Abandoned Shopping Cart & Browser Campaign Ideas 2014

Introduction

We have all been distracted at one point or another, while browsing the web. Mostly from other means of advertising, Social media alerts, text messages, phone calls, TV and radio programs.
I could go on, however the list of the various communication channels are growing every day.

It would be naive to think it is just the everyday distractions, keeping your customers from filling out surveys and completing abandoned shopping carts. Of course it should be considered, that perhaps the prospect was displeased with the shipping costs, daunted by long-term forms, uncertain about next step to the purchasing process, or are just there to create a simple wish-list.

Whatever the reason, it is important to find out the reason, as it is a last chance for engagement and revenue. Many businesses lose interest at this point, and move on to the next prospect/customer. Big mistake, unless the problem has been identified this problem will consist, and loss of revenue will continue to be on an increase.

Copernica studies have shown, a healthy 20% on average is recovered from abandoned shopping cart campaigns. By spending such a small amount on re-engagement campaigns, a lot can be gained from that one simple action.

Tip:
Just because a prospect has jumped ship, does not mean you have to let them go. Throw them a line and give them a chance to climb back on to the “brand wagon”.

Cause for abandonment: First-Step

As previously stated, it could be the hustle and bustle of everyday life, or perhaps they found a better deal elsewhere, or they are just not ready to make the purchase.
For whatever reason it may be, between 60%-70% of shopping carts are abandoned before checkout. I think we have all been guilty of this.
In many cases, it should not be a worry, as recovery of these sales can be made back with very little effort.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

If you’re considering building an abandoned shopping cart campaign, these questions should be first answered.

·         Your average order.

·         Your expected conversion.

·         How many of these abandoners email addresses do you have.

·         Your abandonment rate.

You can then make an easy estimate of how much you’ll generate, if you was to deploy the recovery programme. If this was an option, then it would be highly recommended, that a triggered email programme should be set-up, this would make good business sense, and would save on time and resources.

One last thing to consider, is which integrated system you will choose to pull data in. You will need an integrated system that will enable you to identify browsing-based events, such as an abandoned shopping carts. This will then communicate to your platform, and then send out highly targeted and personalised triggered messages.

Coals2u saw a 21% conversion rate, from successful automated email campaigns. Abandoned basket campaigns was implemented with, 15 min, 24 hour and 72 hour emails being sent to customers who failed to complete the checkout process.

If you are worried about people who will “play the system”, and try and abandon their shopping cart in order to receive an incentive/discount, don’t. The number of people in reality who do try and cheat the system is so few, it is insignificant. In fact, many people don’t know about the incentives on offer.

However, if you are really worried about this, and wish to choose incentives as a part of your recovery campaigns, you could always run reports down the line, tracking frequent abandoners.
Then suppress them from receiving cart abandonment's emails in the future.

Once an agreement with the necessary parties have been made, regarding the set-up of abandoned shopping carts, a creative strategy will then need to be developed. While taking a sophisticated approach is best for maximizing revenue, remember, you don’t have to boil the ocean if you are just starting out.

Sending an abandoned shopping cart email every two days isn't advised, however it is better than doing nothing. When building a recovery campaign, it is advised to take into account these contributing factors:

·         Number of times you wish to contact your prospects - remember, don’t bombard them.

·         Trigger Rules - What is the cause to action which sets off the campaign?

·         Perfect timing - Always act fast. Average 30 min after shopping cart has been abandoned.

·         Tone of voice - Either sales, or service orientated?

·         Discount or incentive - Your choice.

Rules and Timing

Some businesses may opt to send an email to everyone, for some, it would make sense to have rules in place.
Companies have certain triggers, for instance, a recovery cart will only be sent to those whose shopping carts are valued over £50. Discounts should not always be used, and in some cases incentives such as “free shipping to all orders over £100”, would work well too.

Don’t make the mistake most companies do, and put into place rules in which your customer does not receive offers for products they have just purchased. There is nothing more annoying, than a thoughtless campaign, Put some humanization into your trigger actions, and see your customer loyalty increase.

“From” Names and Subject Lines

Like all your campaign “from” addresses, this will be an important decision you will make. Simply because it is the first aspect your prospect will either, chose to ignore, delete or open your message.

Some of the more popular subject lines:

·         Good news! Your shopping cart is still available.

·         Don’t go yet! Come back & save!

·         Items in your shopping cart are still available.

·         Only 24 hours left to use your cart!

·         Hurry! You have items in your cart, get them before they’re gone.

If you are sending series of messages, there’s room to be more creative and test different subject-lines. Perhaps incorporating humor, personality or a soft-sell approach.

