Are you sending out abandoned cart emails when your visitors leave without purchasing? If not, you’re missing out on huge amounts of income! In this article, i'm going to show you how you can start converting more abandoned visitors into customers by creating really good abandoned cart emails.
Good Abandoned Here's What You Need to Know
Plus I wanted to share with you some of the best examples of abandoned cart emails.
So lets get started...
What Are Abandoned Cart Emails?
An abandoned cart email is a follow up/retargeting email that is sent to visitors who have added a product to your their cart then left the website purchasing.
3 out of every 4 shoppers leave a website without finishing the checkout process! So it's important to try and recover some of this lost revenue.
one of the big benefits having good abandoned cart emails is they can be automated. You can set up a series of emails that go out all on its own once someone has abandoned their cart – and win back sales that would otherwise have disappeared.
Why Do People Abandoned Their Carts?
There are many reasons people abandon their carts, some are due to the website and some the customer themselves. Here are some common reasons people abandon online carts:
- Interruption
- Just browsing
- Lack of urgency
- Unexpected costs such as VAT or delivery
- Delivery to expensive or not free
- The checkout process was too long-winded
- No guest checkout
- Website navigation was too complicated / fault on the site
- Lack of return or exchange information
Some abandoned shopping carts you can’t do anything about. Some people are just browsing or comparison shopping – they were never going to buy.
But there are lots of reasons that you can influence for example: price, delivery costs, long check out process, page load speed, payment options and much more.
To understand which of these reasons could be an issue on your site, We'd recommend reviewing your customer journey. Take a step back look at your site in the shoes of a customer and look for any pain pains and areas of improvement.
Often a quick fix such as a page load issue or streamlining the checkout process can see cart abandonment improve significantly. If you need any help or would like a third party to review your process then get in touch, we'd be happy to help.
However, even the best processes will have people abandon the cart because of interruption, not ready to purchase, lack of urgency. This is where cart abandonment emails come in…
Do Abandoned Cart Emails Work?
The simple answer is yes, abandoned cart emails work to recover lost sales! They are a powerful (and simple) way to boost your sales. And it’s as easy as setting up abandoned cart emails in your email marketing software of website platform.
When is the Best Time to Send an Abandoned Cart Email?
When people leave their shopping cart, they’re often still interested in your product. They just ran into one of the issues mentioned above.
If you engage with them quickly and address the issue that caused them to abandon the cart, you can turn things around. The timing of your abandoned cart email is critical.
Here’s what they found about the effectiveness of abandoned cart emails, based on how quickly they were sent:
According to salesforce, the highest conversion rate occurs when the abandoned cart email is sent immediately after the buyer bailed on the purchase. By sending your email within the first hour, you’ll have the greatest success. The success rate drops dramatically the longer you wait to send it.
What Elements Contribute to Successful, High Converting Abandonment Cart Emails?
Here are my best practices for abandoned emails you can follow with tips and guidance on how to write abandoned cart emails.
1. Write a great subject line
2. Send your cart abandoned email at the right time
3. Give a clear call to action
4. Create a sense of urgency
5. Show your product
6. Add reviews and social proof
7. Offer alternatives
8. Offer an incentive
9. Optimise for Mobile
10. Test and Improve
1. Write A Great Subject Line
Your cart abandonment email title needs to grab attention and stand out in the inbox. What works as the content of the subject line will depend on the brand and context, but they should deliver a clear message about the content of the email.
So you have a personal connection by using their name. For example, "name, we noticed you left something in your cart". Think friendly, think conversational.
Here are some of my favourite examples:
- NAME, your order is still open, finish it before we run out of stock.
- NAME, your black shoes are waiting (with a free delivery).
- NAME, your cart is wondering where you went ❤️
- NAME, Your cart MADE us send this reminder 🙂
- NAME, did you forget something?
And, don't forget to test different options to find the right content for your business and business sector – perhaps there are buzzwords or emoji’s that will have a stronger effect.
2. Send Your Cart Abandoned Email At The Right Time
You want to remind shoppers of the items they left right after they closed the website. They probably got distracted, or left your website for a reason - like price.
Send abandoned cart emails within one hour and you'll have the highest chance of converting. Then create a sequence of follow up emails for the next few days.
But you shouldn’t stop there.
A timed series of 2-4 cart recovery emails is the most effective way to convert customers from a “maybe” into a “yes.”.
3. Give a Clear Call to Action
The most effective abandoned cart emails are those that have a clear call-to-action (CTA). A link or button designed to get a prompt response from the person seeing it.
Rather than commands like 'buy now' or 'pay now' (as they might not be ready yet), try issuing commands like 'return to cart' or 'view cart'
The low-friction call-to-action emphasises how easily the customer can finish the checkout process they started…if they’d like to.
