Cart abandonment is an issue that is inevitable for many eCommerce companies. Companies planning for ecommerce must have a pocket of cart abandonment tactics to recover revenue losses. Visitors leave the checkout without completing their order for a variety of reasons. Cart abandonment happens more frequently than you might think. Shopify states that over 67% of their users put items in their shopping cart and do not complete their purchase. This means that your sales may only be a third of their actual potential. Since this problem is inevitable, there are some things that you can do to combat the problem and regain lost sales.
The nature of eCommerce
Not all cart abandonment issues are due to visitors not liking your products. Many visitors in today’s market are window shoppers trying to find the best deal on similar products. With the internet at everyone’s fingertips, many shoppers are just looking at what your retail store currently has in stock. Some even save items for later or are just exploring gift options. If your e-commerce website has a high rate of cart abandonment, you’re not alone. Some big names such as Adobe and IBM have 65%-75% cart abandonment issues.
What can you do about it?
Aside from having cart abandonment tactics, how can you fix your revenue loss in the cart? Not everyone who leaves their cart on your website is going to come back and purchase. Like we said before, some people are window shopping, checking your retail furniture store’s inventory or price-comparing with no intention to buy. Just because you can’t turn all your cart abandoners into paying customers, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Most visitors can actually be persuaded fairly easily if you go have the right tactics. There are many ways you can convince a potential customer, but among the most effective are email recovery campaigns.
(Abandoned cart) email recovery campaigns
Abandoned cart emails are emails that are sent to visitors that did not complete checkout. These emails contain the products they put in their cart but failed to purchase. These cart abandonment emails actually have a very high open rate and a good amount of clicks within the email turn into sales back on the site. Your subject line on your abandoned cart email is crucial. If the subject line does not stick out to the viewer, you risk losing them to the delete button before they even open your email. Great subject lines evoke emotion such as excitement, joy, curiosity, urgency, or better yet, fear of missing out. The subject line should include what they should expect to see in the email. If you can personalize the subject line with their name, then that is even better.
Offer incentives to come into your store
One way to reach your customers is by providing discounts. Everyone loves a great deal. What if you could give your customers personalized deals on items they put in their cart but failed to purchase? With email marketing, it is possible to send personalized reminders and discount emails to rekindle failed sales. In the subject line, you can say something like, “Remember that Lexington white leather couch you were looking at? Now it is 15% off with this special code but you must purchase within the next two days to claim your discount!”
How to avoid cart abandonment
By adding more payment option such as PayPal®, PayPal Express®, personal checks, purchase orders, and cash on delivery (COD), you give your customers the freedom to pay with whatever may be in front of them at the moment. Many people hate the checkout process of entering their credit card information because of the time and effort it takes. They might not have access to their purse or wallet at that exact moment. Integrating a payment system like Paypal®, where users information is saved with one click ordering, might be a good idea. A good tactic is to warn your users ahead of time what their payment options are so that they know right away what they are dealing with before they get to check out.
Include a guest checkout
Having users personal information available at your fingertips is always nice for promotional purposes. However, when you make it a requirement to create an account to purchase, you lose those who want to make a quick purchase but are not willing to create an account. Think about it. If you saw an item that you really liked and were asked to create an account before purchasing, you might be thrown off and go elsewhere too. Nowadays everyone is short on time so making your checkout process as easy as possible will ensure more sales and happy customers.
Cart abandonment tactics can recover lost revenue when you’re starting ecommerce for the first few years. Adding unique tools like personalization will improve results over time.
