Recart Review

Recart is chatbot software specifically made for e-commerce stores. According to Recart, you can increase your Return-On-Investment (ROI) by 8 times using their software. But are they worth it to invest in? Let’s find out!

Short answer: If you want to increase your sales of your eCommerce store using Facebook Messenger, they are totally worth it!

I reviewed Recart based on my post about how you can choose the best chatbot software.

How Recart works

I will first start with a quick introduction of Recart so you can understand the software better because it is a bit different than most chatbot software.

Recart is really focused on making sales with your eCommerce store. Like really, really, extremely focused.

While most chatbot software allows you to make a lot of different and really make a conversation with a customer, Recart is more focused on making the actual sale than on the conversation itself. Therefore, it has some restrictions.

In Recart, there are two kinds of messages: Custom Conversation Flows and Auto Campaigns.

Custom Conversation Flows are the flows that most people are familiar with while making a chatbot. These are just flows you have with a user, like this one:

But there are some differences with most chatbot software. You cannot tie those flows together. It is not possible to go from Flow A to Flow B. Also, there are only three possible ways in which a user can come into such a flow:

1. Via a m.me link or bot payload
2. Via a sponsored message
3. Via a Click-To-Messenger ad

Next to this, there are Auto Campaigns, which are the campaigns that you use to make more sales for your eCommerce store. I will explain these more elaborately in the eCommerce section.

I just wanted to make sure that you understand the Recart software. It is not much focused on building rich conversations with customers, but more on sales. And also don’t understand me wrong, this can be a huge benefit for your store.

User Interface

When you log into Recart, you have a great overview of your chatbot. The dashboard shows the extra sales you made, the number of messenger subscribers and the flows that are currently active on your chatbot. On the left-hand side, you have the menu containing all the features of the chatbot software. Furthermore, on the bottom right there is a live chat in which you can contact the customer service or can search for articles from the knowledge base, in case you get stuck.

When building the flows for your chatbot, Recart uses a Visual Flow Builder in which you can connect messages together:

When you are going to build your chatbot flow (for example for an Abandoned Cart Message), Recart already pre-built a flow for you. In this way, you can just edit that flow and your chatbot flow is ready!

So in general, it is really easy to set up your chatbot and to use the interface. Also, you can test your chatbot in the Messenger inbox before it actually goes live.

• Visual Flow Builder

  Create chatbot dialogs with a visual flow builder.
• Test chatbot

  Is it possible to test the chatbot before putting your new flows or changes live?
• Interface easy to use?

  Is the chatbot platform easy-to-use?
• Easy to setup a chatbot?

  Is it easy to set up your chatbot with this chatbot platform?

Chatbot elements

Recart provides the necessary elements you need to build a chatbot. They only don’t provide Vertical List, Persistent Menu, Free text input, location sharing and date validation.

The biggest drawback of those five is the free text input. For users, it is not possible to just ask any question, which is probably one of the things a user would do. In fact, it is only possible to ask a user two things: their e-mail address and their phone number:

• Delays

  Use delays between messages in your chatbot
• Images

  Can you send images via your chatbot?
• Video

  Can you send video via your chatbot?
• Audio

  Can you send audio via your chatbot?
• Attachments

  Can you send attachments via your chatbot?
• Gallery (Horizontal list)

  Show a gallery of cards inside your chatbot. A card consists of an image, title, subtitle and button.
• Vertical list

  Show a vertical list of items inside your chatbot
• Emojis

  Can you use emojis inside your chatbot?
• Persistent Menu

  Can you add a persistent menu to your chatbot?
• Quick Replies

  Can you add quick replies to your chatbot where users can click on?
• Buttons

  Can you add buttons to your chatbot where users can click on?
• Free text input

  Can chatbot users freely type text to your chatbot whenever they want to?
• Location sharing

  Can users share their location inside the chatbot?
• Email validation

  When a chatbot user gives their email, can the platform validate it's a correct email address?
• Phone number validation

  When a chatbot user gives their phone number, can the platform validate it's a correct phone number?
• Date validation

  When a chatbot user gives a date, can the platform validate it's a correct date?