4. Create a Sense of Urgency
When you're writing your abandoned cart email text makes sure you employ a sense of urgency as this encourage customers to hurry their decision regarding a purchase.
Limited time offers work great here for example “Complete your order within the next 24 hours to get 10% off your order.” Shoppers are given a clear, obvious reason to do it and do it now.
Scarcity is another tactic that plays on the same bias. It highlights the idea that if customers don’t buy the item now, you might run out. With an opening line like, “Stock is running out fast!” shoppers are incentivised to complete their order quickly.
5. Show Your Product
The best abandoned cart emails include images. Why? Because people will respond better to images over text so make sure you include an image of exactly what was left behind in their cart.
6. Add Reviews and Social Proof
Your customers might need an extra nudge that proves you’re the best brand to buy from. People are more likely to buy when they've seen a review. So make sure you include some form of social proof in your cart abandoned email. This could be in the form of
- Customer reviews
- Testimonials
- Publications that have featured your product
- Social media posts from happy customers
- Social review badge with your overall score
7. Offer Alternatives
People might have abandoned their shopping cart because they were unsure of their choice, maybe the item isn’t exactly what they had in mind. But, they might be sold on similar items they missed the first time.
Don't overwhelm them with lots of products
Here are ideas for related items to include in your cart recovery email that won’t distract from the primary focus:
Show different patterns or colours of the same item
Show them a different brand of a similar item
8. Offer an Incentive but be careful
Try to add value before considering a discount strategy. Push the button on another psychological sales trigger. Do you offer free shipping? Do you have killer reviews? What about a money-back guarantee? Loyalty program incentives? These are all ways to showcase value that doesn’t devalue your product.
Save your discounts for the end of your email sequence. If you send a sequence of emails, save that incentive code for the very last one. This is your last shot at getting the customer to convert, after all.
9. Optimise for Mobile
Make sure that your abandoned cart emails look good on both desktop and mobile especially since around 62% of emails are opened on mobile devices these days.
10. Test and Improve
Abandoned cart emails are far more effective when they are tested and optimised for in order to find the best performance. A/B tests can be carried out on design elements including imagery, messaging or call to action to find our what works best for your customer base.
3 Abandoned Shopping Cart Email Templates to Bring Customers Back
When creating cart reminder emails, you can automate your email content so all subscribers receive the same message just with different products, prices, and personalised cart buttons.
Below are three great templates to do this. Each has placeholder text for you to add product images, descriptions, costs, and calls to actions. Mix and match the templates or build off these to create your own abandoned cart follow up email.
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EMAIL #1
Send schedule: Within the first hour
Purpose: Close the sale. Communicate urgency
Subject line: Name, your order is still open, finish it before stock runs out
Body Text:
Hi NAME, Did you get disturbed during your shopping session today? It happens to the best of us.
So you don't miss out, I've temporarily reserved the items in your shopping cart.
Here’s what I've set aside:
[product photo]
[product description]
[cost]
Other customers loved this item. [Customer reviews or review badge]
If you're ready, complete your purchase now before they sell out.
CTA: Click here to go to your cart
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EMAIL #2
Send schedule: 24 hours after abandoning cart
Purpose: Close the sale. Communicate urgency
Subject: NAME, last chance before your cart expires
Hi NAME, We couldn’t help but notice that you left [product name] sitting in your cart:
[product photo]
[product description]
[cost]
We’d hate to see you miss out on this, but stock is selling fast and we can’t guarantee it will be around forever. Get it while you can.
So if you're ready, complete your purchase now before your cart expires.
CTA: Click here to go to your cart
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EMAIL #3
Send schedule: 2 days after abandoning cart
Purpose: Social proof, education about brand, establish authority
Subject: Limarah, here's what our customers think about xxx
Hi NAME,
[add social proof content where a third party endorses the product or the brand, add brand value and benefit content]
CTA: Click here to find out more
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EMAIL #4
Send schedule: Four days after abandoning cart
Purpose: Convert non-buyers. Offer discount
Subject: Limarah, Get 10% off all BRAND NAME products
Hi NAME, here's a special gift. A 10% coupon for all COMPANY NAME products.
Use coupon code xxxx at checkout and take 10% off your entire order...but this coupon is valid for the next 48 hours only.
CTA: Click here to shop COMPANY NAME and Save 10%
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Good Abandoned Cart emails WILL Win You Back Customers!
Good Abandoned cart emails are a crucial part of any good email marketing strategy. But writing good emails - emails that convert prospects into buyers and recover lost transactions - rarely happen overnight. It will take creativity, testing and time to find your sweet spot of what to send and when.
Learn from the above, be patient, and in no time, your sequence could result in being a highly successful final step along your customer’s purchase journey.
Have you had success with a particular abandoned cart follow up? Let us know what you did in the comments below.