Cart abandonment email campaigns have become an inseparable and significant part of the eCommerce email marketing strategy for all the positive results they come bearing. Irrespective of the industry, abandoned cart emails do make a difference!
Statista reported a staggering rate of 88.05% for online shopping orders that got abandoned during March 2020. Imagine if only half of them would have been converted – great dollars aren’t they? Now we are not saying that every item that goes into the cart should be bought but not trying would be a total dense move when you already know what the prospect is eyeing to buy.
Search intent is a prominent factor when it comes to online shopping and cart abandoners come into the category where higher shopping-intentions lie. Just like any other email campaign, there are certain cart abandonment email best practices you can count on to carry out successful campaigns. We have a list of seven such hacks, let’s understand each of them briefly.
Cart Abandonment Email Hacks for eCommerce Industry
Let us get started with some of the basic cart abandonment email elements that might seem trivial but can make a lot of difference. These are the elements that include design, accessibility, and user experience components to improve overall cart abandonment email readability, and when you have higher email open and read rate, engagement is likely to improve.
1. Progress Indicator
Just like the checkout webpage on your website, providing a purchase-progress bar into emails can create an impact. Browsing through the products, finalizing the ones to buy, and putting them into cart are quite some steps that users already take. Now when they leave the cart unattended at the payment step, highlighting that they are just a step away from owning the product can trigger their emotions, followed by an action.
2. Make the shopping experience linear
Put yourself into the prospect’s shoes and think about the numerous times you go back and forth between the product page and the cart before you actually make a purchase. If the user has to wait for the reload time every time they repeat the process, it hinders their shopping experience. Even while you are sending out cart abandonment emails, make sure there is a single point checkout/payment redirection. If you can go a little advanced by offering an in-mail payment option, then it can affect your conversions on a larger scale.
3. Product images
It is considered a best practice to highlight the abandoned product/s in the cart abandonment email. Even though prospects have put the items into the cart themselves, visual triggers work like a charm. Watching the selected product/s more than once plays with the psychology and can instigate action. Cart abandonment emails are great for upselling, cross-selling, and describing the products. Make use of these aspects to convert and improve sales.
Some other essential pointers
The above-mentioned hacks fall under the ‘stating the oblivious’ segment. We have a few more that you need to take into account while crafting cart abandonment emails that convert. Check them out…
1. Pay attention to the email copy
Email copy does not contain the email message but rather, it is a combination of subject line, preheader, salutation, body copy, footer, and CTA text. When you are crafting cart abandonment email, be creative with especially the subject line and the CTA text. Simple ‘buy now’ buttons are no longer traction-generating words, thus be concise but in a smarter way.
2. Add the temptation
With smart-marketers, we are witnessing smart-buyers too. Many of them know that abandoning carts may help them with a discount or offer to complete the purchase. And all the other times, the statistics show reasons to be:
- hidden/extra charges being too high – 55%
- Shipping charges – 55%
- the need to create an account – 34%
- Lengthy checkout process – 26%
- Return policy – 11%, and
- Payment methods – 6%
For half of the abandoners, the sweepstake of providing a discount or offering free shipping can do the trick. Get analytical before you put out any offers and know the reason behind people abandoning your carts.
3. Run a series of emails
Apparently, studies prove that a series of 3 cart abandonment emails yield 69% higher orders than sending a stand-alone email. Setting up email automation for your abandoned cart emails is a hack you can count on! Be consistent with the context but never make a mistake of sending the same content over and over again in all the emails. Cart abandonment emails are the most personalized ones and thus, utilizing behavioral marketing tactics such as interest-based product display and more can gain you some brownie points.
4. Add social proof
Yet another hack that works is sending cart abandonment emails with other customers’ reviews and ratings. Social proof establishes credibility and when abandoners read what fellow customers have to say about that particular product, they tend to believe them. Add elements like how many people bought that, are seeing that, or what they have to say about them.
Some noteworthy cart abandonment email examples
Now that you are aware of the important aspects of designing impactful cart abandonment emails, let us go through some of the abandoned cart emails by brands to get a better idea about how they do it.
| 1. Society6 | 2. Alex Mill |
 Source: Really Good Emails |  Source: Really Good Emails |
| 3. MyDeal.com | 4. Nomad |
 Source: Milled.com |  Source: Really Good Emails |
Extra Tips
- Custom email template designs are at the center of any campaign. While designing the cart abandonment emails, be consistent, and maintain your established brand persona.
- Keep a keen eye over email engagement metrics and segment your subscribers wisely for better results.
- Do not forget the smaller screens and test for mobile responsiveness.
It’s a wrap
Open and click rates for cart abandonment emails are 41.18% and 9.50% respectively and revenue per recipient comes out to be $5.81. This is a great way to win back the ‘almost lost’ sales if implemented correctly. Design your abandoned cart emails with keeping the above-mentioned hacks in mind to avoid any mishaps and insecurities. If you need help with setting up email automation or cart abandonment email template designs, there are numerous, credible partners out there for your preferred email service provider (ESP). Get in touch with them or train your internal team, either way, sending optimized cart abandonment emails is the way to go!
See also: How to Choose The Best eCommerce Platform?
