the best way for the first one is just to have it as a gentle rule.
Not to offer any discount at all. And why I'm saying this is because that text message
actually offers the best results. The first one with zero, uh, discount, nothing special adult.
Um, then the second one is usually with some kind of a discount or free shipping.
Depends, you know, on your shop. What's the bottleneck white people. Don't complete the order.
And then perhaps the third one, but they all should be spent in a.
Um, small time span, for example, the first one after five, minutes, 
perhaps if you have some kind of other upsell options as well on your site, uh, then the second one after two to four hours, something like that.
And then the third one, perhaps after six, hours, something like, yeah.
Oh, short time span for the abandoned cart text message. Because a lot of people actually.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, you do want to convince them to complete the order and if a
gentle reminder does it work, that means that they honestly don't want to buy it because of the price or something.
Uh, so it's best just to send them different offers, to see which one is the one that can work.
And then if you see, for example, that the, I dunno, appreciating
is the one that really work. That means that your shipping costs are too high and maybe you
should change them on your site. And that way you wouldn't even get so many abandoned carts and.
That's really. Um, that's really, I, I mean, that's a top tip right there. You know, you, you, uh, you look at, um, I like that.
I like that a lot. So if you're sending out, um, you know, free shipping text messages in your abandoned carts are converting as a result, check your shipping cost because
maybe they asked too high and you can experiment with that a little bit. I think that's, that's, that's very clever. It's useful. I think when you look at.
You know, these, these tactics like SMS messaging, and it gives you data, which helps you make your website better general, meaning you can
use it in multiple different ways. Um, to the, you know, that sort of make sure website better, which I really like.
I really liked that. So the first email is a first email. Sorry. The first text message is, um, is a sort of a general, uh, a gentle reminder.
I like that phrase a gentle reminder. Uh, the second one is maybe free shipping or a discount on the product.
What would the third text message. Uh, just the percentage. It can be a percentage discount or a few of our, uh, users do a free gift,
for example, complete your order and get a free gift with, uh, with it.
So that that's, that's one type of text message. But.
Mostly it's just like they send, like the first one is free. The second one is a discount or free shipping.
And the second one is if previously it was free shipping and now it's a discount or a higher discount than previously.
So nothing special. Honestly, the free gift is just some alternative that some of our users do.
Okay. That's really, really fast. So all you need is three text messages for your abandoned cart.
If they've still not purchased that day, have you, is there a fourth text message the next day, or do you just kind of go wait, you know, Leave that person alone.
They're obviously not that interested or maybe put them in an email funnel somewhere. Yeah, no, you just leave them alone because if they didn't convert
now, they, they just love it. You know, they've got a text message that we're waiting for them if they decide to.
Uh, but if that doesn't help it, it's useless. You're just losing money at that point.
Okay. Yeah, no, that's helpful. So, um, I can see how X, uh, text messaging works for abandoned carts.
I think, um, one of the things that I'm, I'm deeply concerned about or deeply interested in is maybe a better way to put it when it comes to e-commerce.
Um, certainly on our sites is the whole customer experience. You know, how do I, how do we make customer service better?
How do we make the whole customer experience better? And I guess one of the ways that I see.
Um, text messages being super helpful. And I, and again, let me know what you think about this.
Um, With simple things like shipping updates. Hi, we've got your order, your, your, your order shipped.
Here's the tracking number as well as sending that out by email. Are those text messages helpful or should I not, not really think
about those and just focus more on maybe marketing specific. Uh, we don't actually do that with, uh, Carlos.
We don't offer that kind of support, but during the research, uh, the number of, uh, Products.
I mean, the packages delivered. Uh, S higher. I mean, when you do, um, cash on delivery payments, uh, there is a lot of people
that don't actually just take the package. They decide, decide not to even take it.
So the post needs to bring it. If you do use text messages to remind them, Hey, your package is on the way.
Uh, if I remember correctly, there was an increase in deliverability of the packages, but I don't recall how big into us.
I mean, what the percentage was
in the scalp does. I mean, I'm intrigued. Okay. I'm intrigued.
Why. And while you caught boss, don't do that then.
Is there a reason you've not gone down that road? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, there was a lot of different, uh, suppliers, you know, for
example, you've got the HR again and multiple different, uh, offers.
