If you’re the owner of an e-commerce business, you’ll know this story well. A customer visits your site, looks around aaand doesn’t buy anything. Don’t panic – this is common! In fact, 92% of consumers who visit your site won’t buy the first time according to this study. How do you get them back? Read that title again. A browse abandonment workflow, that’s right. Or more specifically, a Klaviyo browse abandonment flow. As Klaviyo experts, we’ll show you how to create an effective automated Klaviyo browse abandonment series so you won’t have mountains of unsold products in your inventory, patiently waiting for a new home.
What are browse abandonment emails?
Exactly like the description says, it’s an email sent to contacts who have been scrolling through your products, but haven’t added anything to their carts.
They act as simple reminders for your customers to return and purchase.
Luckily for you, on Klaviyo this feature is completely automated. So, once your content’s ready to go, these mails will send themselves, literally. Oh, and if you want to learn more about other kinds of effective workflows, have a look at this post.
The benefits of Klaviyo browse abandonment
Can browse abandonment emails really benefit your bottom line? I hope you won’t ask this…ever again.
In Q1 of 2019 alone, Klaviyo's browse abandonment email workflows generated over $17 million in revenue for their customers. That could be you, my dear friend! You see? Browse abandonment emails are DEFINITELY something you need. In fact, statistics show that browse abandonment campaigns have an 80% higher open rate than the initial contact.
How to write effective browse abandonment emails
So now that you realized how much you need a browse abandonment flow in your life, you'll need to create content that will have your customers hopping back onto your site and clicking 'add to cart' in no time. How? Here are some simple guidelines to get you started.
Get your timing right
When you send is just as important as what you send. According to the email experts at Klaviyo, the top-performing brands in terms of browse abandonment were sending 2 emails or less in their workflows. Most importantly, they were all sent within a few hours of the customer leaving their site.
Careful, though. Think about how often you’re sending email campaigns and how many emails your customers get every day. Frequency is important - the last thing you want is for customers to hit that unsubscribe button.
Remind customers what they were looking at
Your Klaviyo browse abandonment email should always include a description or image of the product. In addition, you should add images or descriptions of other, similar products that the contact might be interested in as well - or instead of what they’ve been eyeing. This way, you can upsell or cross-sell at the same time.
Create a sense of urgency
If a customer feels like they can return to your site ‘whenever’, they’re less likely to purchase ASAP. It’s always a good idea to use language like ‘while stocks last’ or ‘available today only’.
Write a good subject line
Keep your SL friendly and low-key. Questions are generally good. Think in terms of phrases like ‘checking us out?’ and ‘Hey, did you forget something?' Any way that you can either pique their curiosity or get a contact to begin a thought process in relation to your product or brand, the further down this rabbit hole they’ll go, and in turn, revisit your site.
Offer help
Often, customers won’t purchase because they’re having registration issues on your site or they don’t understand a product description. They might just have questions that they can’t find an answer to on your site. As a result, be sure to include a HELP/CONTACT section in this workflow to address any concerns that are holding them back from purchasing. It’s always better to over communicate than under communicate with your potential customers.
Run A/B tests
Think browse abandonment doesn’t need testing? Think again. Simple subject lines and send time tests on these flows can end up having a big impact on your bottom line. But that’s not all, you can test content and design here, too. Check this out for some more ideas.
Cool browse abandonment email examples
Some companies use big, attention-grabbing images. Others keep it super simple with just a sentence or two. If you want to know what your browse abandonment emails could look like, have a peek here. You’ll also definitely get some inspiration from these great examples below. Although anything is better than nothing when it comes to browse abandonment messaging, and Klaviyo’s default templates allow you to do exactly that, we definitely recommend designing your browse abandonment emails to be as on-brand as possible. In some instances, this will be one of your first email touchpoints with a contact - you need to introduce your brand on the right foot, right out of the gate.
Why Klaviyo's browse abandonment flows are awesome
We’ve written before about just how fantastic Klaviyo’s segmentation and filtering options are. Well, these are no exceptions. With Klaviyo, you can tailor your browse abandonment workflows to target a wide variety of different customers. This includes people who have viewed a product more than once, people who might be interested in special offers, and people who have ordered before, to name a few.
You can also split your flows into categories like Purchasers vs Non-Purchasers, Product Type or Product Category, and Domestic VS International. Why is this so great, you ask? It’s simple, the more specific your emails, the better your response will be. Plus, splitting your browse abandonment workflows like this will also help you determine your content.
For example; you can add a free shipping message to your Domestic Customers list. Then, for International Customers, you could change your message and offer a small discount instead.
SYNCHING YOUR FLOWS TO PREVENT OVERLAP
To take full advantage of this, you can synch your browse abandonment flow with any other flows that might overlap. This means you can exclude customers who already have items in their cart, ensuring that they won’t receive both a browse abandonment and cart abandonment flow.
And remember that whole upselling thing I mentioned earlier? Splitting your flows using product categories will make that so much simpler to do!
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Simply setting up the flow doesn’t mean you're done. Once everything’s up and running, you should be checking twice a day (for the first two weeks at least) to see that it’s working as it should, email deliverability is good and all metrics are correct. Registering contact activities in Klaviyo is a sign that the flow is working properly.
And remember that whole upselling thing I mentioned earlier? Splitting your flows using product categories will make that so much simpler to do!
Why not leave it to the email marketing experts?
With these tips and tricks, you should be well on your way to creating fantastic browse abandonment emails. But there is another way your flows, and of course your ROI, could be even better. With the help of some email marketing pros, like CodeCrew, you could be extracting the maximum possible revenue from your browse abandonment flow, along with your entire email marketing program as a whole. Using insightful, in-depth strategies, cool content, and insanely beautiful design, we’ll create exactly the kind of email marketing campaigns you need to get the kind of results you’ve always wanted.