Integrating SMS with Your Klaviyo Abandoned Cart Flow for Better Recovery

Most eCom brands are leaving money on the table. Their abandoned cart flows haven’t been touched since they were first set up, and they rely entirely on email. In 2024, that’s like trying to run a race with one leg tied behind your back.

Email open rates for these flows are often sitting between 20-30%. That means 7 or 8 out of every 10 people who abandon a cart never even see your first recovery message. When I was scaling my own stores, this was a number I couldn’t accept. The solution isn’t to send more emails. It’s to add a channel that people actually open. SMS is that channel.

Why SMS is essential for multi-channel abandoned cart recovery

Relying solely on email for cart recovery is a slow leak in your revenue bucket. Email inboxes are crowded. Your message is competing with dozens of other brands, newsletters, and personal communications. It’s easy to get lost.

SMS cuts through that noise.

The numbers are hard to argue with. SMS open rates are consistently reported at 98% or higher, with most messages being read within three minutes of receipt. Compare that to the average marketing email, which might sit unopened for hours or days, if it gets opened at all. This immediacy is critical when a customer has just shown high purchase intent.

SMS doesn’t replace email. It works with it. A well-structured flow uses both channels to create a persistent, yet not annoying, recovery sequence. An email can deliver a rich, visual experience with product images. An SMS can deliver a short, sharp reminder with a direct link back to the checkout.

At Elite Brands, we’ve seen Klaviyo accounts add a single SMS to their abandoned cart flow and lift the flow’s overall conversion rate by 5-8 percentage points. For a store doing $2 million a year, that’s an extra $100,000 in revenue from a few simple setup steps.

Setting up SMS steps in your Klaviyo abandoned cart flow

Integrating SMS into your existing Klaviyo flow is straightforward. The platform is built for this kind of multi-channel marketing. But before you add the first message, you need to get the foundations right.

Ensuring SMS consent collection and compliance

You cannot send marketing SMS messages without explicit consent. This is non-negotiable, especially in Australia. Check how you’re currently collecting phone numbers.

The best places to get consent are: * At checkout: Klaviyo has a setting that adds a checkbox for SMS marketing consent directly on the Shopify checkout page. Make sure the language is clear. Something like, “Text me with news and offers.” * In your pop-up forms: If you’re using a Klaviyo form to collect emails, add a second step to collect a phone number for SMS. Always be explicit about what they are signing up for.

Don’t assume you can text someone just because they gave you their number for shipping updates. That’s a fast track to compliance trouble.

Integrating SMS into your existing Klaviyo flow

Once you have a system for collecting consent, adding the SMS action is simple.

1. Navigate to the ‘Flows’ section in your Klaviyo account.
2. Find and click on your existing Abandoned Cart flow.
3. Look at your current email sequence. Decide where you want the first SMS to go. A common placement is a few hours after the first email.
4. From the menu on the left, drag the ‘SMS’ action onto the flow canvas and drop it in your desired position.
5. Click on the new SMS block to configure it. You’ll write your copy, add your links, and set your sending settings.

You need to use conditional splits to ensure you only send SMS messages to people who have actually consented. Drag a ‘Conditional Split’ block just before your SMS action. The logic should be: “If someone is or is not consented to receive SMS”. Profiles that have consented will go down the ‘Yes’ path to receive the SMS. Everyone else will go down the ‘No’ path, skipping it.

Timing your SMS messages for maximum impact

Blasting a customer with an email and an SMS at the same time is a bad experience. You need to orchestrate the timing.

A sequence I’ve seen work well across many accounts is: * Time Zero: Customer abandons cart. * 1 Hour: First email sends. This is the standard reminder with cart contents. * 3-4 Hours: First SMS sends. This is a short, direct message. It assumes they may have missed the email. * 24 Hours: Second email sends. This might introduce a small incentive or address common hesitations. * 48 Hours: Second SMS sends (optional). This is a final reminder, perhaps with a stronger element of urgency if stock is low.

