One of the biggest shopping holidays in the year is almost upon us – Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). If last year’s trends are anything to go by, with Cyber Monday being the heaviest online spending day in history, it’s time to make sure your e-commerce store is geared up for success!
By now, you’ve probably decided what deals you’re planning to promote and may have already set up some online adverts to start generating interest. Hopefully, you’ll have got a creative marketing campaign underway too. But have you considered what to do about abandoned carts – the bane of every e-commerce store owner’s life?
Yes, it’s a fact, cart abandonment is one of the biggest problems facing e-commerce today, with the Baynard Institute reporting that as many as 69% of carts are abandoned.
Thankfully, there are some smart strategies you can implement now to make sure you’re retargeting those people who leave your store without completing their purchase, ready for the Black Friday weekend.
Before we delve into those tactics, let’s understand why shoppers abandon their carts in the first place.
Why shoppers abandon their carts
Technical problems, high shipping fees and requesting too much data at the checkout can all “turn off” shoppers. A slow-loading website is also a leading factor. A mere one-second delay can lead to a 7% decrease in conversions.
Other reasons are that shoppers are simply browsing products and comparing prices. They might want to come back later to buy. More often than not, people get easily distracted when shopping online. A text message, or a knock at the door, can result in an intended purchase falling by the wayside.
What you can do about abandoned carts
It’s important to test your online store regularly to check for any technical problems your site might be experiencing – and fix those pronto. Large images will slow down a website, so look at optimizing them and reducing their file size. This guide explains how to optimize images for e-commerce.
Evaluate your shipping fees and make sure they’re competitive. Streamline your checkout process, so that it’s easy for customers to purchase. As for those people who are browsing or getting distracted, setting up abandoned cart messages could massively help to engage their interest again.
Abandoned cart messages are automated flows sent out automatically to shoppers when they leave items in their cart. You can send abandoned cart alerts by web push notification, text message, Facebook Messenger or by email. Use an omnichannel approach to tackle abandoned carts for the best results.
They are an incredibly effective marketing tool that you can have set up in the background retargeting shoppers even while you sleep!
Incorporating abandoned cart messages into BFCM marketing
As you can imagine, adding abandoned cart messages into your Black Friday marketing strategy is an absolute must. Unlike other strands of your marketing campaign, these communications aren’t about generating awareness and promoting your deals. They’re designed to help you seal the deal, and capture those shoppers that are already thinking about buying!
What’s more, as stated in this extensive research undertaken by Firepush, abandoned cart messages outperformed any other type of marketing message over the Black Friday weekend.
Now you know how important abandoned cart messages are, you might be wondering when you should schedule them to be sent out – and how many to send – during the Black Friday weekend. Follow this guide below to achieve maximum success!
Sending abandoned cart messages during BFCM
To capture your would-be shopper’s interest again, it’s best to send out three abandoned cart messages as follows:
- 1st message – this should be a friendly reminder, informing the shopper that they have items waiting in their cart. Include a link back to your store so they can complete their purchase.
- 2nd message – this time, include a new discount or free shipping to tempt the shopper to make it through the checkout. But put a tight deadline on the discount. Include a link back to your store
- 3rd message – finally, send out a reminder about the incentive you’ve offered, along with the deadline for taking advantage of it (again, with a link back to your store).
This article may help you write your Black Friday SMS and Messenger flows for abandoned carts.
Optimal timings for abandoned cart messages
The timing for sending out abandoned cart reminders is always crucial, but especially so during the Black Friday weekend. Shoppers don’t have long to take advantage of your deals so you must send them all out within a relatively short space of time.
According to this data, the first reminder message is best sent out 30 minutes after a shopper abandons their cart – this can yield a 40% ROI. During Black Friday, shoppers are more active and may leave items in their cart while they browse other online stores. So don’t leave it any later than 30 minutes to send this initial message out!
