Abandoned carts are the bane of all e-commerce businesses. You guide a visitor successfully all the way to your website, they choose items they’d like to buy, initiate the purchase process, and then at the final hurdle, they give up. At this point you either get very annoyed or you step back and wonder just how to tip them over the edge.

First let’s just take a look at the stats. Abandoned carts are an enormous problem, and a big pinch point in the purchasing process. According to Oberlo, an average of 69% of carts are abandoned by users of e-commerce sites. That’s staggering - over two thirds of all carts filled don’t actually lead to a purchase. Statista notes that this results in an enormous $18 billion annual loss of revenue in the US alone. But just as important is the fact that one tool in the battle against abandoned carts in particular can convert 18.64% abandoned carts into sales.

So what is this magical tool? Abandoned cart emails are one of the most powerful weapons in our armoury. An abandoned cart email is exactly what it sounds like - an email sent to a customer who abandons their cart, attempting to help them make the leap to purchase. But is this just a simple email asking people to look again at the products they decided against purchasing? It’s a bit more than that.  

Here we’ll take a deep dive into abandoned carts, and how you can shift the balance and get them to follow through with an order.

Giving The Customer Confidence.

Crafting an abandoned cart email is first and foremost about using convincing content and imagery. You need to convince your customers to change their minds, by motivating them or, more importantly, giving them confidence to take the leap and finally buy the item. One of the best ways to give customers that little confidence boost is with the use of UGC - user generated content. (For a handy guide to UGC and its other uses, check out our previous article here). UGC makes your brand more human, it helps put a face to your brand and products. Embedding a selection of social media posts from your happy customers will go a long way in swaying your customers towards the ‘buy’ button. It may just be the small boost needed, or your ‘abandoners’ might see the smiles on the faces of your other customers and decide they’d like to join them.

You could also incorporate a selection of customer reviews or testimonials to further reinforce this sense of trust. A 5-star review is a powerful motivator in bolstering a prospective customer’s faith in you and your products, and this should be front and centre in your emails. As we mentioned in our previous blog post, 86% of people hesitate to buy when there are no reviews, meaning reviews are an absolutely vital piece of the abandonment puzzle.

Language and Tone.

Language itself is an important consideration for your abandoned cart emails. It’s best to be friendly and supportive, using phrases that make the email seem as though it’s especially addressed to the individual. For the subject line, use their name, and perhaps a phrase like “[Name], how can we help you decide?”. It also helps to make reference to the items they almost purchased too, with a phrase such as “we’re holding on to these for you”. Use quality imagery of the products they left in their basket, and list the features of those products alongside them so they can be sure of what they’d be buying.

The whole email should largely be positioned as though you want to reach out and help, rather than sell. If you’re too pushy, the email could be seen as an annoyance rather than a friendly invitation. This is where it helps to have effective customer support. Make it clear you can answer their questions if they have any, and ensure it’s really easy to do so. Put your email, live chat, and phone contacts front and centre. Make it clear you’re on hand to allay any concerns they might have. It could be that gentle nudge to reach out, and the conversation that follows, that could make the difference in swaying them to click the order button.

An Offer Just for Them.

Consider what type of email would entice you back to a store. Would a humble offer or discount code do the trick? If you’re able to account for the cost of a discount, it can be yet another handy way to sweeten the deal and reduce some of the friction preventing your customer from making a purchase. A small reduction in price could be the little boost required to get them across the line. Just include a code to use on your website, or better yet, a dedicated button with a link that automatically applies a discount when clicked. Again make it special, and make it seem like they’re the only one receiving such an offer - “we have a special offer just for you” for example. As Oberlo found, “shipping-related reasons attribute to over 60% of carts being abandoned,” so it would also be a good idea to offer a discount on delivery, or if you can afford it, free delivery altogether.

Calls To Action.

On the subject of call-to-action buttons (or CTAs as they're also known), there's actually a lot you can do with these to increase the effectiveness of an abandonment email. One such method is the use of urgency. Create an offer, like we discussed earlier, but make them hurry to get it! Implement a countdown timer in your email, and ensure the offer code only works during the time specified. As Shopify pointed out, urgency increased conversion rates by an incredible 332% for one particular retailer. Positioning CTAs appropriately is important too: make sure they’re ‘above the fold’ - an old newspaper term to describe the stories that should be at the top of the page - so have your punchiest messages and offers at the top of the email.

Just How Many To Send and When?

Before we close the book on abandoned carts, you might not have contemplated one other abandonment consideration - just how many emails should you send? And when should you send them? Firstly, it's always advisable to send one immediately - 60% of abandoned cart emails are opened if sent as soon as the cart is left behind. The longer the abandoned cart is left, the chances of recovering the sale drop; every hour that goes by equals a drop of a few percentage points. But that’s not enough. Ominsend found that sending three abandoned cart emails results in a whopping 69% more orders than one alone. Three emails, sent at intervals of once every other day, is just about the right amount, anymore and you’ll likely become spam. Nobody wants to become spam.

The Mystery Demystified.

Abandoned carts leave us disheartened - we wonder what we did wrong to lose a customer who went so far along in the process. But as we’ve seen, there’s so many things you can do to lure your ‘abandoners’ back into the fold. Get them hooked, get them clicking, and soon you'll hear that all important cha-ching of a smoothly recovered sale. Looking to grow your business? Get in touch.