In a shopping center, visitors rarely fill a shopping cart full of purchases and then abandon it and leave without buying anything. In an online store, this happens regularly: up to 70% of orders don’t end up with a purchase.

Each abandoned cart for the store is not only a lost profit, but also a decrease in the return on marketing expenses. The company invests money in attracting each visitor. And the more people leave without buying, the more of the budget is wasted.

However, abandoned carts can and should be fought. Of course, email newsletters will not solve this problem completely, but they will help to reduce the share of carts that are followed by abandoned shopping carts.

A new useful post on my Affiliate Programs blog for you.

WHY SHOPPERS ARE ABANDONING SHOPPING CARTS?

There are different reasons: from “got distracted and forgot” to “found a better one at a competitor”.

Let’s take a look at the most common ones.

NOT READY TO BUY

A person went to the site, typed the goods into the cart, but changed his mind or decided to come back later, after the paycheck. Or he needs time to study the offers in detail and compare with competitors.

For such a buyer a weighty argument can be a personalized discount or bonus. And if it’s all about money, and the goods the user really needs, the store is enough to remind about the cart later. Perhaps he will just get a paycheck, and the money will appear.

If a person has not changed his mind and is just waiting for a paycheck, he will not have to be stimulated by discounts and bonuses.

HIGH PRICE OF THE PRODUCT

If the user was frightened by the price, abandoning the cart on one site, he most likely went to competitors. In this case, a mailing with a discount can bring him back. Especially if the high price is justified by the quality of service and other criteria.

EXPENSIVE SHIPPING

Specify the cost of delivery and other related markups as early as possible: if the difference between the expected and real price comes up at the last moment, the buyer is guaranteed to feel cheated and the risk of losing him will increase.

Look for ways to make shipping free or at least reduce costs on the buyer’s side: according to Amazon, fast free shipping has given the company almost double the revenue.

If you don’t have that option, try to win the customer back with a mailing with a discount or bonus – this can offset paid shipping.

Reducing the price of items can also offset paid shipping.

UNCOMFORTABLE INTERFACE

Separately note the problems associated with the layout of sites, especially on mobile devices: modern users are quite painful to the inconvenient interface and technical bugs and without regret abandon such sites.

The same can be said about the complex and lengthy design process. Modern users are used to speed and simplicity: two taps in the application – and pizza and rolls are on their way. It’s the same with marketplaces – the card is linked, the delivery point is set up. All that remains is to select the product and click “Order”.

This problem will not be solved by mailings – you need a comprehensive improvement of usability. Look at statistics, heat maps to find bottlenecks – pages and interface elements that cause users the most difficulties. Improve them so that the customer stumbles as little as possible on his way to purchase.

PENDING PURCHASE

This is also an interface flaw in the store. Customers type items into their cart for the future if they have no other way to postpone their favorite items.

Give visitors the ability to compare items, add them to “Favorites,” and mail the list to themselves. The positive experience of interacting with the site, as well as the memory of lovingly selected “favorite” products will make visitors come back to you more often and buy. And that, by the way, is one great way to get a user’s contacts, sign them up for your mailing list, and start communication.

When there is a “Favorites”, the buyer does not need to add items to the cart “for the future”.

SHIPPING TERMS AND PAYMENT OPTIONS ARE UNCLEAR

The fact that buyers abandon shopping carts for this very reason can also be learned by looking at web analytics. If you see a high bounce rate on pages with return, payment and delivery terms, and if you have them as good as your competitors, try changing the description.

Make it simpler, clearer and more structured. Specify clear terms and conditions so that the user doesn’t have to abandon the cart and leave the site in search of more information.

DISTRACTIONS

A person was selecting products, adding to the cart, and then he was called away on an urgent matter – family, colleagues or boss. He may return to shopping later or forget. And this is exactly where a newsletter can help.

If a person was really important to make an order, and he just forgot, having received the letter, he will immediately return to the store and complete the purchase.

Another factor is the elements of the site that distract from the purchase. These include newsletter subscription pop-ups, notifications of new articles, online chats and widgets. Try to make sure that nothing distracts the user at the shopping cart stage.

SELECTING COMPETITORS’ OFFERS

Modern users often compare conditions and prices of different suppliers before making a major purchase. If a person has abandoned the cart for this reason, you may have time to send a newsletter with a favorable offer before he buys from competitors.

