For ecommerce companies, the very first triggered message you should invest in is an abandoned cart email. These emails are designed to bring shoppers back to your website after they had made it part of the way through their purchase. In addition to reaching out to these prospects, it is also important to understand where users are abandoning your site during the cart to checkout process to make strategic decisions and updates to those pages or sending out targeted emails to customers based on their checkout behavior. Listed below are some of the most common questions being asked about cart abandonment.
1. Who qualifies for abandoned cart emails?
- Someone who came to your site, submitted their email address at some point (often registering or signing up for a company newsletter).
- Someone who has added one or more products to their shopping cart, but has left the site without purchasing.
2. How quickly should I send out an abandoned cart email?
- Roughly 3/4 of people who abandon the shopping cart purchase within 24 hours of abandonment with a majority of those users actually buying in the first 12 hours.
- Send an email within 15 minutes of a registered user abandoning their cart and leaving your site.
3. What is a ‘good’ abandonment rate?
- Abandonment rate is very subjective. Because some ecommerce platforms have multi-step checkout processes versus single page checkout, the entrance and exits along the conversion funnel can vary.
- Some websites may also have what is referred to as a ‘soft’ add to cart, where when a product is added to cart, the user stays on the product or category page. For these sites, the cart abandonment is likely lower because users who purchase multiple products aren’t being forced to visit the cart page every time they add something.
- That being said, industry standard cart abandonment rate is around 60% for a majority of ecommerce stores.
4. What should I include in my abandoned cart email?
- Attractive Subject Line: Come Back! Take 5% Off Your Order Today
- Promotion: Discounts, free shipping, both or something else.
- Short Description: Tell users what they get if they come back and finish their purchase.
- Product Photos: Think of how many sites you visit in a given day. You may not even remember what you left in the cart in the first place.
- Link To Shopping Cart: A big, bright button or link to let them pick up where they left off.
- Contact Information: Sometimes an abandoned cart is due to usability and not to a customer becoming disinterested or shopping elsewhere. Provide ample opportunity for them to get in touch with your customer service team.