Abandoned Cart Automations: Did You Leave Something Behind?

Written By Callum Richardson - Digital Marketing Manager at Verve

Did you leave something behind?

In 2021, 69.82% of online carts were abandoned. This is a staggering figure. If you worked in a supermarket and 7 out of 10 people walked around your aisles and filled up their trolley, made  their way to the self scanner and scanned everything, presented their loyalty card and got to the payment page, then suddenly decided to walk off and abandon their items… you would probably notice and act.

So why would you do nothing when this plays out every single day online?

The power of abandoned cart

An abandoned cart email will target the 69.82% and catch some of those sales that slipped through the net. Due to the relevance of the email, you should be able to achieve a very high open rate and click rate, which will inevitably lead to conversions as customers decide they want to press the trigger after all. You have also already put in the hard work to find these customers, and convince them to get to the final stage of your checkout, so they are definitely interested in your brand and products. 

3 steps to success

Automated email flows can be as complicated, and as long as you want them to be. Balance is key, as you need to find the sweet spot; somewhere between being forgotten and unsubscribing. In my experience, a 3 step abandoned cart flow works best.

1. I like my first email to land in the customer’s inbox within an hour of the cart being abandoned. This gives you the chance to convert a distracted customer, giving them that final push over the finish line by tempting them to make their purchase. Furthermore, an increasing number of online shoppers will build carts across a variety of sites and compare value and delivery. Putting yourself back in front of the customer can make you the winner by default, because ease does matter.
2. Email two will land in their inbox exactly 24 hours after they made the fateful decision not to checkout. This email has a very specific purpose; to offer an alternative reason. The subject line and content should focus on giving 5-10% off the value of the cart if they checkout within the next 72 hours. You can supply a code, or make this automatic, and also offer them your customer service details incase they have any questions or anxieties. Codes are a great way to track the impact of abandoned cart, as you can easily report on code usage.
3. The third and final email should arrive in the customer’s inbox roughly 48 hours after email two. This email should utilise the huge power of urgency, by giving the customer a deadline, before their basket is emptied and their code expires. Urgency is a crucial mechanism of influence, and one of Cialdini’s eight principles, this makes email three a powerful, final attempt to get the conversion across the finish line.

At each step of the automation, if a customer buys they will exit and receive no further emails. This keeps the emails relevant and reduces complaints/unsubscribes. Klaviyo also has a handy smart sending feature, which means customers will not receive more than one email with 24 hours, or whatever period you choose to set.

How do I set this up?

A basic abandoned cart can be set up on Magento or Shopify, but I would always recommend using Mailchimp or better yet, Klaviyo. These platforms offer far more customisation and importantly, reporting capabilities. 

In this blog we have revealed the secrets of a successful abandoned cart automation. Abandoned cart is powerful, but is just one facet of a successful email marketing strategy. We have mastered automation, segmentation and list-building on both Klaviyo and Mailchimp. If you want to scale your revenue, then email marketing is fundamental, and we have the tools to help you. Our Digital Marketing Retainers offer both value and flexibility, and we would love to help you to achieve your next goals.

Get in touch with us by emailing info@verve-design.co.uk