Imagine a typical shopping experience. A customer is on your website, browsing your products. Maybe they like an item or two. Maybe they mindlessly add those items to their shopping cart. And then, maybe they lose interest, or receive an important email or remember that they had to feed their cat or simply change their mind. In essence, they abandon their shopping cart.
If you’re wondering how plausible this scenario is, take a look at the numbers. Studies show that around 67% shopping carts are abandoned before a customer completes a sale. What these means is that among every three customers who add merchandise to their carts, only one ends up completing the transaction. Does this mean that you are missing out on two thirds of your potential customers? Yes. But there is a way of significantly decreasing this number – the good old email.
Well, you might never be able to convince all your potential customers to buy items from their abandoned carts. But you sure can persuade a lot of them, and it adds up to be a big number. Ignoring it means that you are ignoring a significant number of your customer base. Here’s the thing – many abandoned carts may be due to valid reasons. The customer might realize that they don’t actually want the product, or maybe that they cannot pay for it at the moment.
But in many cases, the customer is on the fence. And with the right amount of persuasion, they will end up buying your product. The most direct way to do this is email. But with emails come age-old problems like spam and click through rates.
Here are a few tips that would help you craft the most persuasive abandoned cart emails and close the sale.
Tips for Better Abandoned Cart Emails
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Personalize
The abandoned cart email has two main functions. The first is notification – you need to notify your customer that their cart was loaded and ready to be processed. The second is to hook the customer into actually going ahead with the transaction. This is a subtle art, and your email must reflect your deftness. You need to make your email sound personal, rather than a long drawn sales pitch. Use the shopper’s first name, and maybe a little line about the specific ways in which the products in their cart could help them. Since the purpose of this email is notification and persuasion, make it crisp and easy on the eyes.
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Make it Fun
Get a designer to craft a fun email for your abandoned carts. Design something that attracts attention. The viewer’s inbox would be filled with corporate emails. What makes your mail stand out? It could be funny, good looking and cheerful. Finally it all comes down to the design and the copy.
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The Carrot and the Stick
Of course, some people would need more incentive. Maybe a small offer that would push them over the edge? This is the carrot. Now for the stick. Add a sense of urgency to your mail. Sometimes the factor that pushes people to buy things is the fact that it might get sold out. Warn your customers that the more they delay, the lesser their chances are of owning that product.
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Timing is Key
How many times would you send an abandoned cart email to your customers? Well, ideally the first mail should reach them within 24 hours of abandonment. But just a single mail is generally not enough. Customers tend to procrastinate, and they might need to be reminded of their abandoned cart again. The time intervals between subsequent emails would depend upon a few factors. It does not make sense to send a barrage of emails to a customer and fluster them out of a sale. The frequency of mails should depend upon the products in the cart. What category do they belong to? How expensive are they? The more expensive the product, the more time a customer would need to think over before buying it. Basically, it all comes down to the difference between a nudge and a push.
For any more advice on abandoned cart emails, get in touch with Browntape. We are India’s leading online retail solutions providers are we are always happy to help!
