Retention.com for B2B is here! Try it out today
The costs to attract a new customer are exponentially greater than keeping the ones you already have. That’s why it pays to invest in retention marketing.
Retention marketing, often dubbed loyalty marketing or customer lifecycle marketing, is not a new concept. However, in today’s world, customers are particular, fickle, and demanding. You need coherent strategies that speak to them directly.
Here is a closer look at what retention marketing is and 6 principles to follow to be great at it.
Retention marketing is a way to engage your customers, keep them connected to your brand, and continue to inform, delight and educate them. In doing so, you’re more likely to build brand loyalty and customer affinity, leading to more return visits and sales.
It’s a shift in approach from new-customer marketing. By speaking to existing customers differently and acknowledging their relationship with you, you’re more apt to have them continue buying. In the end, an effective retention marketing campaign results in more revenue and more profitable relationships. Among the core benefits of retention marketing are:
With a strategic approach to retention marketing, your organization can more effectively engage existing customers. Building that approach means focusing on some of the fundamental principles that reflect best practices. Here are 6 principles for effective retention marketing.
Do you know who your customers are? Understanding customers is a foundational task for retention marketing. You need to know what customers’ needs are, their pain points, and their questions.
These fundamentals are key for any marketing. However, for retention marketing, the questions need to be framed based on their previous purchases.
Knowing what the questions will be after they use your product or service lets you speak with them differently. By marketing to these customers based on where their relationship is with you, you’ll be more resonant.
Collecting, analyzing, and using data on your customers helps you build accurate profiles and personas. You’ll be able to build better segments of customers with common traits and message them with what they need.
Customers today want relationships with the brands they frequent. These relationships need to reflect all of the engagements they’ve had with you. That means integrating customer interactions across your channels.
The experience needs to go well beyond the sale itself, but encompass sales follow-up, thank yous and check-ins, and customer service. By embracing the relationship and showing customers that they are valued, you are more apt to engender a connection.
Support needs to be available wherever customers are and on any device. That means investing in live chat, AI bots, and well-staffed human support. And those customer service professionals need access to the full picture of the customer relationship.
Data-driven organizations are far more likely to succeed. Collecting first-party data (information customers give you during engagements) is very important. The need for data has never been more critical, given the deprecation of third-party cookies by Chrome and other browsers.
Technologies today, including cloud storage and data aggregation, allow you to achieve identity resolution and build complete customer profiles. This information can then be used for your retention marketing. It can also be commodified, leading to more revenue opportunities.
Investing in these technologies means an increasing blurring of lines between marketing and IT teams. These technologies allow non-IT staff to manipulate and use data while keeping it secure. That frees up IT staff to focus on more critical work than pulling lists and syncing data.
Today, your customers are going to engage with your brand in many ways. They will visit brick-and-mortar stores and frequent your website. They will use your app and interact with staff in person and online.
The key is to create systems and processes that allow for customer engagements to be available across channels. Make it easy for customers to move from device to device or online to in-person seamlessly.
It may seem relatively obvious, but a key piece of retention marketing is to encourage customers to buy the same products and services again. Sometimes customers forget where they bought a particular item. If your products are consumables, for example, you want to remind customers when it’s time to restock or refill those items.
You also want to encourage customers to buy complementary items that will enhance their original purchase. Accessories, add-ons, and other products that will enhance performance are highly valuable. Your customers may not know that you offer these products or where to find them.
Want to make your customers feel really special? Create programs for them that speak to their unique status as an existing customer.
One way to do so is exclusivity. Offer your returning customers the chance to access new products before others or give them a discount that is unique to them alone. Other ideas include sending them inside information about your company or products or holding free webinars.
Loyalty clubs are another effective strategy that gives them the digital equivalent of a coffee punch card. By knowing what they’ve bought, how often, and how much they’ve spent, you can craft loyalty programs that are enticing.
Retaining customers is vital for growing your online business. It’s why you need a coherent retention marketing strategy.
At Retention.com, we help online businesses grow their abandonment revenue and keep more customers coming back. If you’re looking for help with your retention marketing, contact Retention.com today.
A common headache for any eCommerce business owner is dealing with abandoned carts. This happens when someone shops on your site, fills their cart, then leaves before finishing the purchase. With these incomplete purchases, you’ll face abandonment revenue that will never hit your bottom line.
