Abandon Cart Email Automation

Re-engage your customers who leave items in their shopping cart.

It’s very common for customers to start shopping, adding items to their basket, and then failing to proceed to the checkout. According to Statistica, in the second quarter of 2023, 85% of orders on mobile devices were not completed. The rates are similar for computers and tablets, coming in at 75% and 80% respectively.

That’s a lot of money left in a basket!

There can be many reasons for this including:

• the phone rang
• they reached their train station and had to get off
• they were just window shopping
• they’ve decided to wait until pay day
• the boss came back
• the dog threw up

… you get the idea! However, just because they’ve abandoned their cart doesn’t mean they don’t want their items but it might mean they need reminding the items are there, or they might need an incentive to get them over the line and convert to a purchase. However, you don’t want to have to manage sending them those reminders individually – that would be ridiculously time-consuming and largely unproductive. Instead, you need to automate the process. 

Setting up an automation to manage abandoned carts is relatively straightforward. When the system identifies a potential buyer has crashed out leaving items in the basket and does not return within a few hours, an initial email will be triggered to say ‘hey, did you forget? You left some items in your basket?’ A follow up email the next day might offer an incentive such as a free gift, free overnight shipping, or a discount code if they complete their purchase within a specific time frame. A final email may say ‘last chance / your offer expires at midnight’ to create the urgency and prompt one last opportunity for you to convert to a sale.

Why bother? Well, because they work! You already know your customer is interested in buying. Statistics show, personalised abandoned cart emails have a far higher open rate than standard emails, with stats suggesting rates of between 45% and 60% (depending on your industry). Of those, around half will click through and half of those will complete their purchase. So, yes, building that automation is worthwhile. And, because the consumer has added something to their basket it, it’s considered legitimate interest under GDPR regulations. 

Don’t have an abandoned cart workflow or automation? We can help you with that. Get in touch and start converting!