Abandoned Cart Email Strategy: 11 Best Tactics to Boost Sales by 30%

Cart abandonment is a serious threat to business for e-commerce platforms. Irrespective of the scale of operation, it is a global issue in the e-commerce domain. The fact that the global average cart abandonment rate is 70% highlights the magnitude of the problem. An effective way to counter this abandoned cart email. With an effective abandoned cart email strategy, you can convert a significant portion of the abandoned carts into sales.

Creating an abandoned cart email strategy is not rocket science; rather, it’s a form of innovative communication. At Provis Technologies, we believe in crafting strategies that subtly nudge customers to take action—without sounding like a straightforward sales pitch. It’s all about conveying the message in a way that feels helpful, timely, and personalized.

Abandoned cart email: Why it is Important 

Abandoned cart email is important in the sense that it reaches out to the users who were just one step away from becoming a customer. Going by the number, abandoned cart emails have an open rate of around 40%. This means that if 10 of your users have abandoned the cart you still have chance to convert 4 into making a purchase. 

For an e-commerce business, driving conversions out of abandoned carts is crucial, given the fact that the abandonment rate is as high as 70%. It’s a big blunder if you never reach out to those 70 % of users. An effective abandoned cart email strategy bridges that gap between an abandoned cart and a successful purchase by the customer.  An abandoned cart signifies that the user is aware of your e-commerce store, he/she was there for purchase, however, something went wrong at the last stage.  An abandoned cart email tries to understand what went wrong and make the user take the final action.

Abandoned Cart: Common Reasons 

Source: https://premierecreative.com/blog/optimized-abandoned-cart-emails/

If you get to know the why behind the problem, then you will figure out the how to solve it. Certain common reasons cause an abandoned cart. 

• Price issue: The price difference that is visible on the checkout page due to the addition of shipping charges, handling charges, convenience fee, etc, is a major reason for cart abandonment. 

• Delivery time: Nowadays people prefer fast delivery of their orders. If the shipping time is longer, say one week or more, then users abandon the cart and look for those who deliver the same product faster. The growth of quick commerce has further increased the pressure to deliver faster. 

• Forceful account creation: Many e-commerce platforms want users to create an account to shop. However, users prefer flexibility and expect to shop without signing or creating an account. Creating an account can be a hassle, filling in all the details, and it annoys users.

• Lengthy checkout: The Checkout page is the place where things should move fast. However, lengthy checkouts and complicated processes opted by e-commerce stores cause abandonment of the cart. A single page checkout is what users prefer. 

• Payment security and flexibility: Given the rise of financial fraud, online users are concerned about the security of their payments. If they find your payment gateways non-compliant with security standards, then they would opt out. Further flexibility to pay either through wallet, card, or buy now, pay later is what users look for. In case of limited payment options users prefer to move away. 

Abandoned Cart Email Strategy: 11 Best Tactics

Source: https://www.sendlane.com/blog/abandoned-cart-emails 

Here are some amazing and effective abandoned cart email strategy that would help you reduce cart abandonment and boost sales:

Timing of the mail: How quickly you respond after an abandoned cart defines the chances of success. 45% of cart recoveries happen within 2 hours of cart abandonment. 

• Follow up within the first hour to drive the desired action from the user

• Set up automatic email reminders so that you don’t miss on any opportunity 

• For different categories of products, the email timings can be different. Analyze that and go accordingly

Personal touch: A personal touch to the cart abandonment mail can do wonders. A subject like ‘Hey Rahul, you left something behind’, ‘Something is calling you’, etc, can gain instant attention. Try to be creative with your message to win the customer. 

Solve the problem: Cart abandonment happens if a user faces an issue while shopping. You can check what went wrong and reach out to the user with a solution. When you offer a solution then it reflects the customer friendliness of your business and brings the user closer to conversion. 

Use push notifications: Push notifications are one of the quickest and best ways to win customers after an abandoned cart. You might have seen food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato using push notifications to reach users who abandoned their carts. Like email you can be creative and add personal touch to pursuade the user. 

Multiple reminders: Abandoned cart email doesn’t end with just one email. You have to strategically plan the mail to be sent to the user over a given time. In business, not letting any opportunity to win a customer go by is the best approach. 

• The first mail should go within 1 to 2 hours of the cart abandonment

• The second follow-up mail should go in 6-7 hours after the cart abandonment

• Further, the mails should go in the range of 24 to 48 hours 

Offer discounts: Discounts are a big pull factor for customers. You can strategically offer a specific discount to the user over and above what was there in your e-commerce store. Sending a discount coupon like ‘shopnow’, gift coupon, etc, can drive the customer back to the checkout page.

Bank on the user feedback: In the abandoned cart mail, you can utilize the product review and positive response from other users to create trust. For example, if the user was buying a table fan and abandoned the cart, then you can send a mail with its rating by other users. You can highlight things like energy saving, cost-effective, etc, that other users mentioned.

Create Urgency: This is an old tactic that still works well. You can create a sense of hurry by saying the stock is about to get over, prices may increase soon, don’t miss out on savings now, etc, to create urgency. 

Offer alternatives: You can reach out to the user with an alternative to the product that they put in the cart and then abandoned. The alternative should be cheaper than the product in the abandoned cart, and should offer the same utility. This is another way of saying to the customer that what you want is available in less price as well.

Video messages: One effective way to make your abandoned cart mail work is to use a video message. Audio and video inputs have a greater effect on human decision-making compared to plain text messages. Here you can use a GIF as well. For a video message, you can use a social media influencer to create the video, to bring in perfection, and to do effective communication.

Mail is not enough: Sending only an email won’t do. Reach out to the user in all possible ways in a given time interval. WhatsApp messages, push notifications, and  Google Ads based on the product search are techniques that would help you bring sales from the abandoned cart. 

Conclusion 

Driving sales from abandoned carts is possible with a smart abandoned cart email strategy. Utilizing the inputs that we discussed, you can craft your abandoned cart email strategy to boost sales in less time.