Shopping Cart Abandonment Emails Sell More than Regular Emails

No matter how long you’ve been doing ecommerce and how much revenue you generate, it still hurts when you see the potential customers abandon your shopping cart. Now more than ever, were seeing more shopping cart abandonment –in fact, there’s been a 75-90 percent increase in recent times. Surveys have also showed that almost two out of every three individuals –about 68 percent to be precise- who buy products online abandon their shopping carts.

No matter how much money you’re currently making from your ecommerce store, the fact is that this is a real problem because you can make much more than you’re currently earning.

This is where shopping cart abandonment emails can make a huge difference… they are meant to help you turn those cart abandoning prospects into buyers. Done right, they can increase your conversion rates by as much as 50 percent, drastically cutting down your customer drop off rates.

First however, is determining why the visitors abandoned their carts. Understanding this is key to your emailing success as it will help you craft compelling email that will get them to come on back and try to purchase that product again.

Some of the more popular reasons for shopping cart abandonment:

1. Startling Shipping Costs

Admittedly, small ecommerce store owners may not be able to cover the shipping costs for certain products. But, when the shipping costs are prohibitive, particularly for lower priced items, most people abandon the cart in search of other stores that might be able to offer them lower shipping prices.

2. Product is Cheaper Elsewhere

Given the opportunity, people will always want to pay less for the same product quality. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just what it is. For instance, I was in the market for a new perfume recently.  I checked one of my favorite ecommerce websites for the fragrances I liked, added them to the cart and then remembered there were other stores out there. I surfed those websites and found that some had the same fragrances at cheaper rates. Not just a little cheaper, but significantly lower!
I had to abandon my go-to ecommerce store for the new one, even though delivery was slated for a day later. The point is to always ensure your prices aren’t too different from going rates available elsewhere.

3. Total Cost Is Too High

Some folks tend to just willy-nilly shop online, but when presented with the total cost at the checkout point and they see those costs are steep, some of them back down for reasons like they can’t afford the items.
The good news is that some of them intend to come back and can be reminded. Others, don’t. Whatever the case, as long as your prices are competitive, it’s best to stick to them. But if you can, offer them some discounts in your emails.

4. Your UX Sucks

Let’s be honest, a website with poor user experience (UX) doesn’t instill much buying confidence. Apart from the aesthetics and design, a difficult checkout process is bound to result in higher cart abandonment incidents.

5. Customers Not Sure of Your Payment Processor’s Safety

Even though there’s an overall improvement in customers’ trust of online payment processors, most people still want to be sure of the ecommerce store’s payment processors.
This is why most stores either use well known payment processors like Paypal and Authorize or go to great lengths to embed credibility badges on their stores and particularly on their checkout pages.

6. Crashed Website or Timeout

About 15-24 percent of cart abandoning shoppers say they left the cart due to a checkout timeout or the website being down. The thing is the problem may originate from their ISP, and they may still want to purchase those products. A reminder will usually fix this issue and bring them back to the website to buy the items.

Is it Possible to Individually Target Shopping Cart Abandoners?

It is possible, but the costs can be a bit high. Most of the time though, companies just cover all their bases in their email approaches by doing one or more of the following:

Sending an Email Sequence

Here’s what I’ll recommend: send the first email within 4 hours of cart abandonment –preferably around the time they left without buying. People tend to shop during their leisure periods. So, sending the first reminder around that time, will probably get a better response. Follow up with them after another 24 hours, and then 48 hours later.

Highlighting Extra Bonuses and Timed Discounts

Your first mail should be a reminder, with your regular offers. Your second and third however, should highlight extra bonuses, rebates or even timed discounts. For instance, the second mail could offer a 10 percent discount that’s only valid for 24-48 hours if they purchase through the link you provide. Here’s a good example from Levi’s.

Cover all Bases

You can do this by reiterating unique offers, talking about your unique pricing and possible glitches in the system. Bottom line, you need to be direct and ask for the sale. Here’s a good example of a cart abandonment email from Doggyloot that covers all the bases.

It's true, the cart retrieval emails may not work for everyone, but when it’s done correctly, it is capable of adding as much as 42 percent extra revenue to your bottom line.

Want to see some more examples?  Here are a few emails for your design inspiration.

Need help with creating high converting cart abandonment email series? Or crafting compelling cart retrieval messages? We can help you. Click the "Click To Apply" button and let's talk.