If you have made a purchase online, you’ve probably abandoned a cart at some point — not a big deal when you’re a shopper, but a huge problem for business owners. Statistics show that a mere 2% of shoppers complete their purchase on the first visit to a web page. For e-commerce retailers, abandoned carts are equivalent to lost revenue. However, there are strategies to persuade shoppers to follow through with their abandoned transaction — meaning recovered customers and money in your pocket. If your business is looking for ways to increase their sales online, addressing potential clients who abandon their carts is a great place to start. A 2016 study by Barilliance found that over 75% of potential customers left the site without finalizing their transactions. Tackling abandoned carts is an important factor when it comes to improving online business.
Not sure how to recover abandoned carts? Here are three strategies to encourage shoppers to finish their purchases on your website.
3 Strategies to recover abandoned carts
When shoppers add items to their virtual bag and fail to complete the purchase, they’re abandoning their cart. The most common reasons shoppers abandon their carts are high shopping costs, a lack of payment options, technical difficulties or slow internet connection and a feeling of discomfort disclosing banking information online. With attention spans getting shorter, any slight inconvenience can push a shopper to lose interest in their cart. For example, studies have shown that shopping on smartphones and tablets has a higher cart abandonment rate than desktops by 7% to 12%.
Ready to get back the business of shoppers who abandon their carts? Here are three ways to help.
1. Activate Exit-intent pop-ups
What if there was a way to make shoppers think twice before abandoning their carts? With exit-intent pop-ups, you can reach your shoppers before they’ve left your website. Shoppers will experience a text bubble pop-up that prompts them to answer if they really wish to leave your site. Though some will disregard your pop-up as spam, others won’t. Reaching out like this might be just enough to convert shoppers who are on the fence.
When you choose the text of your exit-intent pop-up, consider offering the shopper a discount. If a shopper if abandoning their cart because their total was more than expected, 10 to 20% off their order or free shipping could be enough to get them to finish their purchase.
Additionally, personalizing your pop-up with the shopper’s first name can make it more effective. Rather than quickly exiting out of a generic plea to stay on the site, using personal information in your message can encourage the shopper to consider the contents. Shoppers offer their name when they apply for your email list, so you’ll have their basic personal information to work with.
Advantages of this strategy:
- Get the attention of shoppers before they abandon their carts.
- Offer free shipping or discounts to convince people to go through with their purchase.
- Ask shoppers if they want to leave the site and why to get them to think about their decision.
What to watch for:
- Pop-ups are synonymous with spam for some consumers.
- If your offers and discounts aren’t valuable, shoppers will leave regardless and you will lose marketing dollars.
- If a shopper has their pop-ups blocked, it’s possible that they will not see your exit-intent popup.
2. Reach your audience through texting
Recent data shows sending a text message to shoppers who have left their carts can reduce cart abandonment by 58%. The case study followed eCommerce businesses over a 30-day period and found that one business was able to increase its revenue by $156,915 just by sending text messages in this way. Because you can schedule text messages and let them run automatically, this strategy requires a relatively low time investment for a potentially big upswing.
Advantages of this strategy:
- People read their text messages, usually within minutes of receiving them. Your message won’t get filtered to a spam inbox.
- Texting feels personal and immediate.
- Sending a personalized link directly to a shopper’s individual cart can reduce the friction of the process.
What to watch for:
- You need permission from recipients to be able to send branded text messages. Make sure you have shoppers opt in to your text marketing list.
- Don’t overdo it. Sending too many texts can come across as spammy or creepy.
- Make sure you find a text message marketing company that can scale with you as your business grows.
3. Add personal touches to your communication
As was mentioned earlier, personalizing your messages is an effective way to catch shoppers’ attention. When consumers feel anonymous, it’s easier to abandon carts without a second thought. By adding personal touches to your marketing tactics, you can secure the attention of potential customers and enhance your brand recognition. Not to mention, it can take up to seven impressions for shoppers to recognize your brand. When you address shoppers by name, you can increase their chances of remembering your brand in the future. After all, who doesn’t like to feel special?
How can you personalize your communication? Create a loyalty program for customers that offer their personal information. You can reward their choice to offer information with exclusive email discount offers. Or, you could reach out via social media channels to integrate your brand with their personal accounts online. Don’t forget that if you’re sending abandoned cart texts you can also send personalized links and address your shopper by name.
Advantages of this strategy:
- Show excellent customer service by recognizing individual shoppers.
- Increase brand recognition and gain the trust of your customers by personalizing your messaging.
- Obtain new clientele by flagging their attention with a personalized email or letter.
What to watch for:
- Targeted attention can feel invasive to some shoppers.
- If a shopper values online privacy above customers, reaching out personally could feel like a threat to web anonymity.
- If you don’t use an automation service, personalizing your messaging can be difficult to scale.
