“Online shoppers abandoning their carts is a natural part of the buying process, but it’s also a high-value behavior that’s worthy of a response,” Salesforce points out in its 5 Blueprints for Building Smarter Emails. That report highlights eight “IQ Boost Opportunities” for your shopping cart abandonment emails—many of which are backed by the latest joint research by Litmus and Salesforce Marketing Cloud into these highly effective automated emails.

Conducted during the height of the 2013, 2014, and 2016 holiday seasons, our research into shopping cart abandonment email trends among U.S. retailers reveals clear trends around:

• The post-trigger delay in sending these emails
• The use of a series of cart abandonment emails
• Highlighting the item(s) abandoned in the email and its subject line
• The recommendation of alternative prorducts
• The inclusion of seasonal messaging

Our findings, which are summarized in the infographic below, also reveal that less than a third of major U.S. retailers send shopping cart abandonment emails. That’s a big missed opportunity for retailers and other ecommerce companies to increase their conversion rates by helping their customers, who may be confused about pricing or shipping, uncertain about their product choices, or may just need a reminder about the items they left in their basket.

Whether your brand has an existing shopping cart abandonment program or is planning to set one up, use this data to inform how you build out yours so it effectively serves your customers and generates stellar returns.