Last updated on March 2, 2022
It has happened with all of us when you are at an online store just casually browsing the products, and you put some things in your cart, and before you make a purchase, boom! You just close the app with those products hanging in your cart. If you don’t believe me, go check out your online shopping carts, something would indeed be lying in there, waiting to be purchased. Well, this ‘unholy’ practice is called cart abandonment. I said ‘unholy’ because it’s becoming a significant issue for the e-commerce industry.
As per a recent report from Statista, “In March 2020, 88.05 percent of online shopping orders were abandoned, i.e. not converted into a purchase. Automotive had the highest cart abandonment rates out of all measured categories with 96.88 percent abandonment rate.”
But as you know, there is nothing that email marketing cannot fix. So, today, we will cover the basics of cart abandonment emails and get to see how an effective email marketing strategy can turn the tables (or carts for that matter) for your e-commerce business. Don’t miss out on the last section highlighting why marketers must use a series of cart abandonment emails and what the best email marketing software is. So, let’s get cracking.
Why does cart abandonment occur?
There are several reasons why people leave the product in their carts and forget about them. There can be multiple scenarios from lack of the cash on delivery option while making the payment, and last-minute mood swings to technical issues such as longer loading times of sites and payment gateways. However, it is crucial to zero down the exact cause and resolve it. Some of them might require you to upgrade and optimize the customers’ overall shopping and checkout experience to increase conversions.
If you can’t figure out how to employ email marketing to recover cart abandoners, then seeking professional help might just save your business. Services like Marketo certified experts and Mailchimp expert developers would help you create that perfect email marketing strategy to ensure your customers buy what they see.
Shooting multi-stage cart abandonment emails is one of the most effective tools you can deploy in a post-cart abandonment situation to recover abandoned carts. One good way to do so is the multi-stage cart abandonment email strategy.
Let’s look at why marketers must use a series of cart abandonment emails to lure the gone customers back.
You can leverage the automated series to gain the revenue that would have otherwise been lost. Now the question comes why should you go for the series rather than standalone cart abandonment email. Well, the immediate delivery of a single email might give you a higher click-through rate, but subsequent emails drive higher revenue in the long run.
A recent report suggests, “sending a series of three abandoned cart recovery emails can result in 69% more completed transactions than a single email would.” However, keep a check on the frequency and the tone of these emails as they would play a major role in bringing those ‘lost’ customers back. If the messaging is not correctly delivered, your emails might run into the risk of being marked as spam.
Do you want to get those customers back but can’t craft attractive enough emails? You are in for a treat as Pardot email templates and Salesforce email templates would make your job easy and boost your overall CTRs.
Amplifying your conversion rates and recovering lost revenue is just one side of the story. The benefits of using an effective cart abandonment email strategy are vast and wide. Let’s have a look at them:
Improved customer relationships
Cart abandonment emails work as a second chance to reconnect with abandoners, interact with them, and build the burnt bridges again. Sending them personalized emails and product recommendations makes the communication more relevant and portrays your brand as more helpful and value-adding. This eventually increases the customers’ trust and loyalty and has an indirect impact on sales in the long run.
Elevated customer experience
Someone putting your product in their cart mostly translates that your product offers strong value, but due to some reason, it was not able to make the cut. Reaching out to such customers would make them feel that your brand actually cares for them and their preferences. They might not take the deal right away, but the improved customer experience would eventually turn into sales in the long run.
The example mentioned below from Nomad is an excellent example of the point I am trying to make. Have a look at how they have highlighted the return and exchange policy to make the deal more believable.
Source: Really Good Emails
The shady business
Well, not exactly shady, to be honest, but some shoppers abandon their carts to receive a discount from the brands. In that case, you can reach out to such customers with added discounts but make sure it doesn’t hurt your business that badly.
Here’s an example from Columbia Sportswear that smartly pitches the others deals as well.
Source: Really Good Emails
Wrapping Up
These were some of the most effective techniques and reasons to send cart abandonment emails to your subscribers. Since every brand is different, and so is the user base, you must add customization to your campaign while following these steps.
