How to succeed with your abandoned cart campaign

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With Engage, it's easy to set up an abandoned cart automation with email reminders to motivate customers to go on with their purchases.

Abandoned cart emails are easy to create and a recent study showed that the average order value of purchases through cart abandonment emails is 15 % higher than usual purchases. A great way to recover lost revenue.

There are some crucial things to consider when setting up your abandoned cart campaign—here are a few tips.

Time and frequency matter

The timing of cart abandonment emails is vital. Repeating emails is also key in reaching as many visitors as possible. Thus, look at this pattern:

Within 60 minutes

Sending the first cart abandonment email within one hour after the cart is abandoned fetches more conversion. For starters, the shopper could still be browsing for other options. Moreover, since the shopper just abandoned the cart, the e-com site is still fresh in mind. Lastly, in case the shopper had any uncertainty regarding the purchase such as shipping cost, delivery and so on—the abandoned cart email might resolve those issues.

After 24 hours

Following up with a second cart abandonment email after 24 hours gives a considerable opportunity to win back more abandoners. It’s possible the customer may return to shop at a similar time of the day when they are not occupied by other commitments. Tracking a shopper's activity on the site can help you determine when to send that next email, providing you with an edge.

After 3–5 days

The final email could be sent within 3–5 days after sending the second email. At this point, the buying intent is declining relatively. The timing varies, but make sure to send the last emails within a week after the shopper has abandoned the cart.

Building a repeating flow

When building a flow with repeating reminders it is important to check if the message is still relevant. The cart status (still abandoned or not) is not re-evaluated thus the only option available is to check if the customer has made any type of purchase after the email was sent.

This can easily be done by using the trigger split and waiting for a purchase to be made. Set the correct delay (as suggested above) and select product purchase as the trigger. This way it is possible to only send the reminder to customers that haven't completed a purchase after receiving the first or second email.

A “this is what you left” reminder

Always display what your customer left in the cart in a visual and compelling way and hand them a link that takes them back to the cart. Studies based on eye tracking devices reveal that including pictures of the abandoned product instead of just the product link in the cart abandonment email fetches more attention than that without. Also, make sure to tempt the customer with other relevant products that they most likely will love as well.

Consider free shipping

Studies have shown that free shipping is twice as efficient as a price discount based on conversion rate. Therefore, make sure to test different both approaches in the cart abandonment emails. If you have certain criteria for free delivery, then offer it with a clause. For example, “Free shipping 5 days a week, add [insert the price here] to your cart and get free shipping”.

Eye-catching email copy

The email copy should be snappy and clear enough to entice customers to complete their purchases. Make sure to write a click-worthy subject line to get people to open the email, and A/B test multiple ones. Read more about A/B tests here.

Motivational CTA buttons

When it comes to CTA copy, use clear and concise text. Why not test different CTA texts to see which resonates with your specific audience? One way is to build test scenarios, read more here.

Encourage with a discount

A lot of customers abandon their carts because they realize the final price got too high. The easiest way to bring them back could be to offer a sense-of-urgency discount.

Offer help with the checkout

The reasons for shopping cart abandonment could be many, one of the most prominent ones being uncertainty. Cart abandonment emails can help resolve the queries of abandoners—providing them with ample information and helping them make the buying decision. Why not end your email by offering help to customers who run into issues at checkout?