It is estimated that more than 60% of online shoppers with items in their cart do not complete the checkout process. This equates to an unimaginable loss of potential sales. That's why it is recommended that all online stores should have a plan of action in place in order to recover these sales. So far, the best plan that seems to be the most effective is cart abandonment emails.
There are plenty of reasons behind online shopping cart abandonment. Most of which are attributed to reasons surrounding the actual store. This is why online stores should try and optimize their websites in order to make sure their customers are completely satisfied during the checkout process.
Here are some of the biggest reasons behind online shopping cart abandonment:-
A couple of other major reasons are high shipping costs and a customer who is simply not ready to purchase anything. Most of the time, an online store will be able to optimize their website and adjust product pricing in order to make the store more enticing for visitors. However, cart abandonment is here to stay regardless of how good your store and brand is.
There are times when shoppers will abandon their carts due to some unforeseen reason. Many people simply forget to check out as they are interrupted. Some people wander through online stores just to gather information on the latest products, such as a smartphone. These people have little to no intent on purchasing anything.
So whatever the reason may be, people will continue to abandon shopping carts. Whether its an issue a shopper has with a store or a simple internet connection problem on their side, it is absolutely vital that you email these customers.
Cart abandonment software analyzes all shopping cart behavior. When a registered user places items into a cart, only to leave the website, the software will then be able to report this behavior as an abandoned cart. You can then choose to send this registered user an email to kindly remind them of their online cart which has items that they are interested in.
These emails are your stores best bet in terms of winning back customers who have abandoned their carts. It is also a good way to help increase online traffic to your store. Sure you won't be able to get every single person to come back to your website and purchase something. However, developers of shopping cart abandonment software claim that the software can indeed recover up to 25% of potential sales lost.
Most cart abandoned software have a built-in algorithm that defines the exact moment the cart was abandoned and the moment the email will be sent. These automatic systems are excellent because the methods behind the algorithm come from years of marketing experience.
Cart abandoned email templates drastically differ, but they all do serve the same purpose. That purpose is to bring customers back to the online store. The most basic templates feature text-only information and instructions. Some stores choose to feature a theme that is in keeping with the stores brand image.
Whatever the case may be, the most important factors of abandoned cart emails are:-
Other less important, but creative factors are:-
3 is the magic number of emails that you should send to customers who have abandoned their carts. This will ensure that they will at least come across one of the emails at the very right moment.
However, sending these emails in quick succession isn't good practice. This can be seen as spamming by the customer and can lead them to block your emails altogether.
The first email should be sent after the first hour. This allows the customer enough time to finish browsing online. It's not a good sign if they receive an email in their inbox while they are still in the same web browsing session.
Allow at least another 24 hours before you send the next email. It is possible that the time that the customer abandoned their cart is actually their daily time to shop online. Waiting 24 hours can be a nice way to remind them about the products as they are logging in to shop.
The third email can occur around 5 days later. This gives the shopper enough time to work things out and make a decision towards their purchase. They could be having a bad week and are not in the best of moods to shop. Five days is plenty of time to get past this.
You may have lost out on a potential sale when your customer abandoned their cart. However, you have this opportunity to win them back. Use it as a perfect excuse to sell them the products that they are interested in. Experiment with additional discounts of around 10%.
Some stores may have a strict policy regarding offering discounts, but turning an abandoned cart into income is always beneficial. Especially if all you are doing is using a discount coupon to achieve this. Think of it as an investment towards more potential income.
Including images into emails can help entice customers further into purchasing that very same product. There is nothing wrong with text-only emails, but when a customer places their eyes on the prize, they will then have to exhibit an enormous amount of willpower in order to say no.
You can further customize your emails by adding additional information on the store and other products. This will give the customer an option to redirect back to your site and buy other products. This is useful especial when they have lost interest in the products that are in their cart. However, you should exercise this method with caution as overdoing it can make your store feel too spammy. People don't like this and it could lead to your store losing subscribers.
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