Have you ever added a product to your cart after spending a lot of time browsing? And then left the store without making any purchase at all?
A countless number of times, we’re sure!
As a consumer, you may not give much thought to it. But as a business, you spend thousands of dollars or at least a few hundreds to get a visitor to the store. And then even after being interested in a product, they leave without making a purchase.
So you are not just losing that cart’s value – you’re also losing the money you spent to grab their attention in the first place.
To put it in numbers, e-commerce brands lose $18 billion each year because of cart abandonment.
However, there are ways to bring them back and persuade them to complete their purchase. In this article, we’re exploring one of these methods – abandoned cart recovery emails.
What is cart abandonment?
Abandonment is a term used in eCommerce that describes a visitor on a website who leaves that page before completing the required action.
Cart abandonment is when a user starts the check-out process for their order but drops out before completing the purchase.
Here are some cart abandonment statistics you must know –
- The average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69.57%
- Mobile users have an even higher abandonment rate of 85.65%
- In March 2020 alone, 88.05 percent of online orders were abandoned before making it to order confirmation
- $260 billion are recoverable by making a few checkout improvements
Industry-wise online shopping cart abandonment rate in March 2021 –
Source – Statista
What are the reasons for cart abandonment?
There were several reasons identified for this –
- Additional costs like delivery increase the total payable amount
- Longer delivery time than expected
- Invalid discount codes/coupons
- A way to wishlist an item for future purchase
- Retail therapy without having to actually spend money
- Environmental distractions
The reasons for digital cart abandonment in the United States alone look a lot like:
Source – Statista
Now the question is, how can you turn this around?
These are online shoppers who added products to their carts (obviously). While doing so, they also fill in their information before backing out. So why not use that information that they willingly gave to bring them back to your store?
This is where cart recovery emails come in.
What are cart recovery emails?
Cart recovery email is a communication initiated by a brand. It’s a follow-up email sent to a customer who showed an interest in buying a product(s) and added it to their cart but left the store without actually completing the purchase.
It acts as a reminder for the customer. It’s a slight nudge to persuade them to complete their incomplete order.
Why are cart recovery emails important?
There are 4 billion daily email users today.
Emails give you a more one-to-one communication channel. Instead of reaching out to them through retargeting ads, etc, emails give you an opportunity to remind them of that product straight in the inbox.
This is probably the only medium used by all age groups. And so, it is one of the most used channels of communication – especially between businesses and consumers.
99% of email users check their inboxes every day. Some even check it 20 times a day! Of those, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning.
And so, 4 out of 5 marketers say they’d willingly give up their social media handles over email marketing any day.
Furthermore, emails can be personalized for every consumer. Now, email marketing is more powerful than ever before. By using email marketing tools and automation, you can add a personal touch to every mail your business sends out – from the name, the offer, and the products you’re reminding the user of.
60% of retail, e-commerce, and consumer goods and services companies are personalizing emails based on past purchases. This number was just 38% in 2019.
Moreover, 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. Emails have a high ROI as compared to other channels.
Sometimes, all it takes is a gentle nudge to convert your cart abandoners into purchasers.
And with an open rate of 41.18%, automated cart recovery emails deliver outstanding results.
Email cart recovery strategies to make use of
1. Establish trust and credibility through your emails
According to Statista, spam messages accounted for 45.1% of email traffic in March 2021.
Today, it is almost impossible for consumers to think about email without worrying about spam. While most of these incoming emails are marketing emails and are generally harmless, a large portion of these is of a more malicious nature, aiming to damage or hijack user systems.
Scams on the internet have become more common than ever. And thus, consumers have also learned to become extra careful.
Even when they visit your online store for the first time, you will have to win their trust before they actually make a purchase.
Now, how do you achieve that?
Using social proof. Social proof includes customer reviews, ratings, testimonials, comments regarding your brand on social media.
It is a derivative of normative social influence. For an individual to like or accept something, what other people think of the same has a massive effect. And that’s why social proof is extremely crucial for your e-commerce store.
You can integrate social proof not just on your online storefront, but also in cart recovery emails. Here’s how –
Remind your customers that they left highly-rated products in their shopping cart. Let your buyers know how popular the product in their cart is.
Include the number of reviews along with the average rating. This can help create a sense of FOMO in your potential customers.
2. Shine the spotlight on a single product
Today, digital window shopping has become a new variant of retail therapy.
