Every day, up to 69% of online carts are abandoned by shoppers before they check out, implying that your sales numbers may only be one third of what they could possibly be.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom! There’s a lot that can be done to recover lost customers after they abandon their carts.
Today we want to zoom in one of the most effective ways to bring those abandoned cart rates down: the Smart Marketing Automation.
Marketing automation cannot only retrieve those lost sales but also save your precious time and resources. Once set up, the whole process would run automatically, with no extra work, or extra money.
First, why do cart abandonment happen?
The first step to recover abandoned carts is understanding the reasons why they leave without paying.
The latest quantitative study from Baymard Institute stated that 58,6% US online shoppers abandoned their carts because “I was just browsing”. They were doing window shopping because there is no urge to shop or they do not intent to buy.
In the first place, we are going to break down this reason into small ones and find a solution for each reason.
- They want to look around to compare different choices. They intend to save then come back later.
- Your site doesn’t provide guest checkout. They have to spend more time for a compulsory sign up.
- They become shocked by the price spike when the shipping cost is included in the total.
- They can’t finish the checkout process. It’s too complicated yet there’s no way to find your customer support around.
A lot of these reasons can be resolved purely through smart marketing automation, even the “I was just browsing” reason.
While cart abandonment can be frustrating, it can also be a huge opportunity for you to have a boost on your monthly revenue.
Now, let’s discuss how you can fix it with Smart Marketing Automation.
1. Offer Free Shipping with exit-intent popup – and make it visible
“56% of shoppers said that being presented with unexpected costs is the reason why they leave without completing their purchase”, explains Mark Macdonald, 2013
The number one reason why shoppers abandon their carts is unexpected cost. They’re confused with the tax and shipping fee included in total, so they intend to leave your site without purchasing.
Statistics show that, Free Shipping is a particular selling point, which is why more and more online stores offer it exclusively to abandoned customers, as you can see in the chart from Business Insider below:
If your profit margin allows you to offer exclusive Free Shipping coupons to some customers who’re about to leave you empty-handed, do it.
Exit-intent popup comes handy at this point. Exit-intent technology uses javascript to track customers’ mouse movement on the browser so as to detect when they are about to back out from your site, close the window or click on a link outside your store. At that point, it pops up a free shipping code to catch their attention and give them a convincing reason to stay a bit longer and finally complete the order to redeem the unexpected free.
If it’s not appealing enough to convince your customers at first? So repeating this message to remind them, hook them back and guarantee a successful purchase.
Suggested tool for you to create some WOW exit-intent popups: Better Coupon Box.
2. Motivate customers to complete their orders by creating urgency and scarcity
According to Dan Ariely, a well-known Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics, setting strict deadlines is a very effective way to overcome procrastination. The longer shoppers use to think before purchasing, the longer they will delay their final decision. And then cart abandonment happened.
Here are two ways to create a sense of urgency and scarcity that motivates customers to complete their order before time runs out:
- A limited offer that your shopper can’t deny: You give them only a few minutes to decide whether or not they will take this hot deal. And the fear of missing out can have a powerful effect on shoppers. Many of them will say Yes! with your appealing offer.
Tool: Checkout Boost
- Display “Low Stock” message on your product page: You can show that the product has only a few items left and shoppers need to buy now before quantity runs out.
American Apparel alerts shoppers when they select a size if stocks are low
3. Setup an Email Marketing Automation Workflow to remind their abandoned cart
Another way to get shoppers back to your store to complete their order is through cart recovery emails.
Like Steve Chou, a true to life eCommerce expert once said: “People are constantly interrupted from their online shopping by unexpected reasons and it’s very easy to forget where you left off”.
You need to remind shoppers about their abandoned cart several times after they leave. The concept here is simple: When someone adds an item to their cart but leaves your site without paying, you can trigger an email workflow that reminds them of their forgotten purchase and motivates them to complete the order by offering some incentive.
Here’s one suggested email marketing automation workflow for you:
- Email One: should go out within 3 hours after the customer abandons because those first few hours after abandonment are the golden chance to turn lost customers back to your site.
- Email Two: 6 hours after abandonment is the right timing to send a second email just in case your customers didn’t receive the first one.
- Email Three: should go out within 12 hours after abandonment. If your customer still hasn’t completed his order yet, give them the last sweet little treat. The third email is where you send him a discount code to encourage him to turn back and finish his purchase.
If possible, include these elements in your emails to increase the chance that customers will come back to your store and actually place orders:
- All the items they picked on their shopping cart
- Other alternative items that fit their need
- Positive reviews from other customers who also bought these products
- A strong call-to-action message to get them back to your site
Tool: MailBot
4. Provide customers live chat support during their buying process
Lack of excellent customer support is one of the main reason for checkout cart abandonment.
A study by LivePerson reported that 83% of online shoppers need some form of support during their checkout cart process. Furthermore, 51% of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase if they have assistance via live chat.
Each step on checkout process creates another uncertainty or doubt in their mind. Am I shopping safely? Do I really like this product? Is there anyone I can ask for help?
When those questions pop up in their mind, they will eventually reach a point where the doubt will lead them to cart abandonment.
Here’s how to ease their anxiety and reduce your cart abandonment
Build a live chat system to support customers whenever they need your help. The presence of a salesperson not only resolves all shoppers’ questions, but also persuades them to complete their checkout on your store.
Messenger will be a great customer service channel because of its instantaneous, simplicity and popularity. The best part is you can get online to talk with customers anytime, anywhere using your mobile phone, and get along with them just like Facebook friends.
Take advantage of this smart app, Quick Facebook Chat, that sets up a live Facebook chat window on your site via which visitors can send direct messages to your Facebook page inbox from their Messenger account, right on store:
Source: Quick Facebook Chat
Conclusion
However, let’s be honest.
No matter how hard you try to kill 69,23% cart abandonment rate, there’s no such thing as 0% abandonment on an eCommerce site.
Some customers will abandon their carts with unpredicted reasons, and you have to accept that.
But please do not use this ugly truth as a reason to delay your efforts, you are going to win a lot money back if you take action by the end of today.
Imagine how much you can gain, it’s totally worth a try.
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