Automatically follow up with shoppers who leave items in their cart by sending personalized SMS or MMS messages. Each message includes a unique link that brings customers right back to their cart, making it easy for them to complete their purchase while enhancing their experience and recovering lost sales.
This use case builds on the abandoned cart email program. See Recover lost sales using abandoned cart emails to learn more.
Use case
Imagine a customer browses your online store, adds a few items to their cart, but leaves without purchasing. Instead of losing the sale, you can automatically send a friendly SMS or MMS reminder containing their unique cart link, and, with MMS, even a product image. Such timely nudge can be the difference between a lost sale and a delighted repeat customer.
Before you start
Make sure you have the following before setting up your abandoned cart SMS or MMS:
Dotdigital Tag installed and active on your site.
Ensure Ecommerce tracking is toggled on in Tag settings so CartInsight is populated.
Learn more in Add the Dotdigital Tag for instructions.
CartInsight data available in your Dotdigital account.
CartInsight tracking powers abandoned cart emails, but capturing this data requires additional scripting on your website in addition to enabling Ecommerce tracking in Tag settings.
Learn more in Extend the Dotdigital Tag for abandoned cart and browse.
Email and SMS contacts merged. So each customer appears once in the contact list with both email and mobile data where applicable.
Mobile numbers stored in the system Mobile Number field. This is Dotdigital’s built‑in contact field, not a custom data field.
Link shortening enabled in your SMS/MMS campaign settings.
Shortened links not only conserve message space and improve appearance, they are also essential for tracking recipient clicks in your SMS campaigns.
Step‑by‑step guide to creating an abandoned cart SMS or MMS campaign
1. Create your abandoned cart SMS or MMS campaign
In Dotdigital, go to Automation > Triggered SMS/MMS.
Select NEW CAMPAIGN, name your campaign, and choose SAVE.
In the Message field, type your abandoned cart reminder text. For example:
Hey there! Noticed you left some items in your cart. Don't miss out — complete your purchase now: [cart link]
2. Insert the cart‑specific link
You need to insert the dynamic cartUrl from the CartInsight data collection.
In the campaign message box, select the Personalization icon.
In the Insert personalization side panel, choose Liquid markup.
Paste the following Liquid code:
{% assign cr = contact.insight.CartInsight | sort: 'modifiedDate' | reverse | first %}{{ cr.cartUrl }}
This code:Sorts the contact’s CartInsight records by modifiedDate
Picks the most recent record
Outputs its cartUrl value into the SMS/MMS message
Select APPLY.
Important:
CartInsightandmodifiedDateare case‑sensitive — incorrect casing breaks the personalisation.cartUrlmust be captured by the Dotdigital Tag — test that your Tag implementation sends this field.
3. Preview your message
Above the preview pane, use the PREVIEW AS button.
Enter a test contact’s email address or mobile number.
Select the contact to see their personalised message.
To preview for another contact, clear the field and search again.
4. Add your SMS or MMS campaign to a program
This works like abandoned cart email automation — the difference is the send node type.
Go to Automation > Programs.
Select NEW PROGRAM.
Follow the structure in Create an abandoned cart program, but:
Use an SMS campaign node or MMS campaign node instead of an Email campaign node.
Optional: Combine email + SMS in the same program.
Use the SMS and Email – Abandoned cart program template — this sends SMS/MMS to contacts with a valid Mobile Number in the system field, and email to those without.
Summary
Using SMS and MMS for abandoned cart reminders is a fast, effective way to re‑engage customers and recover lost revenue. With personalized cart links and fully automated programs, you deliver the right message at the right time, without manual effort.