Users

Here, Recart falls a bit short.

It is not possible to make custom fields and save values of these custom fields to specific users. It is only possible to store two kinds of information of a user: their telephone number and an email.

The only two other things that Recart saves if whether they made a purchase, if they have products in their cart and which gender they are.

Furthermore, it is not possible to add tags or create user segments.

• Custom fields

  Store information from your chatbot users inside fields. For example, you can ask for someone's email and store it inside the "email" custom field.
• Tags

  Add tags to users in your chatbot flows to organize and categorize contacts.
• User segments

  Can you create user segments based on custom fields and tags?

Messages

With Recart it is possible to send broadcasts (they call this “Instant Messages”), sponsored messages and sequences. But these sequences are a little bit different than the normal sequences you expect.

As said before, Recart has two kind of messages: Custom Conversation Flows and Auto Campaigns. I already explained Custom Conversation Flows above, but here I will explain Auto Campaigns.

Auto Campaigns are the kind of campaigns Recart uses to make sales with your eCommerce stores. In fact, they have 8 different Auto Campaigns. These campaigns include abandoned cart messages and discount codes and will be further explained in the eCommerce section.

Furthermore, it is possible to unsubscribe from campaigns. Also, it is possible to use some conditions, but this is really basic. You can condition a flow on three things: whether a user has bought something, if a user has products in their cart and on their gender:

Also, it is possible to make a chatbot in any language, but it is not possible to translate your chatbot.

• Broadcasts

  Send a message to all or a part of your chatbot users at a specific date and time
• Sequences

  Send messages on a pre-defined schedule with a certain time interval between those messages
• Conditions

  Make checks in your chatbot flow based on if-then logic. For example, if the user has not given their email, ask for their email.
• Multiple languages

  Is it possible to create a chatbot in multiple languages?
• Easy to translate

  Can you translate text to other languages without using a third-party platform and without creating duplicate flows?

AI & NLP

As said before, there are only three ways to come into a chatbot flow with Recart, via a:

1. M.me link or bot payload
2. Sponsored message
3. Click-To-Messenger ad

This does not include keywords. So no, Recart does not provide any keyword, AI or NLP capability.

• Keywords

  Trigger chatbot flow based on certain words or phrases a user says to the chatbot.
• Intents

  Trigger a chatbot flow by understanding the intent of the user.
• Entities

  Capture specific information from sentences. For example, if a user says "veggie pizza", the chatbot can understand it's not a regular pizza, but a veggie pizza.
• Dialogflow integration

  Does the chatbot platform provide a direct integration with Google's AI Platform?

Channels

Recart provides two channels: Facebook Messenger and website.

In fact, Recart is a connector between your eCommerce store and a Facebook Messenger chatbot in order to increase sales.

The drawback of Recart is that it only connects your eCommerce store with Facebook Messenger and does not provide other channels. In this way, you cannot provide an omnichannel chat experience to your customer, which could be a potential drawback.

• Website

  Can you publish your chatbot on your website?
• Facebook

  Can you publish your chatbot on Facebook?
• Instagram
• Whatsapp

  Can you publish your chatbot on WhatsApp?
• Telegram

  Can you publish your chatbot on Telegram?
• SMS

  Can you publish your chatbot on SMS?
• Slack

  Can you publish your chatbot on Slack?
• Skype

  Can you publish your chatbot on Skype?
• Email

  Can you publish your chatbot on email?

Integrations

Recart does not provide integrations with live chat, Zapier, Integromat, Google Sheets or Webhooks. So that is pretty bad.

But they do provide integrations with other chatbot software, like ManyChat and Chatfuel. And that is absolutely great. As you can see above, Recart lacks on some points, but as I will explain below in the eCommerce section, they do great on one thing: increasing your sales using Facebook Messenger. On the other points they lack, you can use ManyChat or Chatfuel. So I think Recart definitely thought this true and it shows that they have a clear focus.

