“Oops, you forgot this in your cart!”
Seven of the most dangerous words for me (and indirectly, my husband), and the most pivotal for a retailer.
Am I a retailer? No. I work in Sales. But why do I work in sales? Because I am a retailer’s best customer. And as such, consider myself pretty qualified to tell you what works on me when I am hitting that early morning inbox retail newsletter scan over coffee. But I’m not the only one.
The other day a client of mine said she often adds items to her shopping cart, and intentionally leaves the site to see what she will be offered in the abandoned shopping cart email!
Simply put, abandoned shopping cart emails raise retail sales. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Let’s look at the stats – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the smart.
Firstly, The Bad: Almost 75% of online shoppers leave items in their carts without completing checkout. This results in a combined average of $18 billion in annual sales lost by ecommerce businesses. So even if your bottom line is in check, and your orders are consistent, you are naively leaving a lot of money and customers on the table.
So all those beautiful marketing efforts, the frantic refreshing of Google Analytics, the tweaking and tightening of your AdWords or breathing over the shoulder of your Marketing Director as they (literally) do your bidding, all so you can see that site traffic grow and grow? It’s all very well and good, but if ¾ of that artfully acquired traffic is going so far as to choose products and leave, save the spend. Or, keep reading.
The ugly: Unfortunately, not all customers are like my client I mentioned earlier, intending to purchase but trying to get you to give them the best deal. Customers commonly leave for some of the following reasons:
- Unexpected high costs (taxes, shipping, fees)
- Limited payment options
- Choppy, complicated checkout process
- Slow delivery/limited shipping options
And sadly, more. So it’s important your website is well functioning, items are well priced, and customers who want to buy can buy FAST.
Don’t worry, this gets better.
Here comes The Good: Just the simple implementation of Abandoned Shopping Cart Emails increases conversion rate. And actually, per our metrics at a little company called Rave Retailer (we manage over 3000 online stores, so little is a term of endearment here, clearly not actual) we have historically found these emails to increase overall sales by 14%. Imagine a world where we all used abandoned shopping cart emails – some quick math to help you imagine: 14% of $18 billion in annual sales lost = $2,520,000,000 worth of sales won back.
So here’s the part you’ve been waiting for, because I’m sure you’re feeling pretty smart at this point, especially having opened this email, and you’re definitely looking it.
The Smart:
Set up your abandoned shopping cart emails right now, and as a bonus, incorporate these winning traits:
- A reminder of what they’ve abandoned
- Great, succinct copy
- A call to action button
- Good timing (Recommended: one email an hour after abandonment, next email one day after abandonment and last email three days later)
- Offers a discount code
Then sit back and keep an eye on conversion, and the offerings that win – from content to discount codes! And if you need any help, drop us a line. Speaking for myself, the only thing I love more than shopping, is seeing the customers we love being thoroughly – shopped!
If you have any questions, or like to schedule a private demo with Claire of VP of Sales, click here