Knowing the competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you can prepare suitable offers for such an occasion.

HOW TO WIN BACK CUSTOMERS WITH EMAIL NEWSLETTERS?

As with any other type of communication, you need to think through a strategy, prepare content and customize everything in the mailing list service.

WORKING OUT THE STRATEGY

At this stage, it’s important to analyze the reasons for bounce rates and understand why customers abandon carts exactly in your store. And think about what arguments can make them change their mind. For example, it could be:

• a simple reminder for the forgetful;
• discount or bonus;
• reduction or on the contrary soon price increase;
• free shipping;
• information that the product is running out of stock.

You can choose individual arguments, use all of them at once or come up with your own depending on the niche and specifics of the target audience. The main thing, follow the rule: one letter – one argument.

Then you need to build a chain of letters – think in what sequence and at what intervals to send each message to the buyer.

PREPARE CONTENT

When you have determined the general topics and the sequence of letters in the chain, you need to prepare content for each.

You can do it according to this standard structure in affiliate campaign:

• a header with a title;
• the essence of the offer;
• product card;
• buttons and other conversion elements;
• details;
• footer.

If you wish, you can add other elements to such a newsletter: a selection of similar or relevant products, information about other current promotions, a block of product categories with links to the corresponding sections of the store, tips for choosing and other useful content.

Otherwise, you can follow the same rules when composing and designing emails as for any other mailing list.

SETTING UP AN ABANDONED CART EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Even if the store is small and there are a couple of abandoned carts per day, it is costly and impractical to send such mailings manually. Moreover, there are tools that automate everything at once:

• track abandoned shopping carts;
• substitute products from them into prepared email templates;
• send messages in a specified sequence;
• select the optimal time for a person to be more likely to open the email.

You will only need to build the ready content in the block editor, set up abandoned cart tracking and launch the mailing.

HOW TO IMPROVE THE RESULT OF AN ABANDONED CART NEWSLETTER?

Let’s give some more ideas on how to improve the return on abandoned cart email newsletter.

– Go hot on the trail.

Sending such a newsletter a week after the user has collected a cart may be pointless. Especially if the goods are inexpensive and with a short period of time to make a purchase decision. So, if the buyer added a t-shirt, hair gel and a phone case to the cart, it makes sense to send the first email of the chain in a couple of hours. Because in 3 days he will either already buy elsewhere or change his mind.

With more expensive items like laptops and TVs, you can send the first letter the same day or the next day.

-Take into account the sending time and time zones.

If a user has added an item to their cart, don’t forget to check what time it is on their watch before sending. Because an email sent at midnight is unlikely to work well.

– Build up the benefits

When planning a chain, make it so that each next offer is more profitable than the previous one. Why offer discounts and free shipping to those who just need a reminder?

– Talk about the reason for the communication right away, on the first screen

According to reports, a user reads emails for an average of 13 seconds. During this time, he has time to see one or two screens – the main banner and a few paragraphs. Therefore, do not write long emails, but talk about the main thing at once.

– Add product cards

Set up automatic substitution of goods from the cart is worth it. A person may have already forgotten what he added there. And a simple list will not attract attention visually and will not involve as much as full-fledged clickable cards – with photos, brief characteristics, prices.

– Write a clear CTA

Buttons and calls to action will also increase the effectiveness of abandoned cart emails – they will give the buyer a guide to action and shorten the user’s path to purchase.

– Segment users and exclude them from other conversations

If a user receives a welcome chain, abandoned cart and abandoned browsing emails at the same time, and then sees a discounted pop-up as well, they will get confused. This will reduce the effectiveness of each of the conversations. Make a separate segment for abandoned cart users so they see the main offer.

– Test

As with any mailing, only analyzing the results and tests will show which solutions work and which ones don’t. Gradually testing different arguments, chain length, sending time and other parameters, you will find the most effective solutions and will be able to get an increase in profits from abandoned cart mailings.

Of course, betting only on returning visitors is not enough. To increase conversion you need to work in several directions: pricing policy, cost and delivery time, attractiveness and friendliness of the interface.

But even if you just set up personalized mailings on abandoned carts, you can increase sales by 15-40%, depending on the market segment and skill of marketers.

In the highly competitive online shopping environment, a forgotten cart can cause significant damage to business profitability. We hope our article will help you retain your customers and increase your sales.