Abandoned cart messages are useful and quality tools for any eCommerce store to employ. It’s the perfect way to convince a near-purchase into completing one. More than that, it’s a feature Mobiniti has worked hard to integrate into our platform in a partnership with Shopify. Sadly, due to some misuse on other platforms, T-Mobile has decided to restrict the use of abandoned cart messages. These changes affect how they can be implemented.
From what we heard, eCommerce storefronts were being too aggressive with their abandoned shopping cart text messages. In other words, this resulted in too many consumer complaints. After enough consumers complained to their wireless carrier, T-Mobile created these new policies to protect their subscribers. This may seem like a reminder to do, for our many successful users. It’s simply important that everyone knows the new guidelines to market to T-Mobile users.
General requirements for abandoned cart messages
On a checkout page, there must now be a consent statement and checkbox to be clicked for abandoned cart messages. For instance, the consent statement should be similar to: “For a better experience, I agree to receive an SMS reminder for my shopping cart.”
All brands now must use a double opt-in flow to receive abandoned shopping cart SMS reminders. The double opt-in must ask consumers to reply with “YES”, or some synonym to receive abandoned cart messages. These text messages must include clearly stated text “shopping cart reminder”, opt-out instructions, and the number of text messages to be received per month.
Additional privacy policy disclosures include:
- The privacy policy must explicitly state how the eCommerce site captures information. This determines when a consumer cart has been abandoned (e.g. website cookies, plugins, etc).
- Terms and conditions must reflect the new policy.
- Text reminders must send within a 48-hour period. Limited them to one alert per unique abandoned cart.
- Abandoned cart notification cannot result in the eCommerce site completing the transaction on behalf of the consumer.
- Abandoned cart notification must not collect payment information or accept approval for purchase via keyword confirmation from the consumer.
- Consumers must complete the transaction by processing payment themselves via a direct URL link to the eCommerce website.
Some of these disclosures are good practices for abandoned cart messages. Sending a message within a 48-hour period is the window of effectiveness. Sending more than one is grounds for complaint. Furthermore, with Mobiniti’s integration, the URL link to the eCommerce website is already sends consumers to the checkout. From there they process the payment themselves.
Furthermore, these new guidelines are easy to follow with Mobiniti’s platform. For those interested, you can still operate under previous guidelines when you make more groups. You can try segmenting T-Mobile users from other network broadband providers currently. If you have any questions, please contact your dedicated account manager or our team at support@mobiniti.com, via live chat, or (855) 662-4648. You can also contact us if you want to expand your groups to segment your subscribers between phone providers.
