Cart abandonment is an inevitable part of ecommerce.

However, it can be viewed as positive.

According to an article by Jeremy Smith there is a different way of looking at cart abandonment. Instead of viewing abandoners as lost customers, you should view them as potential customers you can recover.

Almost all of your first-time visitors won’t make a purchase. However, 75% of them will return. In fact, the more times a shopper abandons the more likely they are to recover their carts if targeted. This is because the more times they view the desired item, the more interested they are and the more they are truly considering to purchase it.

So your abandoners represent a huge potential of sales. But how can you actually turn their abandoned carts into sales?

Here are the best ways to do so:

1. Capture emails with an exit intent pop up

This pop up appears when technology detects the shopper is about to leave the site (the mouse moves to the address bar or the back button).

One intention of this pop up is to keep the about-to-abandon shopper on-site by giving them something of value. This reduces abandonment and induces an average of 10% conversion rate, though some companies have seen conversion rates as high as 100%.

Another intention of this pop up is to capture the shopper’s email address. This is essential for being able to remarket to the shopper in case they abandon. This is done by offering something of value in exchange for the email, however, the value does not have to be used at that moment.

The pop up can motivate the shopper to do both – stay on the site and leave their email address.

The value can be anything, such as ‘save my cart’, ‘save my visit’, a discount or promotion (e.g. for the next hour, for your first purchase), subscribe to the newsletter, etc.

2. Convince the shopper to return with a multi-stage email remarketing campaign

Once you’ve captured the shopper’s email address and they’ve abandoned you can reach out to them to motivate them to return to the site and complete their purchase.

The best way to do so is using a multi-stage, personalized, triggered email remarketing campaign.

This allows you to re-engage with the abandoners, build trust and a relationship and offer values to convince them to recover their carts. Consequently, it can reduce cart abandonment by up to 30% and lead to an average of 18% conversion rate (though some companies can reach even 40%).

The emails can include different messages and values, such as the cart content, real-time generated product recommendations, and incentives.

The best practice for the emails’ timing is 1 hour, 24 hours and 72 hours after cart abandonment occurs. Most often, the first email is a simple reminder, the second one intends to solve issues and the third gives an incentive plus a sense of urgency.

3. Convince the shopper to return with website push notifications

Another way to remind abandoners to return to the site and finish the purchase is with push notifications.

Similarly to mobile push notifications, these are messages that are sent by a website that can be clicked on to move to a certain page.

When a customer browses a site they can opt-in for such notifications. Notifications will appear in different times and frequencies depending on the company, even when the person isn’t browsing the site.

This strategy reminds the shopper of their cart in real-time and engages and offers values in a timely manner.

The main message should be personalized as well as clear and concise, as there is a limit on the number of characters. It must emphasize your advantages (e.g. your customer service, offering free shipping or a discount) and can induce a sense of urgency (e.g. limited-time sale).

4. Make the site welcoming and the cart easy to recover

When the abandoner decides to return to the site you must continue to encourage them to recover the cart.

Use the same tone as you have used in your email or notification to continue the customer journey.

Personalize the site for them with a welcome back pop up, saving their carts for them with persistent cookies and auto-applying any discounts offered.

Now it’s up to you to implement these strategies and see your sales increase. Capture more emails, remarket to more customers, remarket more effectively and continue the campaign and experience on-site.

We at Barilliance are always busy creating new ways of fighting cart abandonment. One of our recent unique capabilities is our triggered email booster tool. The tool allows you to identify visitors coming from an email sent to them, so that without logging in you know who they are. This way you have the ability to recover their sale if they abandon their cart.

Follow these points and see more abandoned carts being recovered!