Biz Tips: The 5 Essential Abandoned Cart Emails That Will Boost Sales
GROWTH:
The 5 Essential Abandoned Cart Emails That Will Boost Sales
It’s always a bit of a head-scratcher when you find an abandoned shopping cart in a grocery store. It makes you think there must have been some emergency, because who changes their mind midway through a shopping trip and just leaves a full cart in the middle of the store? It’s curious behavior in a brick-and-mortar store, but in eCommerce, it’s completely normal — and all too common.
On average, nearly three quarters of all online shopping carts get filled up but never checked out. Hardware can be a factor. Customers are 10% more likely to ditch a shopping cart on their mobile devices than when shopping on a desktop computer.
It’s easy for online shoppers to get distracted and abandon a cart. An incoming phone call, an impulse to compare prices at another store, a dying battery — it doesn’t take much to break the eCommerce spell. The good news is, shoppers who are reminded that their abandoned carts are still out there waiting have a decent chance of coming back to complete their order.
Abandoned cart emails are the primary tool merchants have for luring fickle customers back in. The key to sending successful emails is to know your customers — what causes them to abandon their carts, what would entice them to return, and what you’re trying to say about your brand and shopping experience with the messaging and imagery you use.
Well-targeted abandoned cart emails have a high click-through rate, and nearly half of all customers who engage with abandoned cart emails will go on to complete an order. If you want to craft emails that bring your carts back to the checkout page, read on for five essential templates you can adapt for your store.
Email #1: The Time-Sensitive Discount
Sometimes, it’s that final price tag that makes a shopper sidle away from an overflowing shopping cart. Rather than go through the buzz-killing process of removing items until it becomes a more manageable expense, they’ll just give up on the whole thing altogether.
One of the best antidotes for sticker shock is a nice discount that rewards decisiveness. Give these customers a window of opportunity to come back and reclaim their cart at a lower price, and many of them will.
Try a subject line like “24 Hour Offer: Get 15% Off {{name of product they had in their abandoned cart}}”. This will gently remind customers of what they were thinking about buying, and give them an incentive to purchase, now that it’s cheaper than it was when they started shopping.
The above example is unique because it takes a different approach to cart abandonment. Most (smart) cart abandonment emails will use user data to try to understand the reason a user did not complete purchase and provide a suggestion. The above takes a different approach and covers almost every possible base. It would be interesting to test an email like the above vs. a more focused approach.
Email #2: The Tangent
When price isn’t the issue, another leading cause of cart abandonment is when the product is almost, but not quite, what the customer was looking for. They may place the almost-right item in their cart as a placeholder or backup option, but it’s not really what they want, so they don’t finalize the purchase.
As a merchant, sometimes you (or the algorithms powering the product recommendation functions on your website) can figure out what your customers are looking for before they can find it on their own. This can often be the case when you’re selling specific parts or tools, or other products where knowing what to buy may require some specialized knowledge.
A “Couldn’t find what you were looking for?” email that links to similar or related products can be all you need to help get a confused customer back on track. You’ll get the sale, and they’ll be happy to have found the thing they really needed.
Email #3: Low Stock Alert
Some customers aren’t driven by purely rational concerns like staying within their budget, or making sure they’re buying the one specific product they actually need. Some customers shop on a whim, toss things in their cart, and move on as the mood strikes them. You’re not going to get them back by offering them a discount or suggesting other products they might want. But you might get them back by appealing to their FOMO — fear of missing out.
Magic phrases like “only a few left in stock,” “limited quantities of {{product}} available,” or “this item sells out fast” can be all you need to spark a sense of urgency, motivating these customers to come back and complete their order, so they don’t miss out.
Email #4: The Fee Waiver
When it’s not feasible to offer direct price discounts on an item, you have to get a little creative when coming up with incentives for returning customers. One easy way to do this is to waive any fees that might come with the order.
For example, on a subscription-based service, a 15% discount on the first monthly charge might not matter much to the customer. An ongoing 15% discount might not be sustainable for your business. However, a one-time setup fee might be the perfect thing to entice a customer who’s on the fence.