Advice to Protect You From Cart Abandonment

We’re all guilty of this: we go to a site, put a couple of items in our cart and then after thinking about it for awhile, we decide against those items and abandon our cart. No harm to the shopper, but a bit of an annoyance to retail businesses. Over and over this happens and if it isn’t dealt with properly, it can have a pretty significant impact on a company’s bottom line. Fortunately for all of you e-commerce businesses, there are a couple of tricks you can try to avoid cart abandonment. 

Pop-ups

We know what you’re thinking, “you want us to use those irritating pop-ups that no one likes.” Yes, although in the format we’re talking about, they can be highly effective. The main purpose of a pop-up is to generate leads. The goal is to grab the attention of the viewer and entice them to make a purchase using some type of offer. This doesn’t mean you can feel free to use pop-ups all over your site. That will drive customers away. Now, where it is really important to use pop-ups is when your visitors are about to leave your store without making a purchase. It’s time to present them with one more offer they can’t refuse.

In order to make these pop-ups truly effective, you need timing and the offer has to be sweet. Obviously if a visitor was about to leave your store without making a purchase, they didn’t see the product they were looking for or the price wasn’t right. It’s your time to choose just the right incentive to convince your visitor to get you a second chance. This incentive needs to be special and valuable enough that your visitor will be willing to take the time to accept. Think about what kind of offers you would like to make and test them out. Testing is a big part of a successful marketing campaign. You want to know the right buttons to push in order to make sales, not have an abundance of abandoned carts. 

Welcome Customers with an Incentive

When a visitor signs up for your mailing list, this is merely the first step to converting a lead and generating an eventual sale. It’s important to know who your visitors are, why they are on your site, and what they are looking for. You don’t want them to become interested in your business, only to jump ship later on. It’s important to understand why visitors may not be willing to commit to a purchase. Perhaps they are not happy with the overall price, hidden fees, or low trust. This is where you want to change their minds in a positive way. Encourage a sale by:

  • providing a discount code
  • remind your visitors the offer is about to expire
  • let them know a product is almost out of stock
  • show positive reviews from other users

Cart Abandonment Emails

Perhaps the most popular and effective method for reeling back in those visitors who have abandoned their carts are cart abandonment emails. The key to making them effective is to be timely and highly relevant. You want to send out the emails shortly after a cart has been abandoned, just so you aren’t forgotten. And it’s okay to send more than one - just don’t be spamming your users constantly. It’s tasteful to send an email shortly after the cart has been abandoned, after 24 hours, and 3-5 days after a visitor has left your site with a full online shopping cart. Your emails should have persuasive writing, not harassing. And it’s okay to use imagery or humor in order to draw visitors back to their carts and complete the sale.