It’s no secret that shopping cart abandonment is a huge problem for e-commerce businesses. In fact, the shopping cart abandonment rate can be as high as 70%! As a result, companies lose valuable sales and revenue. But what if there were a way to combat shopping cart abandonment and recover those lost sales?
Abandoned cart workflows allow businesses to automatically send follow-up emails to customers who have left items in their shopping carts. By implementing abandoned cart follow-ups, businesses can recover lost sales and increase their profits.
In this article, let's explore how sending abandoned cart emails can also improve customer loyalty and encourage future purchases.
Shopping Cart Abandonment
Have you ever visited an online store, added items to your cart, and then left the site without completing your purchase? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, a study found that the averagecart abandonment rate is 69.23%.
This trend, as normal as it may be, is a major obstacle to profitability for the vast majority of e-commerce businesses. In fact, when it comes to paid advertising, you’re paying to bring back prospects who don’t buy. By implementing abandoned cart sequences, businesses can recover as many lost sales as possible and increase their profits; however, it’s essential for the growth of any business to understand the reasons why a prospect might not complete their purchase.
Possible causes and their solutions
There are many reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts. The most common reasons are as follows:
- High shipping costs: This is one of the main reasons customers abandon their purchases. To combat this, e-commerce businesses can offer free shipping or reduce shipping costs for customers who complete their purchases. This encourages customers to complete their purchases by avoiding additional charges.
- Complicated checkout process: 46% of consumers abandoned their shopping carts because the checkout process was too complicated. This can be addressed by simplifying the checkout process and making it as easy as possible for customers to complete their purchases. Customers may also abandon their shopping carts if they don’t see their preferred payment option available. To address this issue, online retailers should offer a variety of payment options to make it easier for customers to pay.
- Lack of trust in the brand: 32% of consumers abandoned their shopping carts because they didn’t trust the company enough to provide their credit card information. This is a significant problem that can be resolved by building trust with potential customers. One way to achieve this is by offering a money-back guarantee or providing customer testimonials; social proof and a strong brand image help establish your brand and build trust.
- Not Ready to Buy: 22% of consumers abandoned their purchase because they weren’t ready to buy. This is a common problem for high-ticket stores that sell expensive items. In these cases, it’s important to follow up with potential customers and offer them incentives to complete their purchase.
The abandoned cart recovery process
The secret to a successful abandoned cart follow-up sequence lies in timing and repetition. For example, you can set up an automated follow-up workflow to automatically send an email to your customer a few hours afterthey abandon their cart, then the next day, and again the following week.
The follow-up email
Customize your abandoned cart emails
The timing of your abandoned cart emails is important, but the content is just as important. You need to make sure your email stands out in their inbox and convinces them to come back and complete their purchase.
Use an eye-catching subject line: The subject line of your follow-up email is the first thing your customer will see, so make sure it grabs their attention and is relevant enough to encourage them to open the email. Here are a few ideas:
- "We miss you! Come back and finish your purchase."
- "Don't let your selection get lost!"
- "Is something holding you back? We can help!"
Make it personal: Use the customer's name in the body of the email and address them directly to increase the chances of conversion.
Include a photo of the item: Seeing a photo of the item they're interested in will help your customer remember what they were looking to buy.
Offer a discount: Offering a discount is an excellent way to encourage your customer to return and complete their purchase. You can offer a variety of discounts, such as a percentage off the total purchase price, free shipping, or store credit. This will encourage your customer to return and complete their purchase.
Include a CTA: Make sure your email includes a clear call to action (CTA) so customers know what you want them to do. Here are some possible CTAs :
- "Continue ->"
- "I'm going to make the most of it!"
- "My Cart"
Use images: Including images of products that customers have left in their carts is a great way to remind them of what they’re missing. This can often serve as a hook to encourage them to return and complete their purchase.
Make sure it’s mobile-friendly: You need to ensure that your email is optimized for all screen sizes, since more than half of all emails are now read on mobile devices. By optimizing the content for all types of devices, your follow-up email will be easy to read and navigate on small screens.