Luckily, identity resolution can help you re-capture this abandonment revenue and boost your overall sales. In this piece, our team will teach you how these two topics intersect, and how you can identify your anonymous abandoned carts.
Identity resolution is the process of looking at an array of data with a single goal: to figure out who the user is. For eCommerce businesses, identity resolution is all about finding out who your buyer is, what they’re looking for, and what they value.
This concept is typically part of larger retention marketing efforts. If you can learn how to appeal to your target customers better, then you have a higher chance of converting them and making even larger sales.
A lot of shoppers will fill their cart without making an account or giving you their information. The issue with this is that you cannot follow up with them through abandoned cart campaigns. These campaigns entail sending personalized emails and incentives to persuade the shopper to complete their purchase.
If it’s a returning customer who filled up their cart, their identity is already attached to their cart. When that happens, you can easily reach out to them and initiate your campaign.
Without this, their cart may stay full as they leave your site and forget about it.
Since they’re anonymous, there’s no way of reaching out to them. This is abandonment revenue that you can’t reclaim. At the very least, it’s a sale that you can’t make, but it can also interfere with your inventory as you hold items for a cart that might not be purchased.
The good news is that you can use the idea of identity resolution to help you deal with abandoned carts. This will boost your abandonment revenue, and help you avoid issues with abandoned carts in the future. Here’s how it works:
Your abandoned cart campaign works better when you have a longer list of people to reach out to. If 90% of your abandoned carts are anonymous, then your campaign’s reach is severely limited.
With identity resolution, you’ll be identifying more abandoned carts. Instead, maybe only 40% of your abandoned carts will be anonymous. This equates to more people that will receive your abandoned cart campaign, more people that finish their purchase, and more money in your pocket.
With a lot of marketing campaigns, it’s simply a numbers game. With more recipients, an unchanging conversion rate equates to more money.
Sometimes an abandoned cart campaign revolves around retargeting the shopper while they browse the internet later on.
Identity resolution adds a lot of extra context to each shopper. Their hobbies, lifestyle, and interests are all added to their identity in your system.
This means that you can use tangentially related interests to draw them back to your site. If your ecommerce site sells jackets, you can target a potential customer’s interest in skiing to bring them back to your site to complete their order.
This is only possible with a robust identity profile of the customer.
Using cookies and a cache of data, you can learn a lot about people who shop on your site. The more data you have, the more you know about your shoppers.
With a high-quality identity resolution program, you can unify all of your customer data in an effort to boost your chances of converting them. You can target them specifically, using historical data you have on them and comparing it to market trends.
More specifically, you can learn the behavior of your customers right before making a purchase so you can play into those ideas. You might learn what makes them abandon a cart in the first place, so you can avoid those practices.
It’s easier to sell to your best friend than it is to sell to a complete stranger. This is the governing concept behind identity resolution and its role in your ecommerce business.
This also helps when it comes to re-engaging customers and boosting your sales.
With extensive customer data, your abandonment revenue is just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless other ways to boost your profits, increase your sales, and convert even more shoppers.
You might not realize this, but retention marketing experts like Retention.com have tools to help you automate your marketing campaigns. These campaigns won’t help unless you know the identity of your shoppers and can link identities to different abandoned carts.
However, this goes beyond abandoned carts. The idea of automated marketing campaigns can do anything from helping you convert prospective sellers all the way to building a base of loyal customers.
When you introduce automation to your marketing campaigns, you have an opportunity to make more money without spending extra time and energy building a personalized campaign. Instead, you can pull from databases and let software do the work for you.
If someone went through the effort to visit your site, shop your store, and fill their cart, they’re so close to being converted. These are considered bottom-of-funnel shoppers, since they’ve already gone through most of the purchasing decisions.
These potential customers have the highest chance of getting converted into a customer, as opposed to a random person scrolling the internet.
As a result, it might make sense to target these bottom-of-funnel shoppers to push them to complete the purchase. That’s exactly what happens when you use identity resolution.
You’ll learn who the shopper is, and what might convince them to finish their purchase.
With identity resolution, you can convert an anonymous abandoned cart into profits and a more favorable abandonment revenue. To get started, consider learning more about CartID technology from Retention.com. It will help you identify your anonymous shoppers, automate future campaigns, and convert them into lifelong customers.
