Cart abandonment is one of the most common issues online stores can face: users successfully get to the website, fill their shopping cart, but for some reason don’t check out and finish the purchase. With increased traffic during the holidays, this issue can become much more noticeable. But, just because they don’t purchase right away doesn’t mean you should give up on them! In this month’s Vortex Digital Marketing Blog, we will go over techniques for cart abandonment recovery and converting lost carts to sales.
Setting Up Recovery Emails
The core of any cart abandonment recovery campaign starts with setting up email autoresponders. This allows your business to follow up with customers that got to the checkout page but didn’t convert with personalized invitations back to your website to finish their purchase. Most eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and Squarespace all have this functionality either built-in or can easily be added on.
The setup is straightforward: simply turn it on, and several email templates will be created for you that will be sent out at designated times (an hour after cart abandonment, one day after, etc.). You will then be able to edit the content and send time of these emails.
With the functionality set up, let’s go over some tips for writing your emails.
Be Friendly and Personal
Customers want to buy from businesses they feel they can personally connect with, and you need to write your emails to reinforce that relationship. Make your emails personal with personalized greetings mentioning the customer’s name, or check in with them to make sure they didn’t run into any issues checking out. Being too formal in these emails can lead customers to think this is simply an automated response (even though it is), and that your business doesn’t really care about their customers beyond seeing them as sales.
For example: “Hello [First Name], we noticed that you didn’t finish your purchase at [website]. Did you have any issues checking out? Or is there anything we can do to help? Please let us know! Sincerely, [Business].”
Also make sure to always include a link to the checkout page. This should automatically be added to the template by your eCommerce platform.
Don’t Be Pushy
Recovering abandoned carts can be a delicate process: we want to encourage customers to finish their purchase, but we don’t want to be too forward or forceful. Make sure you’re only sending out a few emails, spaced out over several days. If customers get several emails a day from you asking to finish their purchase, they may get irritated and abandon their purchase all together!
A good schedule is to send one out a few hours after abandonment, asking if they had any technical issues with checking out. The next should be a day or two after the initial abandonment, gently nudging them back to your website. A third email can also be sent out a few days after the second. However, if there is still no response after the third email, it is likely that they are not going to come back. At this point, it’s better to cut your losses and shift focus to other customers that are more likely to convert.
Offer a Discount
Another effective method of recovering abandoned carts is to offer an incentive. If users still haven’t returned to finish their purchase, you can try including a coupon code in the second or third email, saying: “If you complete your purchase now, get 5% off with coupon code XXXX at checkout!”
This technique doesn’t work for all businesses, as not everyone is able to freely give out discounts, but it is an effective way to bring customers back and convince them to finish their purchase.
Is your online eCommerce website not performing as well as it should? Want to increase sales and conversions? Visit VortexBusinessSolutions.com or call us today!