This means consumers will simply add a bunch of products to their cart. However, their purchase intent may not be the same for everything.
Instead of trying to push them to buy all these products in their abandoned cart, try to focus on just one product.
The easiest way to pick that one product out of let’s say, 15 from the consumer’s cart is to highlight the best-selling or highly-rated product. Now, while doing so, keep the following points in mind –
- Don’t just mention the product name, add the benefits of that product as well. This will persuade them to make that purchase decision faster.
- Add the best review posted by another user in the mail. This again will persuade them.
3. Make the most of loyalty
A very tempting offer or discount is hard to resist.
Give them a limited-period offer on the products in their abandoned shopping carts. But it is no surprise that continuously discounting devalues your product over time.
What you can also do is introduce loyalty and reward programs into the mix.
Instead of offering a discount on the abandoned product, send them store credits from your loyalty program that can be used to make another purchase.
4. Keep a longer-term connection
Making sure that you are only sending emails to prospects or customers who have consented to receive them is a critical component to ensure high engagement.
Additionally, while sending out these mails you also need to remember that most times the timing is just not right for that customer to make a purchase at that time.
In such cases, you would want to retain the connection. At least, until the time in the future when they are ready to complete their purchase.
So you can send out a sequence of automated emails nudging the customer to make that purchase – just don’t sound like you’re playing the same record over and over again; make sure you walk them through the sales cycle.
Here’s an example of a follow-up flow for abandoned cart recovery on email:
- Abandoned cart reminder
- Social proof around the abandoned product
- FOMO around the availability of the product
- Discount on the cart total
- Discount + time-sensitivity on it
- Offering help to make the purchase
- Request feedback
5. Give your emails a boost with other tools
With so many email marketing tools out there, you can choose from a variety of recommended email flows and email templates and customize them with your brand theme in just a few clicks.
This means no more dependence on designers and engineers. Deploy email flows and templates on your existing email stack 10x faster.
Segmentation is also something you can try your hands at. Marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue.
With the onset of Artificial Intelligence, the possibilities of running an email marketing campaign have shot up exponentially. 66% of marketers believe AI is the ideal way to optimize email send times.
Tools like RetainIQ lets you supercharge emails for your eCommerce store seamlessly with pre-built and customizable flows.
6. Continually monitor and improve your cart recovery emails
You should see the performance in terms of open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and then optimize them accordingly for higher conversions.
This gives you a better overview of what is working and what is not working for your store. It is extremely crucial to do this because not everything that worked for your competitors will work for you.
Quick tips to craft irresistible cart recovery emails that convert
- Add an interesting subject line
- Keep a clear and simple call-to-action
- Make your copy shine
- Show the abandoned products
- Add eye-catching graphics and elements
- Create a sense of FOMO
- Use social proof
- Offer discounts when required
- Optimize your emails for mobile
- Add a clear call-to-action to the email
Do you have your cart recovery emails set up?
Email is a channel that gives you the opportunity to re-engage a buyer’s interest in the product.
Recover customers who browse/search and just leave. Reach out to them with the right products and recommendations. But it isn’t about sending just one reminder and forgetting about it.
You need to strategize.
You also need to use the right tools to execute these strategies.
Your cart recovery emails need to adapt to the changing consumer behavior too. As an e-commerce store, you don’t want to leave money on the table. You need to be able to convert as many visitors into customers as possible.
Supercharge emails for your Shopify store with RetainIQ today. RetainIQ is co-founded by professionals who collectively have more than 25 years of experience in e-commerce growth for big brands.
Book a free consultation and demo with our email experts.
Frequently asked questions on abandoned cart recovery emails
- When should I use cart recovery emails?
This is a communication initiated by a brand. It’s a follow-up email sent to a customer who showed an interest in buying a product(s) and added it to their cart and left the store without actually completing the purchase.
It acts as a reminder for the customer. It’s a slight nudge to persuade them to complete their incomplete order.
- Do cart recovery emails work?
With an open rate of 41.18%, automated cart recovery emails deliver outstanding results.
The cost of recovering a cart is usually much less than the cost of acquiring a new shopper. Additionally, cart recovery emails also stand as an opportunity to connect with your customers.
- What does a recoverable cart mean?
Recoverable cart represents customers who added a product to their carts, entered an email address at checkout, but didn’t complete their order within 24 hours.