There’s nothing quite as disheartening as seeing a high cart abandonment rate for your online store. Especially when you’ve gone to great lengths to optimize your customer experience.
The sad truth is, as many as half of all shopping carts will be abandoned for one reason or another (cue the violins). And as email marketing experts it’s up to us to gather and apply insights into why, where, when, and how this happens.
There’s no two ways about it - abandoned carts are bad for business and a pretty massive waste of your time and money.
So how do you avoid them? And what can you do to minimize the risk of them happening to you? One of your best options is to add a well-executed cart abandonment email flow to your email program.
At CodeCrew, our (many) years of experience and data-driven strategies, along with our strong grasp of industry best practices will help you create cart abandonment flows that will have your customers hopping right back onto your site and hitting that ‘check out’ button.
In a nutshell, we make the magic happen. Keep reading to find out how we use our expertise to go about about rescuing all those abandoned carts and improving your ROI.
Here's why you need an abandoned cart flow
If you’re seeing a sudden spike in your cart abandonment rate, rest assured you’re not alone. But don’t rest too easy. This is a sign that you need to make some serious improvements to your site (and create or upgrade your abandoned cart flow).
This includes improving the user experience, removing any conversion hurdles, and most importantly, coming up with a data-based strategy to get those abandonment rates waaay down.
But first, it’s a good idea to figure out why customers might be leaving your site. Cart abandonment can be caused by all kinds of things, including:
A complex checkout process
These days, customers don’t have the time or patience for three or four step checkout processes. Make sure yours is as streamlined as possible.
Hidden costs and limited payment methods
When it comes to retaining customers, transparency is the name of the game. With customers already wary of scams and hidden fees, a transparent checkout process can help them feel more comfortable. What's more, it lets them know that they’re dealing with a reputable brand.
Mobile unfriendliness
Cart abandonment flows that don’t render well on mobile devices are pretty much destined to fail. Unfortunately, most ESP-provided drag-and-drop email templates rarely ever actually render properly on mobile devices. Most people choose to scale down a desktop image rather than making it mobile-friendly.
This alone can lead to tiny text and images that remove your ability to keep CTAs above the fold. Basically, a super-awkward experience for your customers.
This is where mobile-friendly design comes into play. And FYI, every single email we produce here at CodeCrew is custom-designed for both desktop and mobile. In addition, every campaign goes through an extensive render-testing process. This ensures that your entire cart abandonment journey is seamless, whether a customer is on their cell phone or desktop.
Creating a winning cart abandonment flow
For a cart abandonment email flow to be effective, it needs stunning design and thought-provoking content. The goal is to make the customer remember why they were so enthused in the first place. A winning cart abandonment email should have:
An attention-grabbing headline
A witty, fun headline is what’ll make your customer want to read more.
The most perfect timing ever
Timing is everything when it comes to staying top of mind. If your cart abandonment flow is triggered too long after a customer leaves your site, you run the risk of being forgotten. Get the timing right and you’ve still got a chance to seal the deal.
A/B testing and experience both play a crucial role in making sure your email is perfectly timed. It might seem like a small thing, but it can make a huge difference to your order rates.
Short 'n' sweet content
When creating a cart abandonment email, it’s best to avoid long-winded content. Instead, you should focus on the customer’s journey and meet them where they’re at in the purchasing funnel. Highlight what you need them to know - and leave it at that. Just don’t forget a compelling callout as to why they should take action.
The importance of abandoned cart emails
As we said, the point of abandoned cart emails is to convert an abandoned cart into a completed purchase. This requires a concerted, creative effort to recapture the attention of your customer.
You can do this through impactful cart abandonment email flows, where each touch is designed to entice the customer back to your site. These can include:
The first email - a gentle reminder
In this email, you’ll want to highlight the fact that your customer has left your site without purchasing what’s in their cart.
It should (gently) encourage them to come back through discounts, promotions or great customer reviews.
The second email - a more persistent nudge
The second email should follow suit, providing the customer with reminders and reasoning as to why a site revisit will improve their lives in a meaningful way.
Whether it’s a reminder sent to non-openers of the previous message, a firmer push back to the site, or a repeat of the discount you’re offering, this message is often overlooked by marketers. But it shouldn’t be, as it consistently drives solid engagement across the board.
The final email - the more direct approach
The final email (and perhaps the most important) is the reminder that will drive the sale home. This email will follow a more direct approach and express a real sense of urgency to complete the purchase.
One way to do this is to use a FOMO strategy to hopefully win the customer back. Here, there is a strong emphasis on time (expiring carts and discounts) and the prospect of losing out big time if the customer doesn’t end up completing their purchase.
Our best abandoned cart emails
When an abandoned cart email is beautifully designed and well thought-out, it can make the world of difference in closing a sale. As an email marketing agency, we have a proven success rate when it comes to creating some of the best abandoned cart emails around. And, not to toot our own horn (okay maybe just a little), but spectacular design is something we're pretty great at.
Why Email Workflows Like These Are So Important For Your Business
Automated email workflows are vital to your email marketing program and of course, your ROI. Plus, what makes email workflows especially brilliant is that people have opted in to receive your email which means it’s a more non-intrusive method of keeping customers in the loop.
As such, people are usually more receptive to opening and reading your emails. Additionally, you have the advantage of this being an owned media channel. This basically means your competition is much less likely to have any chance of fumbling with your efforts.
Ready to get your customers coming back for more?
If you’re looking for an effective, impactful email marketing strategy designed to help you smash your goals then fly right past them, you should get some help from the experts.
Our tried-and-tested methods will help you build a great abandoned cart email flow. But that's just the beginning. Ready to get started?