Test these timings. Every audience is different. The key is to avoid sending messages on different channels too close together. Give each message time to be seen and acted upon before you send the next one. Getting this logic right can be complex, and it’s where our Klaviyo expert team spends a lot of time optimising flows for clients.

Crafting effective SMS copy for cart recovery

You have 160 characters to work with in a standard SMS. There is no room for fluff. Every word has to earn its place.

Your message must do three things: 1. Remind them who you are. 2. Remind them what they left behind. 3. Give them a direct path back.

Personalisation is crucial. Use the customer’s first name to grab their attention. Reference the items in their cart if possible, though this can be tricky with character limits. Always use the {{ event.extra.checkout_url }} dynamic tag from Klaviyo. This generates a unique link that takes the user directly back to their pre-populated cart, removing all friction.

Urgency can work, but use it honestly. “Your cart expires in 24 hours” or “An item in your cart is low in stock” are effective tactics.

Here’s a solid template:

Hey {{ first_name }}, it’s Dan from Elite Brands. You left some items in your cart. Complete your order before they sell out: {{ event.extra.checkout_url }}

Offering a discount can be a powerful lever, but don’t lead with it in your first message. Save it for a second or third touchpoint. A small offer like free shipping is often enough to get someone over the line.

Finally, you must include opt-out instructions. The standard is “Reply STOP to opt out”. This is a legal requirement, and Klaviyo manages the unsubscribe process automatically when someone replies with ‘STOP’.

Australian SMS marketing compliance for abandoned carts

Getting SMS compliance wrong in Australia is expensive. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) enforces the Spam Act 2003, and they are not afraid to issue significant fines. I’ve seen brands get hit with penalties in the tens of thousands of dollars for simple mistakes.

There are three core rules you must follow for every commercial SMS you send.

1. You must have consent. As mentioned earlier, this must be express consent. A customer giving you their phone number for shipping does not count as consent for marketing. They need to have ticked a box or explicitly agreed to receive promotional messages.

2. You must identify yourself. Your SMS message must clearly state who it is from. This is usually your brand name. Don’t assume they will recognise the sending number.

3. You must provide a functional opt-out. Every message needs to include a way for the recipient to unsubscribe. “Reply STOP to opt out” is the industry standard and is automatically handled by platforms like Klaviyo. Make sure this is present in every single message.

Keep your subscriber lists clean. Regularly review and remove numbers that are no longer valid or have opted out. Following these rules isn’t just about avoiding fines. It’s about respecting your customers and building trust.

Best practices for combining email and SMS in your Klaviyo abandoned cart flow

A great multi-channel flow feels like a single, coordinated conversation. A bad one feels like you’re being yelled at from two different rooms. The goal is to be persistent, not annoying.

Use Klaviyo’s flow logic to your advantage. A key strategy is to use ‘flow filters’. For example, you can add a filter to your second email that says “Has not clicked SMS in this flow”. This prevents you from sending an email to someone who is already re-engaged and heading back to your site from the text message. This creates a much better customer experience.

Always be testing. Don’t just set up your SMS messages and forget them. You should constantly run A/B tests on: * Copy: Try a direct approach vs. a more personality-driven message. * Timing: Does sending an SMS at 2 hours convert better than at 4 hours? * Incentives: Test free shipping vs. a 10% discount code. See which one generates a higher net profit.

The metrics to watch are your click-through rate (CTR) and your revenue per recipient for each message. In Klaviyo, you can see exactly how much revenue each individual email and SMS in your flow has generated. This data is gold. Use it to cut what isn’t working and double down on what is.

We’ve applied these multi-channel principles to dozens of brands, and you can see some of our results in how we’ve lifted conversion rates. The pattern is always the same. A thoughtful, integrated approach using both email and SMS outperforms an email-only strategy every time.

Optimising these flows is an ongoing process. Customer behaviour changes, and your strategy needs to adapt. Review the performance of your abandoned cart flow at least once a quarter. A few small tweaks based on real data can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

If you want an experienced set of eyes on your current Klaviyo setup, my team can help.