Tools for Creating Follow-Up Emails for WordPress
As we mentioned earlier, there are a number of plugins that can help you automate your abandoned cart email sequences.
Klaviyo
It’s one of the most popular choices among online businesses because it lets you track shopping cart abandonment and create follow-up sequences. It’s a great tool if you want to start sending emails every time a customer abandons their cart, but it can get expensive if you want to ramp up your marketing efforts.
Mailchimp
This is another popular tool that lets you create email sequences and automate your marketing. It offers a free plan for small businesses, making it a great option if you're just starting out.
ActivCampaign
It is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that includes abandoned cart recovery among its many features.
It's a great option if you're looking for an all-in-one solution, but it can be expensive.
Autonami
One of the most underrated is Autonami, a marketing automation plugin for WordPress that lets you create complex marketing funnels and send automated emails based on user interactions.
One of Autonami's most popular features is the ability to create abandoned cart reminders and automatically send them to customers who have left items in their carts.
The plugin also lets you create customizable email templates, so you can design your own follow-up emails that match your brand's look and feel.
You also have the option to integrate it with Twilio to include text messages in your follow-up strategy.
SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is an underutilized follow-up channel that can help you recover abandoned carts, but it should be used with caution. By sending automated text messages to customers who have left items in their carts, you can encourage them to return and complete their purchase. However, it’s important to remember that SMS marketing should only be used as part of a broader strategy,
- The first thing you need to do is make sure you have the customer's permission to send them text messages.
- You should also make sure your text messages are relevant and not too frequent, as this can quickly become annoying or intrusive.
The abandoned cart follow-up sequence is a powerful tool for recovering lost sales and boosting your conversion rate. By combining relevant, targeted emails with short, engaging text messages, you can increase the chances of convincing customers to return and complete their purchase.
Abandoned Cart Emails: When Should You Send Them?
Timing is crucial, especially when it comes to abandoned cart emails. Be sure to send your first email within 24 hours of the cart being abandoned, as that’s when customers are most likely to still consider making a purchase. You should then follow up with a second email 48 hours later, and a third email one week later.
After that, you can space out your messages according to your own schedule, but be careful not to send too many, or you risk becoming annoying.
If you've decided to incorporate SMS marketing into your strategy, don't overdo it: send the first text message one hour after your first follow-up email, and the second and final text message one week later.
Analyze the collected data and refine your sequences
Once you've collected data for a while, it's time to analyze it and see where you can improve your strategy.
A/B testing is an excellent way to achieve this, as it allows you to test different versions of your follow-up sequences to see which ones perform best.
You can also segment your list based on various criteria, such as purchase history, location, or the type of product they're interested in, and send them targeted emails or text messages.
Finally, don't forget to constantly monitor your results and make adjustments to your strategy as needed; the abandoned cart strategy can be a huge help, but almost no sequence is perfect the first time around.
Improve Your Email Deliverability Rate Through Filtering
The first thing you need to do is make sure you have implemented the double opt-in process, which ensures that every email address collected for your contact list was obtained with the user’s explicit consent. This way, you can be sure that you’re sending emails only to actual subscribers.
Cleaning up your database is the second step in ensuring a high email deliverability rate. To do this, you need to identify inactive contacts in your database and remove them from your list. These addresses lower your open rate and therefore have a negative impact on your reputation with ISPs.
You can set up automated processes so that if a prospect hasn't opened your last 2 or 3 emails, they are automatically removed from your list. You can also create a list of people you've removed and try to re-engage them with a targeted campaign.
In summary, what can we learn from email sequences for abandoned carts?
Hybrid cart abandonment sequences are a powerful tool for recovering lost sales and boosting your conversion rate. By combining relevant, targeted emails with short, engaging text messages, you increase the chances of convincing customers to return and complete their purchase.
Timing is crucial, especially when it comes to abandoned cart emails. Be sure to send your first email within 24 hours ofthe cart being abandoned, as that’s when customers are most likely to still consider making a purchase
Don’t forget to constantly monitor your results and make adjustments to your strategy as needed. The data you collect over time will help you refine yourcart abandonment strategies; however,A/B testing should become a key part of your process, because no sequence is perfect on the first try.