When it comes to running an online business, data is one of the biggest focuses. How you collect it, how you use it, and how much you spend on data can make or break your business. With first-party data, you have an opportunity to maximize your retention marketing. You’ll learn your users better, lower your data collection costs, and gain more flexibility.
In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about first-party data. You’ll learn what it is, how it works, why you should use it, and how to implement it.
First-party data is any data that you can collect directly from users. This data could be collected while they browse your site, interact with your social media accounts, use your app, or fill out a survey from you.
There are also second-party and third-party data, and both of those include another degree of separation. First-party data is the only case where you get the information directly from the user through your own channel.
Second and third-party data entail paying another company for the data. In this case, the company you’re buying it from either gathered it as first-party data or paid another company that did.
There are a lot of reasons to opt for first-party data. Whether you run an online business or an eCommerce company, this type of data can help a lot.
The biggest benefit of first-party data is all the control you get. Since you’re setting up how the data is captured and ultimately using the data on your own, you’ll get more flexibility.
You can choose to collect very specific pieces of data from users when they access your site in a specific way. This can be molded to perfectly match the requirements of your company.
What you later do with the data is entirely up to you. Since this is a lower-cost option of getting data, there’s less pressure to use the data.
Another benefit of collecting your own data is your ability to segment it. Segmenting is the act of breaking data down into types, then categorizing and lumping data together.
With segmented data, you get a better picture of what’s going on. In addition, you get a more complete image of who your user is.
If you understand your user better, you can optimize your retention marketing campaign. Use the data to focus on what appeals to the user. Target them at specific times, and use specific websites that align with the profile you built based on your first-party data.
Every time you add another party, the price goes up. Buying third-party data is significantly more expensive than first-party data.
With first-party data, you’re getting the lowest cost option.
The bottom line is that first-party data helps you to understand your shoppers better. In the online marketplace, data is the key to unlocking bigger profits and more sales.
It’s easier to sell something if you know the potential buyer very well. If they’re a stranger, it’s harder to convert them.
Data allows you to become familiar with your shoppers.
Knowing the benefits of first-party data is just the first step. Next, you’ll need to know how to use the data to your advantage.
One of the most effective ways to use first-party data is through specific targeting campaigns. In these campaigns, you’re reaching out to very specific people that meet your demographic and target audience.
If you sell cat food, it helps to target people who own cats. With first-party data, you’ll be able to find users who own cats, find out other interests about them, and combine them into a more successful targeting campaign.
This is just one example of how targeting works better when you have first-party data in your corner.
Automatic emails and marketing campaigns offer the benefits of marketing without the need to spend time and resources putting it together.
With these emails specifically, it’s easy to make a mistake and create emails that are too vague and not personal enough. With first-party data, you can create customized messages for all of your recipients.
Again, you’ll be using the information you learned about the user when they browsed your store. Appeal to their interests in an effort to convert them.
The same is true for an audience that you need to re-engage. After some time after buying from you, you should send another message and entice them to shop with your store again.
With first-party data, you can build up a more complete list of users. This goes beyond just their name and payment information — you can compile data that allows you to specifically re-engage with each user.
When an email feels personalized and targeted, the user is more likely to follow up and engage with your company again.
At Retention.com, the philosophy is to use retention marketing in junction with your brand’s strengths. For many, trustworthiness is one of the leading focuses of an online business.
After all, there are so many suspicious sites online. To be trustworthy means that people can shop with you without fear and that typically translates to more money.
First-party data always starts with an interaction between the user and your site. They will specify which data they want to share.
Doing this shows that you care about your user’s comfort. If they don’t want you to access their cookies, then they can un-check the box and trust you more.
Understanding first-party data is a great way to start making more money and converting more users. This form of data is captured directly from the user as they access your site. It’s low-cost, flexible, and very valuable for your retention marketing.
If you need a high-quality retention marketing solutions provider that helps you use first-party data to grow your business, you can turn to Retention.com. Our team will help you understand and implement data that can boost your sales.
Take a moment to think about the trillion of dollars — yes, trillion, with a “t” — that ecommerce businesses lose out on each and every year due to online shoppers abandoning their carts. (Don't worry, we have a solution coming for you in the form of abandoned cart subject lines.)
In June 2022, 88 percent of online shopping orders were abandoned, with the cruise industry having the highest cart abandonment rates at 98 percent.
Now that you’re having a panic attack (deep breaths), let’s talk about what you can do to eliminate a big chunk of that lost revenue. You can send them back to their cart to complete their purchases with an email marketing campaign using engaging abandoned cart subject lines.