Uh, then you've got to different, um, Uh, those, um, companies, you know, did they,
uh, offer billing and stuff like that? Uh, they also have like integrations with that.
Our main focus is on sale, you know, selling as much recovering, abandoned
carts, growing your conversion rates. That's our main focus.
After the sale has been done. We're just focusing on nurturing that a client of yours not doing the
whole deliverability and everything that that's not our main goal. Our main goal is car.
Yeah. Ah, the clue as they say is in the name. Yes.
No, I get that. And, and, and actually you're right. The more I think about it, I mean, a lot of the male companies that we use
will actually send a text message to clients say, no, we're going to deliver between and today or whatever.
So you focus on sales. So you obviously we've talked about cart abandonment. That's one area that we can use text messages, and you've alluded
to some other areas like wingback campaigns and stuff like that. So why don't you elaborate on maybe two or three other key areas that
I should really think about text messages and maybe give us a bit of insight into strategy into that?
Winback SMS
Well, uh, text messages. That simple after you complete an order, you, we have a funnel for
example, that after four weeks after you compete in an order, you get another
text message saying, Hey, thanks for being a loyal, loyal client of ours.
Here's a coupon code for % off on anything on our site.
And that's it. And they convert amazingly. I mean, you must take into account what kind of a website you have
this win-back text messages. They are useful, really useful. They have a return of investment of around %, but they are useful
for brands they're not useful for just like regular impulse. Shops, you know, where they sell a bunch of different stuff.
You need to have a shop. That's really focused on those specific things like clothing and stuff like that.
Um, but if you have a site like that, then you can just send each month a text
message saying, Hey, here's a coupon code. And to the second one, the next month again, Hey, it was a coupon code.
It's good that the messages are. Uh, because otherwise you just have like, uh, you know, like the
default text messages, text message. Did you get kind of used to, and you can even say to yourself, oh, this
month I'm going to get the same text message again with the coupon code. Uh, but otherwise if you just change the text a bit each month and yeah.
Done deal, you know, people are just going to convert because everybody's into those special offers.
Text message viewed the results, honestly. Uh, you can also do, you know, uh, special landing pages, for example, for just
for the recipients of text messages. And you can include the link in the win-back text message saying, Hey,
because you're a loyal customer. You're going dis link and choose five different products and they
are all discounted for you for %. Uh, those types of messages also give amazing results, you know, uh, but
mentioning this specific, specific way, this is something that we collaborate
with big brands and give them the idea to do something like that.
We help them. Yes, the whole text message to get or so that they don't mess anything up.
We talked to the developers to give them like a heads up, like, look, this would be a good way of doing it and stuff like that.
Um, because it, it is important that you collaborate with, uh, companies,
even if we're a SAS company, you know, we do make calls to them, uh, just to optimize the whole process of, uh, Just to give you an example.
Uh, if you've got a landing page, I mean a one pager, where does.
Order completion form is in the bottom and the top, you've got the product details.
You know, we talk to the developers and explain to them like, look, when someone receives a text message, they should be scrolled down
completely to the bottom line that they get just to the top of the page. And that affected the conversion rates drastically.
I mean, if I remember correctly, it was somewhere around %.
Yeah, that's important. Well, that's interesting that you would, um, that you would do, uh, I like that
landing specific landing pages for your SMS campaigns, I think has a clever idea, um, and testing the different offers and the different timeframes
on the wind back, uh, messaging. So I've got abandoned cart, I've got a win back messaging sequence.
Um, is there, is there another sequence, uh, that I should think of? What should I use it? For example, if I'm just.
Um, should I use SMS, I guess just for general offers or general, just sort of, you know, like we'd send an email maybe once a month to scan,
oh, this is this, or this is a new product or something like that. Would you use SMS for that kind of general?
Yeah. Yeah, you would. Uh, but the thing is that we haven't gone down that path yet because when
we did a lot of, I mean, we do a lot of research before we do a fresh functionality, the results from other companies, weren't that good at all.
I mean, you didn't get a return of investment of % or %.
You got a lower percentage. You got like % or even less.
Post purchase SMS sequences
Uh, so one thing that, uh, that we do have is post-purchase text messages,
meaning exactly after, uh, order has been completed just like five minutes afterwards, send a text message.
Uh, and those are also really, really successful. Those Gadens, uh, depending on the site as well again, uh, but those
get a return of investment of around %, which is also quite nice.
So yeah.
