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Essential Aspects of Great Abandoned Cart Emails
Getting customers to the checkout is not the finish line. In ecommerce, a serious amount of money is left on the table at the last moment, as online shoppers leave before completing their purchase. Abandoned cart emails are a sure way to remind your customers about your last interaction and convince them to complete their purchases.
Abandoned carts are bad for business. But they also tee up an opportunity for your business to exploit the potential of clever marketing automation strategies. In many cases, the would-be buyers are still in the buying frame of mind. Personalized emails that speak directly to the prospect can quickly rescue a sale from the brink of collapse.
Abandoned cart emails can be crafted in a variety of ways, but almost all include some key aspects that boost the chances of success. According to Oberlo, personalized emails that follow up after an abandoned cart can net a 4.6% conversion rate, dwarfing that of any promotional newsletter. With almost 70% of consumers abandoning carts with items in them, there is a lot to be gained from pursuing these leads.
There’s plenty of companies succeeding right now. With the tips in this article, your business can turn abandoned carts into higher profits.
How to Create the Perfect Abandoned Cart Email
Studies by SaleCycle show that the response to abandoned cart emails is largely positive, with more than a third of the clicks leading to purchases. The reality is, customers abandon carts for a multitude of reasons, such as:
- The website crashed
- The site timed out
- The sales process was over-complicated
- They got distracted and had to leave
The main takeaway from this is that many of them are still interested in buying. They just need a little reminder or prompt to finish the job. Here’s how to encourage them to return and complete their purchase.
1) Craft a Catchy Subject Line
Email subject lines are incredibly important. It’s not much use having great content inside if nobody opens the email. HubSpot research asserts that 33% of people open their email based solely on the subject line. You need to make it count. One way to do this is to play on scarcity. By telling customers you are about to run out of their items, you can create urgency, provoking them into action.
2) Get Personal
One of the best things about the rise of machine learning is the huge growth in ecommerce personalization. Ecommerce businesses are armed with the data they need to tailor their content to micro-segments of their audience, seemingly speaking directly to the customer. Great personalized emails will address the customer by name and refer to the previous visit and possibly any buying history, offering related products right there in the email.
3) Mention the Forgotten Items
Some visitors actually had no intention of buying. They may not remember being on your site, let alone what items they left behind. With a reminder, you can potentially reignite any interest they had. With several reminders throughout the email, including through the use of humor or appealing visuals, companies can tempt consumers back.
4) Address Customer Concerns
As mentioned, there are a number of reasons for abandoned carts. Businesses must figure out what the problem is before they can convert these visitors. By identifying concerns that people may have with your products or services, companies can get ahead of the issue, reassuring consumers that it is a good decision to buy from them.
Net-A-Porter take this approach by focusing on helping the customer, rather than trying to force the sale. It also doesn’t hurt to provide leads with an easy way to contact your company if they have other questions or concerns. People who abandoned a cart are low-hanging fruit. It pays to be more available to talk with them.
5) Use a Strong Call-to-Action
There is rarely a need for any ecommerce email to be long, regardless of the purpose. With abandoned cart emails, you shouldn’t distract your recipients with too much information. Using several links may be required to provide added information to aid in the decision-making process, however there should only be one strong and clear CTA. It can be most effective to use a bold CTA in your brand voice that resonates with your target audience, such as those by Jessops or Glossier.
6) Link to Checkout Page
Make it easy for them. There’s no need to link back to your sales page, or worse, to the homepage.
Including a direct link back to the checkout page reduces the workload for the customer, saving them time and increasing your conversion rates.
7) Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse
Many people are hesitant to sign-up for anything online, even more so when it comes to making purchases that they aren’t completely convinced about yet. One of the biggest reasons for abandoned carts are unforeseen added costs. Ecommerce companies can counter this issue by including coupons or discounts in their abandoned cart emails. This has been shown to boost conversion rates by 54%.
8) Write Compelling Copy
Staying true to your brand voice is important in personalized emails. Companies can engage consumers by using humor, puns or clever wordplay that resonates with them. While abandoned carts are far from ideal, they provide a marketing opportunity for companies. Learning how to engage customers through these emails will increase the clickthrough rates.
There is No Universal Fit
Customers respond in different ways. Some prefer emails with a personal, conversational tone, while others may be more engaged by visual emails. Ecommerce companies have a lot of variables to consider with their abandoned cart emails. Tweaking any of the following can have a big impact on success rates:
- Email timing
- Subject lines
- Sender name / email
- Email length
- Personalization and Tone
- Color scheme
- CTA Copy
Making several versions of your abandoned cart emails to use in A/B testing is an effective way of increasing open rates, clickthrough rates, and best of all, conversions. Using the aspects in this article will allow your business to create convincing personalized emails, which dispel customer concerns and tempt them back to your ecommerce store. Ultimately though, it will take some trial and error to find the perfect formula. It’s not easy, but it’s well worth the effort.