One bugbear for eCommerce operators is the problem of abandoned baskets. People visit the site, add a product to the basket and when it is time to checkout and pay, they simply abandon it.
You are left in the dark wondering why they did so and what you possibly can do to reduce this or win shoppers back with an email. Do not just let them go. Make an effort.
Statistics say it all
You will find that 24% of shoppers abandon carts simply because of some navigational hurdles or because they are not ready to buy.
Each year about $4.6 trillion worth of products related to abandoned carts. It is worth your while to do a follow up with an email because about 28% of revenues arise from abandoned cart emails that retarget and convince buyers. Make no mistake. They are effective. Adopt these best practices for emails to win back shoppers in 2021.
Personalized automatic notifications
What happens in the best eCommerce platform operations is that everything is automated, from acknowledging an order to shipping to sending out an automatic notification about an abandoned cart. Automated and sterile email does not help. Instead, you could take the trouble to craft a variety of personalized emails that show concern for the shopper and include a phone number and questions to know why they abandoned the cart and what you can do to help.
Before you do that, act instantly or rather, to be more precise, automate your system so that when a shopper abandons the cart and does not proceed with checkout and pay your site automatically shows a popup with a message like….”You are not thinking of going away are you? Please let us know and we will resolve the issue so you can proceed with purchase.”
Thereafter, make sure you have an email sent out within half an hour or an hour at the most. The shopper may be on the site and may not have made a purchase yet. You have a good chance of winning back the shopper.
Follow this up with two more emails within the next 8 to 10 hours, possibly incorporating some reason for urgency for the shopper to complete the transaction and offering a reward with a call to action NOW. At this point customers may want to talk on the phone to get an immediate answer. Be available.
Tip: Make sure the subject line is interesting and engaging enough to make the shopper open and read the mail.
Variety of tactics for abandoned cart emails
Your email for abandoned cart could incorporate content that has various values:
- Emotive appeal – something like how much you value the shopper and how it would sadden you to lose the order so would they please revisit the basket and go through.
- A shopper may leave a cart pending because something else came up. In this case a gentle nudge may tip them over. You could email them with contents that talk about the product and surely the buyer placed them in the cart because it was needed?
- Use the psychological need trick of impressing upon the buyer that the quantity of items in stock is low and if they do not grab it, someone else will.
- Subtly remind the shopper that he could be missing a good opportunity by stating just how many people have bought the same item during the last 24 hours. And include a few testimonials from users to show just how proud and happy they are to be owning that thing.
- Do not sign off with something like BigCart Team. Instead, add a human touch like starting the letter by introducing yourself, giving your phone number, and signing off with your name.
- It is just as likely that the shopper plans to buy from some other site. Assuming this you could craft an email to show you appreciate loyalty and value your customer.
Analyzing reasons could help you craft targeted emails
It happens that a shopper places an item in the shopping cart and then finds that there will be additional charges for packing, taxes, and shipping.
At this point they abandon the cart. You could then identify the three extra charges as a possible cause and craft an explainer email such as ”You may have possibly abandoned the cart because you find you had to pay extra. Please understand we ship to different regions where taxes and shipping rates vary and that you want to give each buyer the best deal.”
You could add that you offer genuine products backed by no questions returns policy and warranty. Then you could deliver a punch by including a coupon code that will give them free shipping.
Provided, of course, they buy within a specified time limit. Or, you could reward them points they can redeem on a future purchase. Rewards do increase conversions by 40% and more.
The indirect approach
If a shopper has abandoned the cart and does not respond after three mails it is best to stop reminding them. Instead, switch lanes to the indirect approach such as sending them promotional and informational newsletters with the abandoned cart just mentioned in the footnote. Keep connections alive.
One way to do it is to pick up the phone and call the shopper direct to know why they dumped the cart and what you can do to put it back on rails. You will get a frank evaluation, possibly a conversion.
Follow the indirect tack on social media and use Facebook messenger to keep in touch. Try to spend at least a couple of SMS, not more, to show you care.
You may get a positive response to some emails. Some shoppers will simply ignore follow up abandoned basket emails. Some will give you a frank opinion of why they abandoned the cart. It will prove helpful to you to craft a better page with more transparency about buying or whatever needs improvement.
In any case, even if you do not win back shoppers you do gain information and maybe, the customer will appreciate your concern and buy in the future.
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