• Livechat

  Direct integration with live chat, either via a built-in live chat functionality or a third-party live chat platform.
• Zapier

  Direct integration with Zapier, one of the largest integration platforms in the world.
• Make (formerly Integromat)

  Direct integration with Make (formerly Integromat), one of the largest integration platforms in the world.
• Google Sheets

  Direct integration with Google Sheets, to store or retrieve data from sheets.
• Webhooks

  Can you call a webhook inside your chatbot flow to send data to other applications?

Marketing

Recart provides a Facebook website widget, a connection with Facebook Ads, automatically replying to Facebook comments, can create buttons for your website and handles custom URLs for your chatbot. So in general, they do pretty well on this one.

• Facebook website widget

  Embed your chatbot as a Facebook Widget on your website.
• Native website widget

  Embed your chatbot as a native widget (your own branding & colors) on your website.
• Landing pages

  Can you create a simple landing page to drive users to your chatbot?
• Facebook Ads

  Start a conversation with your chatbot when someone clicks on a Facebook Ad
• One-Time Notification

  Send one-time notifications via Facebook Messenger for a topic that a chatbot user has opted-in for
• Facebook comments auto-reply

  Automatically reply with your chatbot to users who comment on your Facebook Posts
• Button creator

  Add a button to your website to drive users to your chatbot
• Custom URLs for your chatbot

  Generate a simple URL that can be shared anywhere to send users to your chatbot

Pricing

I really like the pricing of Recart.

First of all, they provide a 28-day trial which gives you access to all the features they provide on their platform. So this gives you plenty of time to test Recart and find out whether it is good chatbot software for you.

Secondly, they use a different pricing structure than most other chatbot software. With most other chatbot software, you need to pay based on the number of users you have. With Recart, you need to pay based on how much extra money you are making because of Recart:

This has the following structure:

• Up to $1000 extra sales – $29 per month
• Up to $2500 extra sales – $49 per month
• Up to $5000 extra sales – $89 per month

I really like this pricing structure, because you only need to pay more per month if you are making more per month. It really gives a “We are in this together” kind of feeling.

• Free trial

  Does the chatbot platform provide a free trial?
• Free plan

  Does the chatbot platform provide a free plan?
• Price per month

  What is the lowest price per month for creating a chatbot on this platform?
  29
• Monthly pricing available?

  Is it possible to pay monthly?
• Money back guarantee

  Is there a money-back guarantee in case you are not satisfied with the platform?

Analytics

Because Recart is so focused on eCommerce, they only provide general analytics about the extra sales you have made through Recart and the number of subscribers to your chatbot:

Furthermore, they provide analytics per block in which you can see the number of sent messages, the open rate, the click rate and the number of sales:

• Dashboard

  Dashboard that provides general analytics of your chatbot.
• User input

  Get the input from users that your chatbot didn't understand.
• Sent messages

  The number of messages that were sent by your chatbot.
• Open rate

  The percentage of chatbot users that opened a message inside your chatbot.
• Click rate

  The percentage of chatbot users that click on a button inside your chatbot.
• Conversion rate

  The percentage of users that converted through your chatbot. For example, the percentage of users that gave their email address
• Fall back rate

  The percentage of interactions where the chatbot did not know an answer to a question.
• Custom dashboards/reports

  Can you create your own dashboard or reports?

eCommerce

This is where Recart shines. They are literally the best chatbot software I have ever seen with such great eCommerce integrations.

Recart provides direct integrations with Shopify, Shopify Plus and WooCommerce.

But Recart is definitely no replacement of these software. Recart is a connector which makes sure that you make more sales using your current eCommerce store. Therefore, it is not possible to do any kind of payment in the chatbot.

So, how does it work?

1. A user comes on your website
2. Goes to the product page
3. Recart makes sure that the user gets sent to the chatbot in Facebook Messenger
4. If the user doesn’t finish their order, an abandoned cart message is automatically sent.

