Re-Engage Shoppers: 4 Strategies That Work Better Than Abandoned Cart Emails

In 2015, the average rate of cart abandonment was 68.95%, which means that two-thirds of the time online shoppers add to their basket only to leave items behind. This phenomenon poses a challenge and a great opportunity for merchants: reclaiming the lost revenue that is sitting in abandoned shopping carts. One popular strategy that many retailers have employed is abandoned cart emails. While success has been found through email campaigns that follow up on abandoned shopping carts, the numbers are relatively insignificant. In this blog post, we offer four alternative strategies to abandoned cart emails that have proven successful at re-engaging customers and drawing revenue out of forgotten shopping bags.

 

1. Dynamic Remarketing

Remarketing is an effective way to advertise to shoppers after they have left your website. With remarketing you are able to follow your shopper digitally, with ads that are based off their recent browsing history on your site. For example, if Amy was looking at a specific pair of Frye boots on your site, and perhaps even added them to her cart but then left the page, you could dynamically retarget her with an image of those same boots and other similar boots that she might also be interested in based off of her interest in Fry’s boots.

There are many avenues through which you can post your remarketing ads, including Facebook, Google AdWords and Bing Ads. As WordStream, an online advertising company, wrote, “Remarketing is absolutely essential for eCommerce retailers, perhaps more so than for any other type of online business or advertiser. If you’re not remarketing to people who came close to crossing the line, you’re effectively restricting yourself to just one shot at getting visitors to convert in a single session – an almost inconceivable feat in today’s multi-device online environment.”

Facebook remarketing ad example:

Dynamic remarketing ad example:

 

2. Exit Intent Technology

The best time to re-engage shoppers is when they are already on your site. By using exit intent technology, you can attempt to draw shoppers back just when they are about to abandon. Exit intent technology works by tracking shoppers’ activity on your site. When they are about to leave your website, the technology serves up an exit overlay that may offer a discount for a product or ask the shopper to provide their email address in exchange for access to a special offer.

You can customize your exit overlay in almost any way you wish, but the idea is to hook the shopper in a compelling way that makes them want to stay on your site and complete their purchase – or at least convert into a lead by providing you with their email address, that you can then use for future email marketing efforts.

 

3. Clarifying All Additional Costs Up-Front

One of the most cited reasons for cart abandonment is additional costs. Shipping fees are one of the biggest offenders. It’s essential to make sure shoppers aren’t surprised by hidden costs when it comes time to checkout. And – if it is possible – offer free shipping. A Deloitte study discovered that 69% of shoppers are more likely to shop with eCommerce merchants who offer free shipping.

Source: Statista 2013

4. Optimizing Your Checkout Page

This means eliminating unnecessary form fields, showing progress indicators, accepting mobile wallets and displaying security logos clearly.

Nobody wants to fill in more fields than necessary. It’s time consuming and cumbersome to input all that information at checkout and having to do so will cause shoppers to abandon. That’s why it’s important to reduce the number of form fields on the checkout page and pre-fill customer information when possible. It has been found that reducing the number of form fields from six to three can increase conversions by an average of 66%.

Additionally, it can help to keep time-strapped shoppers on your site if you show progress indicators. Nothing is more frustrating than being led through a series of forms without knowing how many more you will have to fill out. If there are multiple steps to the checkout process, use a progress indicator to show how far along the shopper is and how many more steps they have to go through before their order will be complete.

With the explosion of smartphones, mobile wallets are becoming increasingly relevant in the eCommerce space. Although mobile wallets are relatively new, they are already being accepted by big brands such as Starbucks and Walgreens. And for merchants who want to convert more shoppers, accepting mobile wallets is becoming increasingly crucial, especially on mobile.

Finally, conveying that your website is secure is critical since online security is at the forefront of many shoppers’ minds. If a buyer arrives at your checkout page and begins to question the legitimacy or security of your site, they will be sure to abandon their cart.

These are just four of the many strategies and tactics that have been proven to work better than abandoned cart emails and can help merchants like you reclaim the revenue lost to abandoned shopping carts every day. Would you like to speak further about additional strategies for reclaiming lost revenue and re-engaging shoppers? Contact a BlueSnap conversion consultant today!

BlueSnap is a global payment processor that helps eCommerce merchants optimize their payment process by reducing friction, building consumer confidence and ultimately solving checkout abandonment.