Messenger vs email in a cart abandonment popup: +20% sign-ups
Test run byOptiMonkTesting and CRO tool
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAsking cart abandoners to subscribe through Facebook Messenger instead of email made BlendJet's checkout popup convert about 20% better.
OptiMonk ran this channel A/B test for the portable blender brand and published it as a case study.
The source does not say whether the extra sign-ups led to more sales.
- Popup conversion rate: about 20% higher with Messenger than email on the checkout page.
- Sales and revenue from each channel were not shared, so the downstream effect is unknown.
- BlendJet also tested SMS, but the source gives no SMS results.
The change
Email field replaced by a Facebook Messenger subscribe option.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
An exit-intent popup on the cart and checkout pages offered a 10% discount to visitors about to leave, in exchange for an email address.
Variant
The same popup asked visitors to subscribe through Facebook Messenger instead of email.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Subscribing through Messenger can take one tap for people logged into Facebook, while email means typing an address.
- On mobile, a one-tap option is easier than filling in a form.
- Shoppers may also see a chat message as less of a commitment than joining an email list.
Caveats: Sample size, duration and confidence were not shared, and the data is from 2019. Messenger marketing rules and tools have changed a lot since then.
Who ran it
OptiMonk ran this test for BlendJet and published the results (OptiMonk case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on OptiMonk →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we offer a one-tap messaging channel instead of an email field in our cart abandonment popup, then more abandoners will subscribe because it takes less effort.
- Primary metric
- Recovered orders per abandoner
- Guardrails
- Popup sign-up rate
- Unsubscribe or block rate
- Discount cost per recovered order
- Who should test it
- Stores with heavy mobile and social traffic and a working messaging flow to follow up. If your recovery revenue comes mostly from email flows, more sign-ups on another channel may not mean more sales.
Questions
Does Messenger beat email for cart recovery?
For sign-ups it did here, by about 20%.
Whether it recovers more sales depends on your follow-up messages.
Should I collect email or SMS in a cart abandonment popup?
Test the channels side by side, as BlendJet did.
Judge them on recovered orders, not just sign-ups.
Is this result still useful today?
It dates from 2019, and messaging platforms have changed since then.
Treat it as a reason to test channels, not as a current benchmark.
Similar tests
@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen