Abandoned Cart Emails - The simple solution that gets you more sales
Have you ever gone to buy something online, created an account and added it to your cart … only to leave it there without buying?
Next thing you know, you’re getting an email saying, “Hey! Remember me? Don’t you really want to buy me?!”
That email you’re getting. That’s an Abandoned Cart Email.
And, do you want to know the easiest way to earn back money from sales lost to abandoned carts?
Set up an abandoned cart email sequence.
Why are abandoned cart emails a thing?
It’s thought that e-comm brands lose around US$18 billion a year through customers leaving products in their online cart.
Data from the big email platforms put cart abandonment at around 70%. And this jumps to over 80% if you’re shopping on your mobile phone. (And the majority of sales are done on phones these days).
If someone’s gone to the trouble of creating an account and then adding products to their basket you can assume their motivation to buy is fairly high!
So, doesn’t it make sense to try and get them over the line and make the sale?
That’s where abandoned cart emails come in.
They leave - you follow.
Do people really open abandoned cart emails?
Yes. Yes, they do open them.
According to Klaviyo (one of the big email platforms), around 60-70% of emails are opened.
Okay, they open the emails but do they buy from them?
Abandoned cart emails can earn back between 3 and 14% of lost sales.
In a 3-month period, Klaviyo found that brands got around US$60 million back in sales from abandoned carts emails during the time they audited them.
What should I say in my abandoned cart email?
Well, the first thing is that one email isn’t enough.
Data from the big email platforms show that having 3-4 emails in your abandoned cart email sequence makes you back the most money.
Email 1 - Send them a reminder that they left empty-handed
Email 2 - Address a barrier that might be stopping them from completing their purchase. And tell them why it’s not really a barrier! Give social proof (a review) that shows that it wasn’t a barrier.
Email 3 - Address the transformation the product brings. Give social proof (a review) that shows the transformation.
When should I send out abandoned cart emails?
Timing is super important. The first email should be sent no later than 5 hours after they’ve left their cart. You’re already in the front of their mind - take advantage of it.
Email 1 - send 4 hours after left cart
Email 2 - send 12 hours after email 1
Email 3 - send 24 hours after email 2
#protips for successful abandoned cart emails
- Keep the emails tailored to the product.
- Remind them why they wanted the product in the first place - yes, you might need several abandoned cart emails depending on the product, and you might need to code in options depending on the products. It’s worth it.
- Be personal (but not cheesy or weird!)
- Use your brand voice and personality.
Should I use a discount code in my abandoned cart email sequence?
Offering some kind of incentive definitely increases the purchase rate from these email sequences.
But, interestingly, offering a percentage discount gets the lowest conversion rate.
- Free shipping discounts get the biggest click-through rates
- Dollar-based discounts (e.g. $10 off) gets the next biggest conversion
- Percentage discounts (e.g. 10% off) get the lowest conversion rate
So, should you have an abandoned cart email sequence?
If you’re losing sales to people adding purchases to their cart and not completing the sale, then yes. It’s a no-brainer.
One email sequence, carefully tailored, could increase your revenue by around 3-14%.
What’s that worth to you?
- A holiday
- Relief from some financial stress
- A new couch
- Finances to develop a new product line.
This article is a guest post by Katrina from Collected Copy.
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