According to data from Forrester, only 3 out of 10 shopping carts make it through the checkout process. But what is even more telling is that the rate of cart abandonment has increased, not decreased, over time. However, there is no rule saying that lost sales from abandoned shopping carts or order forms cannot be recovered. It just takes a little commitment and some time to rethink your own strategy for fighting cart abandonment but we automated email recovery is a step that cannot afford to be overlooked.
Make Getting Your Customer’s Email Address a Priority
Without a valid email, you have no chance to reclaim the lost sale. So make sure that you ask for your customer’s email address or you possess a valid email to send messages.
Furthermore, make sure that the email address is either saved after the shopper is done with the first step in the checkout process or saved automatically in the shopping cart. Send transaction-related emails which will help to build a healthy relationship with the customers.
Automated Email
A "recovery" email marketing campaign that sends a series of one to three personalized emails to shoppers who didn't complete a purchase can bring them back to your website to complete the sale. A MarketingExperiments study found the greatest conversions came from the third email in a 3-mail cart recovery campaign. Often, emails that have the best conversion rate use an incentive; such as a coupon, free shipping or perhaps a simple inviting message. Still not sold, take a look at these:
- Experian found abandoned cart mails produced 20 times the transaction rates and revenue of standard email campaigns.
- com said that abandonment emails generated over 10% of total email marketing revenue, but accounted for less than 3% of their outgoing email volume.
- Charles Nicholls is quoted as saying that Disney produces “…$2 for every remarketing email they send.”
According to statistics from both Listrak and Webtrends, of those who do buy after abandoning their carts, 72% do so within 24 hours. Your email marketing should work in keeping with this statistic. In addition, those who purchased after abandoning a cart, 95% took up to two weeks after abandoning before they finally completed their purchase. You can’t simply send one email and forget it. It is important that when possible; include direct references to (and images of) the products left in the cart. Also link back to the individual’s actual shopping cart at the stage they abandoned, rather than to a generic home page link. The more work required to complete the transaction, the less likely it is to happen.
The issue of when to send out the email is often questioned and data varies on what works best; however, the earlier you send an email, the more likely you are to capture the transaction before the customer has bought elsewhere or changed their minds. There are some studies that have found that 50% of those who buy do so within an hour of abandoning their carts. We can’t stress enough that timing is everything. However, it would be careless to suggest that this will work for every shopper. Unfortunately, there are some shoppers who fear the “Big Brother” effect. They feel like an email sent so quickly means they are being watched. In this case, it shows the importance of knowing your customers. You can determine what works best for you and your customers and create emails to go out
- When the cart is about to expire
- When a product is about to go out of stock (or becomes available again)
- When the product price is about to change
You want to keep the messages customer-focused, rather than pushy. For example the first message simply asks the customer if something went wrong on your end of the transaction that prevented the purchase from being completed. A second message asks the customer if there is anything you can do to help. The third message, if necessary, introduces an incentive to purchase. When customers receive timely, engaging personalized emails they feel as though you truly care about them. This effort on your part also acts as an incentive for potential customers to come back.
A properly designed email recovery campaign nurtures customers as opposed to pushing them to buy. It provides continual outreach and conveys the idea that you want to create a great shopping experience that will benefit the customer.
And lastly, you must continuously test and tweak your emails. Analytics are an essential tool to identify any serial abandoners who try to gain these incentives by repeatedly ditching their carts. This makes it all the more important to monitor your messaging constantly and segment your email lists accordingly.
The key to winning back shoppers who abandon their cart is to stop looking at the issue as a lost cause; instead look at abandoned carts as an opportunity to re-engage with would be customers to create a real, meaningful long term relationships with your visitors.