7 Tips for Improving Your Abandoned Cart Emails

For retailers and eCommerce shops, abandoned carts are, unfortunately, a way of life. With numbers hovering around 70%, on average, far more of the people who visit your website don’t end up buying than they do. 

But, that doesn’t mean you should accept those rates and move on with your day. Lowering them, even a few percentage points, is a huge opportunity to develop long-lasting relationships with customers, increase their lifetime value, and boost your sales.

All of that starts with email. If your abandoned cart campaigns aren’t hitting the mark, you’re not going to see any improvement to your current abandonment numbers. 

So here are some tips and best practices for creating engaging emails that can help drive re-engagement and conversions.

Check your subject line

A recent survey by DataBox found the three most important elements of effective abandoned cart emails are subject lines, personalization, and copy. 

It starts with your subject line. If you can’t get people to open your emails, the chances they convert go down significantly. 

With your subject line, you want to avoid gimmicks. So instead, create curiosity and some FOMO, and personalize where you can. 

Remove options to click away

With an abandoned cart email, there is one goal: click the CTA and get back to your site to buy. 

So, make that the only available option for your readers to click. Somebrands will add other links like social media profiles or ask to check out a new blog post. 

Those can end up distracting your reader from following through. Make your abandoned cart emails as clear and direct as possible.

Get specific

The odds that a consumer has an email that says “You’ve left something in your cart” sitting ignored in their inbox right now is pretty high. Rather than blast out the same generic stuff to everyone, get specific. 

Use resources like Smart Banners to let your customers know exactly the items sitting in their cart. Add it to your email copy, too. Include images so they remember what they wanted in the first place.

Tap into FOMO

Adding a little bit of psychology to your emails is never a bad thing. One powerful emotion is FOMO, fear of missing out. It’s a tool marketers can use to help drive conversions — especially in abandoned cart emails. 

Use the data you have on stock and tie that to your customer behavioral data in your emails to make them more personalized. For example, let your customers know when something they’ve got in their cart is running low. 

That little push that they might miss out on this product can help drive more engagement.

Reinforce shipping info

Customers care about shipping. A lot. Sometimes, a long shipping lead or high costs can be the difference between a completed transaction and cart abandonment. 

In your absorbed cart campaigns, make sure you let your customers know key information around shipping. 

For example, tell them how many days they can expect shipping to take if they complete their purchase. Also, let them know about other methods to get their items for local shops, such as in-store or curbside pickup.

Include ratings and reviews

It never hurts to look for more ways to add personalization to your emails, including abandoned cart campaigns. One way to do that is through ratings and reviews. 

Send out an email that includes an image of the product your customer left in their cart and make sure it features ratings and reviews. 

Consumers trust the ratings and reviews of others more than anything your band could say. Adding a simple star rating or quote from a happy customer can make the difference.

Offer strategic discounts

It’s usually standard practice for many brands to include some sort of special offer during an abandoned cart campaign to entice people to complete the purchase. But, that doesn’t mean you have to do it right away with every email.

Instead, focus on being strategic about it. Most campaigns send out multiple emails, target those customers who are opening the 2nd email as the ones who are more likely to buy with a small offer.

You’ve got this!

Diving into your campaigns to give them an overhaul may feel daunting. But, small tweaks can end up resulting in big improvements on the other side.