Maybe you’re thinking, “My sales funnels are great.” And that might be true. But, with cart abandonment, you’re losing revenue from people leaving your site before they finish a purchase. So, start recovering some of that revenue with abandoned cart email campaigns. Why an email campaign? Well, abandoned cart emails are the No. 1 way to encourage shoppers to complete their purchases. No worries: We’ll walk you through all of the steps to crafting a winning subject line to bring them back to their carts.
In this guide, we’ll cover topics like:
Before we jump into some of the best techniques and practices, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what cart abandonment means.
When an online shopper adds one or more of your e-commerce store’s products to their digital cart and then leaves without making a purchase, that’s cart abandonment. They obviously had enough interest in the item to add it to their cart, since that’s taking them one step closer to purchasing it. However, something prevented them from converting. So, your job is to find a way to get them back to their carts so they can complete the purchase — hence abandoned cart emails.
Just be sure you don’t confuse them with browse abandonment, which is a tad different. Browse abandonment is when an online shopper views a product and leaves your site before ever adding it to their cart. Those shoppers are one step behind a cart abandoner in the purchasing process.
So, let’s get back to the topic at hand (i.e. cart abandonment) and how to bring those shoppers back (i.e. email campaigns).
Sure, earning engagement from your email campaigns is great. But, the real ticket is when you can earn revenue for each of the emails you sent. And that’s what you’ll be able to do with cart abandonment emails. Check out these averages for abandoned cart emails:
Businesses with an average order value (AOV) ranging from $100 to $500 recover an average of 4 to 5 percent of their abandoned carts. For basket sizes with less than $50, they capture around 3 percent of their abandons.
Abandoned cart emails are a powerful tool brands can use to convert shoppers who have expressed an interest in a product but haven’t yet finished their checkouts. If you aren’t emailing them, you’re leaving money on the table.
But for these email campaigns to work, they actually need to be opened. No subscriber is going to simply see your message pop up in their inbox and automatically go back to their cart, without ever opening the email to see what’s inside. That would be nice though, wouldn’t it?
And that’s where abandoned cart subject lines come into play. We’ll show you the components of successful subject lines, other best practices, and more than 160 examples of good subject lines you can use with your next campaign.
To solve a problem, which in this case would be the abandoned carts, you first need to know what caused that issue. For you, the problem is that they didn’t convert. But for the shopper, the problem or reason they abandoned their cart could be a number of things. And to create abandoned cart subject lines that best engage your shoppers, you need to get to the root of the issue so you can provide a solution.
So why do shoppers leave their carts before they complete their purchases? The exact answer will be as different as the shoppers themselves, but there are some common reasons this happens, according to Statista:
Whatever the reason is for them abandoning their cart on your website, chances are, it isn’t because they are no longer interested in your brand’s products. A lot of these issues can, and should, be addressed proactively on the back-end.
With that information in hand, you can then shape your subject lines to address those issues. Because if that’s the reason they left, providing a solution could be the ticket to bringing them back. So by taking a proactive approach and staying persistent, you can use cart abandonment emails to convert shoppers, capture revenue that would have been lost otherwise, and build relationships with these customers.
Does that sound like a good plan? Then it’s time to start talking about some of the best practices around abandoned cart subject lines. And where better to start than with how long the subject line needs to be.
When it comes to subject lines, shorter is better. That’s in large part because the majority of subscribers are viewing their emails on their mobile devices, which have smaller screens. So, while your subject line may fit perfectly on a desktop, you won’t have the same view on a phone or tablet.
For example, here’s what these three subject lines look like on a desktop:
Now, take a look at the same subject lines on a mobile device (iPhone X):
Pretty big difference, huh? Only one of the subject lines was seen in full on both a desktop and phone. And the screen of older phones would have shown even less of the subject lines.
Aim for a subject line that uses no more than nine words and 60 characters. But really, we’d recommend shooting for even shorter than that to ensure they can read the whole subject line, no matter where they are viewing their email. For example, “Come back to your cart,” is only five words and 22 characters and gets your point across.
If you’re having trouble shortening your subject line because you’re worried you aren’t packing enough information into the limited number of characters, there’s a solution. You can include more information in your preview text. Sure, it may be cut off, depending on the length and the device the shopper is viewing it on. But, it’s another way to give them additional information, without stuffing everything inside of your subject line.
