Drift Athletics: 340% Increase in Cart Recovery

Drift Athletics is a Portland-based fitness apparel brand selling direct-to-consumer through their Shopify store. Founded in 2020 by two former Nike designers, they'd built a cult following in the functional fitness community with their performance leggings and training shorts. Revenue was climbing—but so was a problem they couldn't ignore.

Their cart abandonment rate sat at 78%. Nearly four out of five shoppers who added a product to their cart walked away without completing the purchase. Their email-based recovery flow was converting at just 4.1%—decent for email, but nowhere near enough to make a dent in the $1.2 million they estimated was being left on the table annually.

The Problem: Email Alone Wasn't Cutting It

Drift's existing cart recovery setup was textbook: a three-email sequence sent at 1 hour, 24 hours, and 72 hours post-abandonment. The first email performed reasonably (18% open rate, 4.8% click rate). The second and third emails showed steep drop-offs—open rates below 12%, click rates under 2%.

The team's theory: by the time email #2 and #3 arrived, the moment had passed. Customers had either bought elsewhere, forgotten their interest, or buried the email under newer messages. They needed a faster, more direct channel to catch people while purchase intent was still high.

The Solution: SMS-First Cart Recovery

Drift Athletics partnered with Shymo in October 2023 to build an SMS-based cart recovery system. Rather than replacing their email flows entirely, they restructured the sequence to lead with SMS:

1. SMS at 1 hour — Conversational reminder, no discount. "Hey [name], your [product] is still in your cart. Grab it before it's gone → [link]"
2. SMS at 24 hours — Adds urgency + free shipping incentive. "Still thinking about the [product]? We'll throw in free shipping if you complete your order today → [link]"
3. Email at 48 hours — Longer-form message with product imagery and a 10% discount as a final nudge.

The key insight: SMS handled the speed, email handled the depth. The first two touchpoints moved to text for immediacy. Email stayed in the mix as the final, richest touchpoint for people who needed more convincing.

The A/B Testing Process

Drift didn't just flip a switch. They ran methodical A/B tests over 8 weeks to optimize every variable.

Test 1: Timing of first message. They tested SMS at 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours post-abandonment. The 1-hour window won—30 minutes felt too aggressive (higher opt-out rate), while 2 hours showed a meaningful drop in recovery rate.

Test 2: Discount vs. no discount in SMS #1. The no-discount version actually outperformed the 10%-off version by 16%. The conversational "hey, you forgot this" approach felt personal. The discount version felt transactional. They saved the discount for message #3 (email).

Test 3: Product name vs. generic language. Including the specific product name ("your Surge Training Shorts") drove 28% higher click-through than generic phrasing ("items in your cart"). Personalization wins.

Test 4: Free shipping vs. percentage discount in SMS #2. Free shipping outperformed 10% off by 22%. For Drift's $65–95 price range, the perceived value of free shipping was higher than a 10% discount—and it didn't erode their margins as much.

The Results: By the Numbers

The numbers tell the story, but a few details stand out:

• SMS message #1 (1 hour) drove 62% of all recoveries. The immediacy of text messaging caught shoppers while they still had purchase intent. Most of these conversions happened within 15 minutes of receiving the text.
• SMS message #2 (24 hours) added another 24% of recoveries. The free shipping incentive was enough to nudge fence-sitters over the line.
• Email at 48 hours captured the remaining 14%. These tended to be higher-AOV orders from customers who wanted more time to consider. The discount in the email was the final push they needed.
• The combined approach outperformed SMS-only by 11%. Drift tested an SMS-only sequence and found that the email as a third touchpoint still added meaningful incremental recovery.

Shopify Integration

A critical factor in Drift's success was the seamless integration between Shymo and their Shopify store. Cart data synced in real-time, which meant:

• Messages triggered the moment a cart was abandoned (not on a delay waiting for data sync)
• Product names, images, and cart links were pulled dynamically into each message
• If a customer completed their purchase before the next message was scheduled, the flow automatically stopped—no awkward "buy this thing you already bought" messages
• Revenue attribution was clean, with Shymo tracking conversions through unique links back to the Shopify checkout

The Shymo-Shopify connection took about 10 minutes to set up. Drift's team built their entire cart recovery flow in an afternoon using Shymo's visual flow builder, with no developer involvement.

Key Takeaways

1. Speed is the killer feature. Cart abandonment recovery is a time-sensitive game. SMS reaches people in seconds; email sits in a queue. The faster you reach an abandoner, the higher your recovery rate.
2. Don't lead with discounts. A conversational reminder is often enough. Save incentives for follow-up messages to protect your margins.
3. SMS and email work better together. Don't think of it as SMS vs. email. Structure your sequence so each channel plays to its strengths.
4. Test relentlessly. Drift's 340% improvement didn't come from adding SMS alone—it came from 8 weeks of systematic A/B testing to optimize timing, copy, and incentive structure.
5. Integration quality matters. Real-time data sync between your SMS platform and ecommerce store is non-negotiable for cart recovery. Delays kill conversion rates.

Drift Athletics has since expanded their Shymo usage to include welcome flows, VIP campaigns, and product launch announcements. Their SMS channel now accounts for 19% of total ecommerce revenue—up from zero just five months ago.