US Regulations about SMS Reminders in Abandonment Flows

This information is not legal advice. While we do our best to provide useful information to use as a starting point, Yotpo SMS & Email advises all merchants to obtain professional legal advice to ensure that all marketing campaigns are sent in full compliance with all applicable laws.

What are abandonment flows?

In eCommerce marketing, abandonment flows are automated sequences that send SMS reminders to customers when they leave your website or store without making a purchase. These flows can be triggered by any of the following events:

• Site abandonment: When a customer views any page on your website and leaves without making a purchase

• Browse abandonment: When a customer views a specific product in your store and leaves without making a purchase

• Abandoned checkout: When a customer adds products to their cart and begins the checkout process but leaves before completing their purchase

Please note:

Notifications will be sent only to customers who have agreed to receive marketing messages.

With Yotpo SMS & Email, consent can be obtained at your store’s checkout or via our various subscriber collection tools all of which are built-in for compliance with the regulations and include the required legal verbiage. To learn more, see Customizing Your Shopify Checkout Opt-In Box and Introduction to Subscriber Collection Tools.

How do abandonment flow reminders work?

Abandonment flow reminders allow merchants to contact their customers via a text message after they leave the website or abandon their shopping cart. When customers click the link provided in the text message, they are taken back to exactly where they left off. This is especially effective for Abandoned Checkout flows, making it easy and convenient for customers to complete their purchases.

With Yotpo SMS & Email’s advanced features, merchants can also include in the abandoned checkout message images of the products left behind in the shopping cart.

Why are abandonment flow reminders super effective?

The average percentage of abandoned carts is over 80%, which means that 4 out of 5 customers will leave an online store without completing their order. Sending a timely and personalized reminder shortly after a customer has left their cart has proven to be one of the most effective tools for eCommerce merchants to fight high churn rates and boost conversions.

What are the legal requirements for merchants?

According to industry guidelines provided by the CTIA and the mobile carriers, all merchants must comply with the following requirements when sending abandonment flow reminders to customers in the US:

1. Merchants must obtain applicable consent before sending abandoned flow reminders.

2. Merchants must disclose in their Privacy Policy how abandonment flow reminders will link, correlate, or identify the customer’s phone number to the exact abandoned session or shopping cart (i.e., through the use of cookies, plugins, etc). To learn more, see Recommended Terms of Service and Privacy Policy when using Yotpo SMS & Email.

3. Merchants must limit their abandonment flow reminders to 1 per shopping session.

4. Merchants must send the abandonment flow reminders within 48 hours after the shopping session or the shopping cart were abandoned.

5. Merchants must include opt-out verbiage in every abandonment flow reminder (i.e., STOP to opt-out).

Important:

To comply with CTIA regulations, Yotpos SMS & Email flows permit merchants to send only 1 abandonment reminder to customers in the US within 48 hours of a session or checkout. By default, every message includes opt-out verbiage.