If you run an e-commerce site, you must collect information regarding customers who abandon their carts. This is a frustrating action, of course, because you have come close to clinching the sale, but all is far from lost. Here is how you can solve this problem with a successful email.
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Why do people abandon their carts?
Let’s start with some rather depressing statistics (if you are an e-commerce store owner). An incredible 75% of users abandon their cart before confirming their purchase. In fact, in the final quarter of 2017, that percentage actually stood at 77%. And those numbers fluctuate depending on the industry. For example, in travel, it was an eye-watering 82.1%, while for fashion, it was lower at 65.9%, probably because most e-commerce fashion stores offer a full refund within a certain time frame (all stats courtesy of SaleCycle).
But why do users do it?
“The fact is there is no one reason, but many. Some of these include getting distracted by something else, only ever having the purpose of browsing, not wanting to create an account (or not having the time to do do), mistrusting the site, having second thoughts due to the price or shipping costs, being put off by the delivery time, being put off by the return or exchange policy, and a host of other reasons too,” says Becky Fellowes, a social media manager at Revieweal and Ukwritings.
Best strategies to use in your abandoned cart emails
One of the most effective solutions to the issue of abandoned cart purchases is to send a follow-up email to those users who abandoned their cart (that 75 % of users). By calculating your abandoned cart rate using a tool such as this, you can identify quickly that up to 10% of your lost revenues (through abandoned carts) can soon be recovered with this simple tactic. Yet with a highly effective email, you could actually recover so much more.
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So, what does a successful abandoned cart email look like? There are some common themes in such emails, and can be summarized as follows:
- A great email subject line
- An obvious call to action (CTA) (one, that is made
urgent!) - Use images and graphics
- Include reviews
- Provide suitable alternatives
- Address potential issues
- Optimize for mobile devices
- Use a special offer
Examples of successful cart abandonment emails
Unsurprisingly, successful cart abandonment emails contain all of those elements previously listed, starting with a unique and catchy subject line that implores the user to open up the email. Provide an image of the product, perhaps with some other alternatives (but this is not critical). Additional images of the product in use or stats relating to customer satisfaction here would be persuasive.
“Include a couple of positive customer reviews, and most importantly of all, provide a clear CTA which is well-positioned and urgent in its assertion (perhaps by giving the sense that the product is only available at the displayed price for a limited time),” suggests Malcolm Suarez, a marketer at State of writing and Australian Help.
Obviously if you can address the issue of allowing users to check out simply as a guest, that may be persuasive in terms of time, and finally ensure that everything is optimized for mobile devices, as now more than 50% of purchases are made that way.
How to time your cart recovery emails to make the most impact
As will so many elements of online sales and marketing, timing is crucial, and that rings true with abandoned cart emails. According to the same research as undertaken by SalesCycle, conversion rates are affected by timing. For example, emails sent in under an hour secured an average conversion rate of 3%, while those sent after an hour precisely improved to 6%. Waiting for 24 hours saw that rate drop to 2.5%. So, one hour seems to be the best approach, and sending three such emails in total is optimum.
One last point, when including a special offer in your email, wait until the third and final email, to really impress upon the sense of urgency, and also to give yourself some leeway in offering the product at its normal price.
Takeaway
Abandoned cart emails work, but they have to be smart, well crafted and sent at the right time. But the bottom line is, your bottom line can be improved with this tried-and-tested tactic.