So what does a post-purchase sequence look like? Uh, honestly that's not even a sequence.
That's usually just one text message or perhaps two text messages, but it's
just, Hey, uh, Thanks for buying it us. Here's a link to a product page, select any product you want.
Uh, that's one example or the second one is, Hey, thanks for buying this product. Would you be interested in this and this and this?
Uh, and there, there was just the Lincoln site. Um, of course the product needs to be quite cheap, uh, so that they
complete the order or have like, you know, the % off or % off even.
Um, but yeah. It's almost exactly the same, like with emails when you do both purchase or
post-purchase marketing just adhere, you usually want to be more personal
faster because you know that the response is going to be immediate. Uh, but otherwise, yeah, uh, nothing that's special honesty,
just that it's text messages.
So what you're, what you're saying today is, is that, um, and what I'm hearing is that SMS marketing for e-commerce businesses is remarkably.
Um, and remarkably effective when you just focus on one or two key areas,
um, and don't really try and make it any, anything more complicated, which multi is a brilliant try to do.
Aren't they they're just, let's just make this more complicated than it needs to be. Why? Because we just want it. And, uh, so, so one of the things that you mentioned actually, which I
Countries where SMS messaging works well
just want to pick up on in our pre. Um, so the call we do before we do the podcast, uh, is that text message
marketing is more effective in some countries than in others, for example.
Um, and you. You mentioned that a few. I can't remember the countries that you mentioned now, but I just remember,
I just remember you pointing out that actually that in certain countries, SMS messaging was super, super effective.
So if you are operating in those countries, you definitely need to take advantage of it.
So what, what countries does SMS messaging work super well at the moment?
Uh, yeah, you've got, uh, Poland, Czech, um, hungry, uh, Um, uh, Ponant I did
mention, I mean, honestly, there's most countries that operate amazing.
Uh, then there is countries that are, for example, Germany, isn't that good because
they're not into that kind of thing. They don't enjoy receiving a text message. All of a sudden, uh, Austria is also not that good, which is.
Similar. Um, so those two countries are imbed goods, but otherwise you've got, for
example, there's, uh, Italy, that's a bit low on the performance, but do
keep in mind low in performance for us means that it's somewhere between
under % and definitely above %.
Uh, original of investment. Um, so yeah, yeah. Do keep in mind that, uh, and all other countries are usually
roughly around %, but there are countries that do get like %,
% and somewhere around dead. But, uh, honestly you, you cannot, uh, mess things up.
You have nothing to lose, uh, eh, Uh, that's why we did like, uh,
look just register and we'll give you bucks free credits, just try it out and you'll see how it goes.
And, uh, because you know, people are just like, yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'm just going to lose money and everything and yeah, no, you're not,
you're definitely not going to lose money. Even if you operate in Germany, you will not lose money with us.
I mean, just the return on investment. Won't be as high as.
%. Yeah, I guess the, the, the response here of course is you've got to test it
haven't you and see what works for you and your, your business, your website, your product, your, you know, your customers really, and see whether they're there
it's the whole SMS thing, but it seems like you say like a bit of a no brainer. So, um, I guess how to, um, if I'm at an e-commerce.
Entrepreneurial and business, uh, um, I'm kind of interested in the numbers. They all seem a little bit too good to be true.
So I'm clicking, I'm curious, I'm going. I want to try this. How can an e-commerce business start using, uh, SMS marketing?
How to start using SMS marketing for your business
What's a good place to sort of begin. Uh, well you just have to type in on Google cardboard to get to us because
the thing is that why we're different than everybody else is because we've got everything already prepared.
Meaning we've got the WooCommerce plugin, Shopify app, um, custom
software development kits that can be quite easily implemented. Um, and we're doing additional add on support, different platforms.
Uh, But that's not, I mean, that is important because otherwise you wouldn't
have an instance, uh, integration with us. You just write in the API key and that's it.
Uh, the text messages are already prepared and translated, you know? Uh, so I mean, you can write your own if you want, but otherwise
you've got everything already set up. Uh, we detect the language of the recipient, so we don't need
to do any settings, you know? Connect your site. Uh, the recipients will always get their text message in their own language.
And because they're already written and translated and tested, everything works out of the box.
Uh, the links are automatically detected for, you know, linked to the checkout.
So everything is there. Uh, you honestly just connect your site.