So the goal of Recart is to get the user in Facebook Messenger, so they can send an abandoned cart message if the user didn’t finish their order.

How does Recart make sure the user will go to Facebook Messenger? They use different campaigns for this (which I will briefly explain below):

1. Sticky Discount Box
2. Customer Chat
3. Discount Widget
4. Add-to-Cart Popup
5. Add-to-Cart Widget

Sticky Discount Box

With the Sticky Discount Box, you can show the user a discount. If a user clicks on that discount, they get sent to Facebook Messenger. Once in Facebook Messenger, they get the discount and then they will go back to the webshop. This box is shown on all pages, except the checkout page.

What is also great: the discount is automatically applied on the checkout page, so the user doesn’t have to do this manually.

Customer Chat

If a user has a question about the webshop, the Customer Chat widget makes sure they find an answer to their question. This campaign is mainly for questions about returns, delivery and warranty.

Discount Widget

This one is similar to the Sticky Discount Box. The difference is that the Sticky Discount Box is visible on all pages (except for the checkout page) and is always on the same spot. The Discount Widget is only shown on certain places in your webshop (where you put it yourself).

Add-to-Cart Popup

The Add-to-Cart Popup is shown when a customer adds something to their cart. Once they clicked on “Get this in Messenger”, they are subscribed to the chatbot and it is possible to send them the abandoned cart message.

Add-to-Cart Widget

The Add-to-Cart Widget is similar to the Add-to-Cart Popup, but is a little bit smaller and less ‘in your face’.  This button appears right under the Add to Cart button of your eCommerce store.

The goal: an abandoned cart message

As said before, the goal of Recart is to get the user in Facebook Messenger, so they can send an abandoned cart message if the user didn’t finish their order.

And the abandoned cart feature of Recart is really advanced. You cannot only send one message, but multiple!

For example, you can send an abandoned cart message after 1 hour, then after 8 hours and then after 23 hours:

One of the best eCommerce integrations I have ever seen!

• Payments

  Collect payments inside your chatbot
• Shopify

  Direct integration with Shopify to get products, order information and cart data.
• WooCommerce

  Direct integration with WooCommerce to get products, order information and cart data.
• Buy directly within the chatbot

  Ability for chatbot users to buy products or services directly from a chatbot
• Cart abandonment

  Trigger messages in the chatbot when a user abandons their cart on a website or inside the chatbot

Templates & Cloning

Recart provides you around 24 templates to help you to get started when building chatbot flows.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to make templates yourself and share them with others.

Also, duplicating your chatbot flows or your chatbot elements is not possible.

Optimization

It is not possible to do any kind of optimization with Recart, such as A/B testing.

• A/B Testing

  Can you optimize your chatbot flows by performing A/B tests?

Support

Recart provides tutorials and has proper documentation in which they explain how to use their platform.

Also, they provide customer service over live chat and e-mail.

• Tutorials

  Does the chatbot platform provide tutorials on how to use its platform?
• Documentation

  Does the chatbot platform provide documentation on how to use its platform?
• Customer support

  Does the chatbot platform provide customer support?

Conclusion

So, should you buy Recart?

Yes, you definitely should.

They provide the best direct integration between your eCommerce store and a Facebook Messenger chatbot in order to increase your sales. There is not any other chatbot software which has a better integration. And the best part: you only pay more for the software, if you make more with the software.

And yes, I know there are some drawbacks of Recart. But remember, Recart focuses on one thing and one thing only: Increasing your sales. And they are absolutely great at that, maybe even the best. So if you want a chatbot that provides a live chat, creates an omnichannel experience or has integrations with Zapier or Integromat, I recommend the following: Use Recart as an add-on to your current chatbot (made with Chatfuel or ManyChat).

Recart has integrations with Chatfuel and Manychat, which have all these kinds of features. But they don’t have a really good direct integration with your eCommerce software, and that is the thing that Recart provides.