The abandoned cart email is one issue that is still painful for all eCommerce marketers, large and small. The problem is simple, you already have a shopper on your website, they are interested in a specific product (high purchase intent) which they add to the shopping cart and then – Poof! They disappear without making a purchase.
Sounds familiar right? Any online marketer knows that the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is one of the metrics that determines your company’s fate. The second most important metric that actually balances the CAC is the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). Since your goal is to keep a positive ROI, you must do everything in your power to track these potential shoppers and get them back. In order to maximize results and optimize conversion rates, you need to first understand why these potential shoppers abandoned their cart. Let’s analyze it and learn more.
Primary reason for digital shoppers in the United States to abandon their carts in 2016 and 2017
Image source: www.statista.com
A study made by WorldPay, an online payment processing company, suggests that 56% of shoppers abandoned their carts because they were presented with unexpected costs. Many shoppers go on to indicate price as a main reason for abandonment – with 36% saying they found a better price elsewhere and 32% claiming that the overall price was too expensive.
What can you do?
Start with the basics. An abandoned cart email campaign should be the first step. Considering that price or shipping costs was probably one of the triggers to abandon the cart, a discount coupon will be the most effective approach in bringing these potential buyers back. One option is to create a simple generic coupon, which will display the same coupon code for everyone. A better option is to use personal dynamic coupons and send a personal coupon code for each shopper based on their shopping behavior and what they left in the cart. In order to be most effective, the message needs to be personal and specifically target the person who abandoned the cart. Moreover, the discount should be relevant only for the shopper’s current purchase and with a clear expiration date. For example: “This coupon is valid for the next 24 hours.”
Setting up an abandoned cart campaign in Remarkety only takes a few minutes. Choose from a ready to use template or create your own. Design and customize it to fit your store or to the spirit in which you want your content to be delivered. However, do not send the same email to everybody! be sure to segment and personalize your emails to best fit your business goals. It doesn’t make sense to send a first time shopper the same message that you would send to your VIP customers. The same goes for the carts themselves, it doesn’t make sense to give the same coupon to a $1000 cart that you would to a $25 cart.
Test different types of segmentation and different levels of discounts and see what works for your customers. For example, try free shipping vs 10% off. What is more effective for your vertical and your type of business? You should try different things and learn what works better for you business and adapt accordingly. If you can afford it, try things like 10% off vs 20% off. Does it move the needle? Maybe yes and maybe 10% performs just the same as 15% or 20%, so why offer a larger discount for no reason? Compare the campaign results after a week or two and keep fine-tuning your campaigns. Testing and monitoring your abandoned cart strategy on a weekly basis is a key to success.
Need some more tips to maximize abandoned carts strategy?
Remarkety helps you build data driven email marketing campaigns. From analyzing data of over 1500 online shops we have compiled this list of best practice tips for a successful abandoned cart campaign:
- Download the cart abandonment guide for eCommerce and get ideas from other merchants and brands.
- Send a series of 3 abandoned cart emails to each prospect – one after 1-4 hours, a second after 24-48 hours and last one after 48-72 hours. This tactic can recover an average of 15% of abandoned carts! With each email, increase the incentive (free shipping, discount, etc).
- Offer a higher incentive to first time shoppers at the store and to customers with a “high value” cart.
- Add ONE BIG AND CLEAR CALL TO ACTION – a simple link or button.
- Add the pictures and titles of the products that were abandoned. This has an emotional effect and can bring the customer back to the same “purchase mood.”
- Add personalized product recommendations. This well help you “hedge your bets” in case a customer isn’t interested in the items they left in their cart.
- During the holiday season or special events like Black Friday, you should be more aggressive with discounts and faster with the timing. So instead of 4 hours advance it to 1 hour and offer larger discounts while emphasizing the time urgency.
- Most importantly, A/B test everything, and we mean everything! Try a few different subject lines, change the calls to action, texts, timing, and segmentation. Try to find a pattern to understand what works best with your customers. Test the timing as well. You never know what will drive your customer to come back and purchase again.
For any help setting up campaigns or even general questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at: support@remarkety.com
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