Of course you can choose what kind of text message you want to say. And what's the kind of delay what the discount amount, but otherwise,
yeah, it's, it's, you know, when they say it's a five minute integration, uh, and then it boils it down to being a minute integration.
Uh, we, it's not this isn't a five minute integration. It's I dunno, it's a two minute integration, including the registration.
Connect your site, install the plugin, put in the API key, activates two different text messages done.
You don't even have to think about it. And the thing is that our solution is so dead simple that we get
actually a lot of questions like, Hey, where do you set the language? I mean, I know that it's written that it's, everything is already
prepared and translated, but what do you actually mean by that? And then we need to explain, you know, like, yeah.
Everything is on automatic, completely automatic on autopilot. You don't have to even think about it.
Um, and yeah, after they go through the shock of being so simple to integrate it
in their real commerce or Shopify store, they're just like, this is amazing. This is just amazing.
It's so simple. Um, and then we usually get, I mean, occasionally we do get after two or three days.
A text message from them or an email saying just like, well, this really works.
This is insane. Um, and they showed their results, you know, they send us their return of investment and everything.
I'm like, yeah, yeah. You find anybody we know. Um, but yeah, it it's, it's honestly really good.
Brilliant. Well, that's how you get set up. Um, so I thought I was going to summarize this.
What is a good SMS marketing strategy? What I've heard today and correct me if I'm wrong is number one.
Obviously you need to set up some kind of system, whether it's with cop boss or somebody else, but capo seems pretty straightforward.
Um, number two, you're going to have to get permission from your users.
Um, And, you know, figure that out. Number three, you're going to have to set up some sequences. So your abandoned cart sequence, your win-back sequence and your
post-purchase sequence seemed like three good things to sort of stop. Obviously your system has already got those included, but make sure they're
going to work for you and your clients. Number four, test your results. Uh, and then number five sent today and text message a few weeks later again.
Yeah, actually this really works. Uh, and that seems to me to be a, a great SMS marketing strategy.
Is there anything that I've missed there, but no. No, just don't don't waste time.
Just do it, you know? As soon as possible, because the sooner you start, the sooner you're going to get better results and just demolish your marketing.
I mean, you're just going to grow.
I like that. Demolish your marketing as a brilliant place. Uh, listen, uh, today I've thoroughly enjoyed a conversation I really
have, and I guess there's going to be people with questions that want to reach out, want to connect. So people want to connect with you and get ahold of you.
Connect with Tadej
What's the best way to do that. You can send me.
Which is weird because we do text messages. But now I say, send me an email, uh, email on info ads, card,
bus, uh, info ads, card, boss.io. That's one way, uh, they can contact me via LinkedIn.
Uh, anyway actually is okay. We've got a contact form on our website.
You can do a dare as well. Um, anything goes actually, and we usually respond within one day.
So. Great. Wonderful.
Make sure you do too. If you've got any questions I'm SU I'm sure there'll be more than happy to help you. We will, of course put all of the links to today, uh, in the show notes
and you'll be able to reach out to him, um, and ask your questions yet, but like you said, do it get started.
I'd love to know the results as well. So if you are going to implement SMS marketing, uh, please do
let us know how you get on. Uh, I think. Today, all this left for me to say is, thank you so much for joining us.
It's been an absolute privilege to talk to you a real treat. Uh, and I'm, I'm curious to see the impact of this for our, for our show listeners.
Thank you. So. Thank you for having me. It was really nice. Thanks.
Wrap up with Matt
So there you have it. What a fantastic conversation. Huge. Thanks again to today for joining me.
Don't forget to check out a complete back catalog online.
Just head on over to the e-commerce. I keep saying that don't I, whenever I do the segment of the show, it's
not the e-commerce podcast.net. I am going to buy that domain. Because I've said it so many times, uh, check out e-commerce
podcast.net is the right domain. Uh, and there you can subscribe to the show.
We'll let you know what's coming up. You can check out all the back, uh, issues. Is it back issues back versus back catalog back catalog is probably the
right phrase of the e-commerce podcast. Cause we've got well over a hundred episodes now all devoted
to helping you get better on line. Don't forget. Don't.
I need to put my teeth back in. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from, because we have
some great conversations lined up and I don't want you to miss any of them. And in case no one has told you today, you, my friend are awesome.
Tadej Bogataj

CartBoss

