All retailers have abandonment issues. On average, 69% of shoppers will abandon their carts at checkout and, unfortunately, this is a number that has been increasing. But don’t worry, we’re here to help! As Marketing Consultants and trusted advisors in the Customer Success group, we help our customers build and iterate on their customer journeys to transform digital marketing programs and increase their digital maturity. Since one of the most common questions we get from retailers is how they can reduce cart abandonment rates, we decided to share suggestions on how to address the issue.

Here are three of the most common issues with abandoned cart programs

1. Don’t forget the shopper in the shopper journey

Put yourself in your shopper's shoes and think through how they use shopping carts and the reasons they may abandon. For example, a grocery shopper likely uses their cart as a shopping list. According to Peapod delivery service, customers update their cart an average of six times before they purchase. Abandoned cart messages to grocery shoppers, therefore, should include a soft call to action, encouraging shoppers to continue adding items to their cart, including helpful product suggestions based on past or complementary purchases.

Conversely, electronics shoppers may wonder what levels of customer support or warranties come with a purchase. The content of this abandoned cart should be very different from a grocery shopper. Once you have empathy for your shoppers, you can tailor the content in the abandoned cart messages to address their conversion hurdles.

It is still common for brands to have siloed channels for sending shoppers abandoned cart messages — often email, mobile, social, and digital ads. That’s why you need to get all your teams in the room to compare your approach, reach and ROI, and come up with a cohesive strategy. The ultimate goal is to target each shopper in their preferred channel.

Start small with a cross-channel journey that first sends an email, then a push message if there’s no response, and finally, try a social ad if there’s no response to the email and push messages. Abandoned cart emails get an average of 45% open rate; that’s great but it means that 55% of recipients will never see your email. By implementing a cross-channel or multi-touch journey, you’ll reach the unopeners and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Today, 89% of retail revenue still comes from stores, so if you have a physical presence, shoppers may still complete their purchase in-store. Retailers, then, should reconcile in-store data with online data as regularly as possible to remove shoppers from the abandoned cart journey regardless of where they purchase.

2. Don’t forget to personalize the experience

Eighty-eight percent of retail and consumer goods marketers say personalization has improved their overall marketing program, but 64% of shoppers still say they feel retailers don't truly know them.

What should you do? Personalize your subject line and preheader with elements like recipient’s first name and the specific item that has been abandoned. Highlight the item abandoned in the body of the email and use artificial intelligence, like Einstein Product Recommendations, to share similar products that may appeal to your customers. Recommendations may increase conversion by 10% and click-through rates by 50%. Lastly, don’t forget to include holiday-related content or seasonal offers like free shipping that may drive incremental engagement and demand.

3. Don’t set it and forget it

We often say “strike while the iron is hot” and send the first abandoned cart messages as soon as possible, but this may not work for your business. Test both the initial send time as well as the time in between touchpoints to find the sweet spot for your shoppers.

Depending on your typical buying cycle, shoppers could create abandoned cart events as frequently as once a month. Don’t let your content get stale. Test all aspects of the shopper’s journey, including other content such as price or consumer ratings and reviews. Adding interactive elements such as GIFs or carousels is another great way to keep content fresh and exciting.

Takeaway

If you’re selling online and haven’t set up an abandoned cart program yet, make it a priority to launch a simple version soon. For those that have, we hope that some of the above tactics will improve the shopping experience and boost your sales.

Interested in other ways to engage your shoppers? Learn more cross-channel tactics that can jumpstart growth in commerce.