Abandoned Cart Flows are a series of recovery emails kicked off after a cart is abandoned in an attempt to convert them into sales.
Imagine being at a brick and mortar retail store, checking out items, picking your choice and filling your cart. And then, for some reason, you don’t checkout but rather leave the store and abandon your filled cart. While it is less common in physical stores, about 70% of potential customers do that in e-commerce stores.
Now leaving that amount of potential customers on the table can be catastrophic. We all check online stores for reasons other than buying; we surf the internet to research product brands, deals etc. This is made easy because, unlike brick and mortar stores, we can do it without going any distance but just with our mobile phone. The intentions might be to compare with other stores or just reference the items; sometimes, these individuals intend to come back to buy.
Whatever the intentions might be, there is a silver lining; more than half of those abandoned carts are recoverable and can be converted into sales. Interesting statistics by Business Insider show that of the $4.6 trillion lost yearly due to abandoned carts, $2.75 Trillion of them are recoverable.
During the pandemic, the rates of online window-shopping skyrocketed, according to a report by CNBC. According to the report, mindless scrolling in online stores and abandoning carts were common substitutes to Twitter or reading depressing news. However, it was not devastating for retailers because there were strategies for converting them to sales.
What To Do When a Customer Abandons Their Carts
Abandoned carts can present a real opportunity that you can maximise. It is an indicator of captured leads. It means these individuals have shown interest in your products, have been attracted by your advertisements and now are at the bottom of your sales funnel. Abandoned carts are literally hot leads. So what do you do with them while they remain hot?
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A suitable investment in marketing automation software is an excellent place to start. With Sendmunk, integrating with your Shopify store or custom eCommerce store is straightforward. Sendmunk’s viewed product tracking is tailored to eCommerce businesses. A viewed product metrics will be monitored anytime an identified browser visits a product on your website when product page tracking is enabled. An abandonment flow is triggered by a product that has been viewed. The series of events that occur afterwards can depend on where the customer left off. It could be at the checkout point or just browsing and filling the carts.
There are a variety of abandoned cart templates to choose from in our catalogue.
Let’s discuss strategies that make abandoned cart flows work:
The frequency, timing and sequence of the emails matter. Too many and too quickly may seem spammy. Too few and too slowly permits the potential customer to lose interest in the product. Cart abandonment flows are best done in the form of drip campaigns rather than in a single email. Drip campaigns are a series of automated emails sent based on individual behaviour. They are used for several scenarios, including cart abandonment. Emails sent can include the contact’s name and also reference specific action taken.
FREQUENCY AND TIMING:
The first email can be sent within 1-5 hours of abandonment. The cart abandonment event is still fresh in their memory, and it’s easy to continue from where they left off.
Conversion rates for emails sent within 60minutes of customers last interaction with the online store are higher than those done later. Emails can be sent one or two times more, depending on what you have to offer. The distance in timing between these mails should be at least 2-3 days apart. You don’t want to overwhelm your potential customers with emails.
CONTENT OF EMAIL:
The content of your email should be targeted to the right customer. Firstly, start with a catchy subject line containing the individual’s name. A catchy subject line would interest these customers to open the mail. The subject line could be snappy catchphrase and concise. Tone matters a lot in these emails. These potential customers don’t want to feel forced to buy a product, so use a proper tone. Personalised emails have a higher open rate than others; that’s why customer name should be in them. Personalised emails don’t just end there; it also involves sending emails based on where the individual left off.
In your store, creating exit-intent pop-ups could make your abandonment cart flow a little more advanced. Once you know why the customer left, you can now send emails to clarify the issue of leaving. For instance, if the individual says they left because they needed more information on the product, the flow should contain reviews that serve as social proof of the product. If the individual left off because it’s too expensive, provide a coupon code if it is available. If the customer says they were just browsing, it is spammy to send many emails. All customers don’t leave for the same reason, so finding out why they did can help you send emails that actually meet their needs and win them back.
CONTENTS of THE MAIL
The mail should contain the link to where the potential customer left off, i.e. the abandoned product, and then a persuading Call to action.
In the process of choosing to make a purchase, online shoppers sometimes remove some items before checking out. A properly executed drip campaign for abandoned carts can encourage these shoppers to reconsider their decision and make that purchase. Try not to be intrusive, however. For example, if an online shopper removes a pen from the cart and ends up buying only a journal- a good strategy is to upsell on the order confirmation page, showing them a reason to still get a good pen from your catalogue and also provide a sense of urgency to buy it immediately. A common tactic is to create a sense of urgency by providing no extra cost for shipping if they make their choice in the next two hours or so.
Great copywriting can not be overemphasised in marketing as a whole. It doesn’t change here; the copywriting should be captivating enough to change their minds.
These strategies discussed above will definitely convert more abandoned carts into more sales for your eCommerce store.
