Unfortunately, when it comes to online shopping, cart abandonment is a part of life. A customer intending to purchase from your eCommerce store adds an item to their cart, browses for a bit, and then leaves. That’s lost sales (and lost income) for your business, yes? Not exactly. Abandoning cart emails are one of the most effective ways to recover these customers and turn expected failed transactions into completed purchases. Moreover, if done correctly, abandoned cart emails can enhance your overall email marketing campaign.
Why Shoppers Abandon Their Carts
Yet before you reclaim those missed purchases, you must pinpoint why people leave your site in the first place. Research highlights that cart abandonment happens because of indifference, but frequently, this is not the case people abandon their carts due to overwhelming shipping fees, excessive or complicated checkout, distraction, browsing for fun, or browsing with no intention of purchase. Yet, just because someone places something in their cart and walks away at that moment does not imply disinterest; it means they need a gentle reminder, a bit of reassurance, or a little extra push to convert that moment into reality.
Abandoned cart emails take advantage of this apprehension and spin it in the sender’s favor with carefully crafted messaging to convince the buyer to return. When done correctly, abandoned cart messages are more than just abandoned cart reminders; they’re persuasive efforts to make the sale again. Leveraging an email deliverability tool ensures that these critical messages land in the inbox rather than the spam folder, where they have the best chance of driving conversions.
Timing Is Everything Send the First Reminder Promptly
Abandoned cart email effectiveness relies on timing. The longer you wait after someone has abandoned their cart, the more likely they will forget about the item, get sidetracked by another brand, or simply decide to not make the purchase. In an age of digital distraction and one-click access to nearly everything, waiting even a minute opens up the possibility for someone else to steal your sale.
Therefore, the first recovery email for a cart should be sent within one hour of abandonment. At this point, the potential buyer is still in the mindset to make their purchase and has yet to switch focus. The faster you can contact them, the better your conversion rate.
There’s no need for this initial correspondence to be overly fancy or even too polished. In fact, the more basic, the better. A casual little letter thanking someone for leaving something in a cart complete with a photo of the product and an engaging call to action button is all it should take to bring someone back to the site from which they came. You’re not trying to make someone buy something they don’t want; you’re enabling them to purchase something they’ve already shown interest in with just one more click.
Additionally, little things are encouraged. Personalization always helps (the person’s name or the specific product abandoned). This is where contextualized and low-quality information can engage the audience and appreciate their efforts and quality control. This is the perfect scenario for product cart abandonment engagement. When everything is clear, and the communication is effective, users appreciate the ease as they’ll be sure to check out before they get distracted.
Therefore, the initial reminder sets the tone for any further attempts to be made. Get this right, and you’re halfway to recapturing lost revenue and restoring shopper intention.
Crafting the Perfect Subject Line and Message
The only obstacle is having your email opened first. Therefore, your subject line needs to be simple, to the point, and relevant enough to entice someone to open the email. Subject lines like “Hey! You left this in your cart” or “Do you still want this?” sound personal and conversational. You want to avoid sounding like a salesperson albeit one that is pushy you want to sound casual and like someone who wants to help.
When they open the email, you want to remind them what they left in their cart, why they should come back and how to do so easily. Use photos of the items, the product name, and the price. Also, include a CTA that reads “Finish my order” in button form to make it pop. The more accessible, the more visual, the better.
Use Incentives Strategically But Don’t Lead With Them
Discounts and free shipping are great motivators to complete a sale especially if someone is teetering on the edge of making a purchase. However, using such options needs to be timely and situational. For instance, sending an abandoned cart email and using a discount in the first email might be the key situational option to have someone purchase but long term, it hurts. If customers know they can get a discount for abandoning their cart, they will abandon their cart to get the discount and the discount will be expected. Such expectations negatively impact profit margins over time and lead customers to want to wait for the discount instead of purchasing when they see something they’d like.
This is crucial to not give away the farm just for easy conversion. Because if you offer 10% off in email one, why do they need to open email two or three? Instead, create a reason to open each one by establishing a pecking order; email one should be your reminder email about the cart and how easy it will be to come back after one click; then wait a day or two after silence to send the second email discussing stock or FOMO. Only then should the discount come into play as a last effort to convert.