Browse Abandonment

A relation of cart abandonment, browse abandonment, Is a scenario in which a customer visits a certain selection of pages on your website, however, do not make a purchase. Let’s assume you have their email address, you can then set-up rules to trigger browse abandonment emails.

The main difference between cart abandonment, is that it will trigger a campaign based on product, whereas browse abandonment, will send out a campaign based on product category.

Personalisation will be your biggest weapon when it comes to standing out from your competition, how best to do this, is by personalising not just the content, but the images also.
Include customer reviews, and reinforce why you are better than competitors.

White papers- are strongly recommended (if applicable), for those who are of the browse abandonment segment. People who are just browsing through your website, may not have a strong intent to purchase, this may help your prospect achieve a further step in the customer cycle.

“Second Step” Abandoned

Occasionally, some companies are faced with scenarios in which customers or prospects complete one desired action- but fail to complete the next step. Here are a few examples.

·         Prospects uses ROI or mortgage calculator but does not ask for salespersons help:
In this case you might send a follow-up email with multiple service-related calls to action. These might include asking if the contact needs help offering more info (white-papers), or asking if the contact would like to watch a product demo, with a link to “view now”.

·         Prospect registers for trial offer, but doesn't sign up for full service: Set up an automated message that’s triggered when a prospects account has expired, or it has passed a trigger date, and they have still not signed up to a full account, this will help capture the opportunity.

·         Prospect watched short demo, but has not scheduled a live demo: If a prospect watched a 10 minute demo, but has still not signed up for a live demo, consider sending a trigger message to be sent within 24 hours, from the assigned rep, and see how they found the demo, what interested them?- possibly offering an incentive this time.

·         Customer uses your online tool, but still hasn't purchased: Consider sending service-orientated emails, combing additional information/resources and promotional information that may suede the prospects into becoming a customer.

Other Types of Cart Abandonment Emails

In Most traditional cart abandonment scenarios, recency is the driving factor: A customer leaves your cart with items still in it, and you send an automated message (or messages) to that person after a designated time. There are more scenarios, which a marketer can take in to account.

1.       Product availability: If a prospect has left their cart, it would make for a good incentive, if you was to inform them of limited stock. Time is of the essence approach will help them speed up their decision making.

2.       Cart Expiration: If your system clears out carts at a certain period of time, then consider setting up automated campaigns that are sent to the customer to alert them of just that.

3.       Price Change: If you have lowered the price of an item, consider setting up rules that would be triggered, and inform your prospect of this. Note: this is one case in which including the price in an abandonment message, is probably the right play.

Cart Abandonment Success Story

Coals2U were wanting to ensure repeat purchases from their customers, and maintain their position as the UK’s leading supplier of coal. They had also noticed that during peak periods there was a significant increase in order quantities, for example over Christmas or during periods of prolonged cold weather, putting a strain on delivery and depot services during these times.

The goal was to ensure that all purchasers became regular customers, and to spread demand during peak times to reduce the impact of large spikes in order quantities.

Solution:

In order to create a streamlined shopping experience, Livelink introduced a brand new ecommerce website fully integrated with

Copernica, to provide a complete marketing automation solution and ensure that customer behaviors could be tracked and as a result, highly targeted emails could be sent. Customers were segmented into twenty seven distinct segments ranging from highly engaged loyal customers to infrequent purchasers. This then enabled us to deliver an appropriate proposition to the right customers at the right time. An abandoned basket campaign was implemented with 15min, 24hour and 72hour emails being sent to customers who failed to complete the checkout process, encouraging customers to return to the site and complete their purchases. Additional email campaigns were set up to help balance demand throughout the year, including a re-engagement campaign sent to customers who had not purchased from the site for a longer period of time, and a re-purchase campaign to remind customers of the need to place an order to replenish their supplies.

Results:

Email marketing is now the highest revenue source of traffic to website even beating google. Individual campaigns saw open rates as high as 50% and conversion rates of over 20%. We are now seeing a shift in the users from the lower engaged segments to more engaged, which in the long term means more purchases and higher values per sale.

Conclusion

If someone makes an abandonment on your site, don’t despair. On the bright side, they were on your site, and have shown an interest. The important thing to do now, is to send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, using the right channel.

Like all behaviour-driven messages, process abandonment emails are inherently relevant because they’re based on specific actions a person took. By sending a follow-up series of messages, you can overcome whatever obstacles led to the abandonment, and ensure the right message is being sent to the recipient. 

 If you would like anymore information regarding abandoned shopping cart campaigns, and how best to set them up, feel free to contact me- Sarah Talbot: 0161 822 2558.