Abandoned carts are sales that need a little push to close, but recovering carts require a solid plan. What is one strategy to boost conversions through an abandoned cart series?
To help you boost conversions through an abandoned cart series, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their insights. From sending follow-up emails to adding discount incentives, there are several tactics you can incorporate to increase customer conversions.
Here are ten ideas for improving conversions with an abandoned cart series:
- Follow Up With Expert Advice
- Add a Discount Incentive
- Create a Sense of Urgency
- Build Trust by Addressing Pain Points
- Use Humor to Bring Them Back
- Schedule Your Abandoned Cart Series
- Simplify the Checkout Process
- Engage Them With a Story
- Close the Sale Using Chatbots
- Personalize Communications
Follow Up With Expert Advice
Sometimes online shoppers need a little nudge to complete their purchase, so we like to offer more information about the specific products in customers’ abandoned cart emails. As eyelash professionals, we take pride in the fact that everything we sell undergoes a detailed approval process by industry experts so we know our line of products from the inside out.
When a customer abandons their shopping cart, we send a follow-up email about the product in their cart as well as suggestions of similar or related products. We also have written and video guides that can help potential customers select the right tools for everything from lash extension tweezers to glue to increase conversion rates.
Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional
Add a Discount Incentive
One good way to boost conversions of abandoned carts is to send an email. But don’t forget to add a little treat inside of it as well. We never really know why someone’s abandoned their cart — searching for a coupon, needing to rush from place to place, and the list goes on.
When you send your follow-up email to the potential customer, keep it polite in tone and, if you can, add a small discount to incentivize them to complete their transaction. Keep it time-sensitive without being unrealistic, a max of 24 hours. This way, the customer still has some time to get through what might’ve interrupted them and, in turn, boost their chances of finishing the transaction.
Carol Bramson, Side By Side
Create a Sense of Urgency
The best way to boost conversions through an abandoned cart series is to create a sense of urgency for the customer through catchy, on-brand language. Customers abandon carts for a number of reasons, from price concerns to just getting distracted. By using engaging language that hooks the customer and creates a sense of missing out on a big opportunity by purchasing your product, you can help them remember why they not just want but need your product.
With Kegelbell, our sense of urgency comes from the opportunities that customers will have after using the product, which helps move them closer towards not just purchasing Kegelbell but living their best life as a result.
Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell
Build Trust by Addressing Pain Points
A simple, low-lift tactic to increase conversion rates and reduce abandonment rates is to openly address people’s reservations about your product in a strategic way. First, this begins with getting data from your current and potential customers through the use of surveys and focus groups. It’s imperative that you find out their points of hesitation about your product. Is it the cost? Is it its durability? Is it the product’s reputation?
Then, address these factors on your landing pages. If a majority of the potential customers site the cost as too high as the main factor they abandoned their carts, then include a discount code for a percentage of your site’s users. Alternatively, you can keep the cost at the same amount and not offer a discount but include more language about why the cost is high and why it actually adds value to the product (e.g., increases quality, allows for more investment in R&D).
The takeaway is: provide reassurance to potential customers during the buying process so they know they can count on you — and your product.
Mike Krau, Markitors
Use Humor to Bring Them Back
The abandoned cart email is a great opportunity to be quippy and snarky in a fun way. I have found that abandoned cart emails that are variations of “Why do you hate us so much??!!” are a great way to disarm a customer with humor and bring them back to the fore. Often abandoned carts occur due to a customer having second thoughts at the last minute. Therefore, your abandoned cart email should act as a device to get them over the finish line, and often a disarming, humorous comment is just the thing to bring them back on board.
Hosea Chang, Hayden Girls
Schedule Your Abandoned Cart Series
One strategy to boost conversions is to time your abandoned cart series perfectly. Specifically, the first abandoned cart email should take place four hours after the prospective customer’s cart has been abandoned, while the third and last email should be sent 72 hours after the first email has been sent. By providing evenly spaced emails, customers are more likely to pay attention and less likely to ignore the emails entirely.
Jameson Rodgers, CBDfx
Simplify the Checkout Process
Analyzing your consumers’ habits will help you understand their satisfaction level with your purchasing process. A great indicator is your cart abandonment rate. There was an obvious interest in your product. However, something happened between the initial search and checkout. This can indicate where there were issues. A simple trick is to make your checkout process simpler. The more steps a consumer has to take to purchase your product, the less likely they are to finalize the purchase.
Arthur Garber, Audien Hearing
Engage Them With a Story
As humans, we’re wired to love stories. When clients abandon their cart when booking a private yoga class with us, we email them with a story about how our existing clients achieved their wellness, fitness, or mindfulness goals thanks to our private classes. We make sure to write the story in a way that elicits strong emotions and encourages the user to give us a try because they too can experience the success our existing clients do. Finally, we include some stats and information to help disarm the main objections that may have held the users back from completing their booking in the first place.
Shayna Hasson, Yoga Beyond The Studio
Close the Sale Using Chatbots
The abandoned cart recovery chatbot is a very popular template. This is one of the most important chatbots for e-commerce as it solves one of the biggest concerns of store owners — abandoned carts. It is a fast, efficient, and easy-to-use solution for businesses of all kinds and sizes. Your customer adds products to their cart but doesn’t proceed to checkout.
Your chatbot can engage them, ask a question, or offer a discount. It actually works and increases the odds of completing a purchase. The abandoned cart chatbots have one mission — don’t let customers walk away without buying! As a result, the conversion rates inevitably increase. Even if customers do not buy anything eventually, they can leave useful feedback on what you can improve. Of course, a chatbot helps with this, too.
Maryia Fokina, Tidio
Personalize Communications
Whether you choose to use paid ads or email to convert customers who left your website without finishing a purchase, personalize your communication when you reach out to the customer. One easy way to do this is to ensure your email templates include your customer’s name. But take it a step further by filtering product reviews for the items the customer had in their cart, generating personalized discount codes, and offering other products similar to or complementary to abandoned products.
Nataly Vanunu, Boho-Magic
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