This way, you’re avoiding giving away something above and beyond that could have easily converted a sale by appealing to other psychological tendencies. Trust me, you’d be surprised how many people convert without needing financial help. In addition, testing buyer intent without providing it is the ultimate test. Because you won’t be automatically giving them a discount or incentive, you’ll be testing whether the value call to action works.
For example, are they more likely to purchase because you say it will take them less time to checkout because you have testimonials speaking to the quality of your offering or because you downplay their objection? Maybe your audience responds better to trust than financial gain. Maybe they couldn’t care less about financial gain and just need one more call to action to push them over the edge. Therefore, how they respond to your acquisition efforts better shapes abandoned cart efforts in the future and adjusts proper marketing efforts down the line.
Ultimately, the requirement of someone having to do something in order to earn a discount or incentive makes the incentive secondary, which helps preserve brand value down the line. This means better sales now and better customer relationships down the line for future sales and ultimately a better profit structure.
Build Trust with Reviews, Guarantees, and Support
It happens. Customers are abandoned in a cart due to uncertainty. They want to understand more about a product, they doubt the quality, or they fear a complicated return situation. A cart abandonment email should thus contain social proof customer reviews, customer ratings as well as trust factors, satisfaction guarantees, easy returns to ease such uncertainties.
Furthermore, include links to customer service or live chat directly in the email. The more confident they are that they’ll receive immediate answers, the more comfortable and not swept aside they’ll feel purchasing from you.
Optimize for Mobile and Simplicity
Considering a lot of e-commerce occurs on mobile devices, it’s important to make sure your abandoned cart emails are mobile accessible. Use a responsive design that works well on a phone, use brief copy, and ensure all buttons are tappable.
If an email looks busy and poorly constructed on mobile or the links don’t properly function on mobile, it’s a letdown, it’s an annoyance that prevents recovery. You want to eliminate anything that stands in the way of a consumer completing their purchase.
Sequence Matters Don’t Stop at One Email
You don’t just want one abandoned cart email. A sequence allows you to space them out over 24 to 72 hours and check in every few days. The first can just be a gentle reminder, the second one something urgent, a feature or an offer, something that compels in the moment. Maybe the third one can be reviews or social proof.
A sequence saves the conversation from overloading the user. You get a chance at every new interval to either restore interest or effectively combat any opposing points in the meantime.
Personalization and Dynamic Content Make a Difference
Don’t blast a standard email. Use dynamic content to show the items left in the cart, address the recipient by name, and upsell with things they’ve viewed. The more personalized and relevant, the higher the chance of conversion.
If the customer has three items in their cart, show those three items and don’t just send them to the homepage. Make them feel wanted, and they’ll want to continue where they left off.
Test and Refine Your Strategy Continuously
Because no two audiences behave the same way, you need to play around with different elements of your cart abandonment campaign. A/B test subject lines, CTA placement, timing and even number of incentives. Ultimately, your data will reveal the most successful variables. Pay attention to analytics for open rates, click rates, and revenue recaptured. This information helps fine-tune campaigns to ensure it’s worth your while or not.
Abandoned Cart Emails as a Revenue Engine
View cart abandonment not as a failure but as an opportunity. Customers are already highly engaged just adding items to their cart and advancing to the checkout process. If you can reach them after the fact with a well-timed email series, you can reclaim that engagement and turn second-guessing back in your favor.
Many brands cite abandoned cart emails as some of the most converting emails they send. They cost very little with the potential to gain so much and are an invaluable part of any e-commerce marketer’s toolkit.
Conclusion
Abandoned cart emails are an effective type of recovery that, when executed correctly, boost revenue and encourage on-the-fence shoppers to hit that purchase button. With an understanding of why people abandon their virtual carts and insight into how and when to send these follow-up emails and how often and with what level of personalization brands can seamlessly take advantage of previously lost shopping opportunities and turn them into success stories.
If your brand isn’t sending abandoned cart emails or only doing the bare minimum, now is the time to assess the all-important opportunity. Sometimes, two or three emails sent at just the right time and just the right wording for barely interested people are all it takes to convert them into on-brand loyal customers.