And if you’re still worried you can’t trim your subject line and fit everything you want to say, you can make sure the most compelling parts of the message are toward the beginning. That way, the shopper can still get the main point of the email, even if the subject line is cut off. Though, we would still suggest making it as short as possible.
Of course, the best length for your abandoned cart subject lines will depend on your specific audience.
We’ve all seen an email subject line like this in our inboxes:
If it caught your eye, it’s for all of the wrong reasons. It’s a visual eyesore, to say the least. And at worst, it comes across like spam. You don’t want to come across like you’re yelling at your customers or aren’t professional. Plus, what’s up with the “+” signs? This isn’t a math equation.
Maybe the worst part is that this subject line leaves the reader wondering: “If this is what the subject line looks like, what on earth will the email look like?” We’re guessing they don’t want to find out, which means no open — and no heading back to their cart.
So, where does this email go wrong, and how can you avoid making these same types of mistakes? For starters, let’s all make a pact to never use random symbols in subject lines that don’t have anything to do with what you’re saying.
With that out of the way, the next thing you can do to ensure your subject line is visually appealing is to not put the whole thing in all caps.
And while exclamation points can convey a sense of urgency and aren’t all bad in subject lines, you shouldn’t use multiple ones in a row. They’re fine, even good sometimes, in moderation.
Take these findings: A subject line with a single exclamation point had about a 1 percent boost in open rates. However, subject lines with more than one exclamation point caused open rates to drop about 6 percent.
Having too many exclamation points can also trigger spam filters and hurt your email deliverability. So, stick with one or none exclamation points in your subject lines.
And if you want to see what an acceptable version of the above subject line would look like, try this instead:
This subject line — unlike the first one — properly communicates a sense of urgency and excitement.
The best way to see if your subject line is performing well is to try out different versions using A/B testing. Your ESP should give you the capabilities to test different components of your email marketing campaign to see what is and isn’t working so you can create the most engaging campaign for your audience.
There are several different factors you can try out with your subject line testing. You can try completely different subject line approaches: “Did you forget something” or “Hurry before your cart expires!” Or, you can try out different subject line lengths, the use of emojis, or asking a question vs. making a statement.
You can also play around with capitalizing the text: “Come back to your cart” vs. “Come Back to Your Cart.”
Come back to your cartAs you can see, there are a variety of ways to change the look and feel of this short subject line. Once you find an approach that works, try it with future ones to get the most engagement.
The best way to figure out what will work best with your customers is to keep creating experiments to test your subject lines, and refine your messages based on the data you collect.
In addition to testing the subject line on your emails, you can also test how many emails you send and when you send the emails. A good rule to remember when trying to figure out how soon you will send the email after the abandoned cart action is that sooner is better. Emails sent within an hour of them leaving their carts have higher conversion rates than ones sent 24 or 72 hours later.
That’s in part because people forget things, like that they left a product in their cart. And the longer you wait to remind them about it, the more time they have to find what they’re searching for on another brand’s site.
We’ll talk more about personalization below in the examples, but before that can happen, you need to know who you are emailing. Here are a few ways you can segment your email lists to send them relevant, personalized abandoned cart emails:
Properly segmenting your lists will allow you to deliver content with the highest value to your subscribers, which is always a good thing. Then, you can tailor the subject line to best fit the specific segment the user falls in when they abandon their cart. Here’s a little more detail for each of these segmentation tactics.
Repeat customers are what every brand strives to have. They are the ones that keep you going. You know they like your products already, so you don’t always need to send them a subject line with an offer right off of the bat. Save your discount emails until later in the abandoned cart email series. Instead, you could try offering free shipping or giving them rewards points toward their customer loyalty account.
First-timers, on the other hand, don’t have an established relationship with your brand yet, so you have to work a little harder (and differently) to bring them back to their carts. You can start off with discount subject lines and emails to incentivize them to head back to their carts. Examples like, “15% off your first order,” are a great way to catch the attention of new shoppers.
These are the shoppers you want to roll out the red carpet for. How a brand defines a VIP varies, but most likely, these are the customers who spend a significant amount of money with your brand.
So, when one of your VIPs leaves something pricey in their cart, don’t miss out on this special opportunity. You can offer them a special discount or exclusive access to something that’s relevant to them.
If your brand sells a variety of products, try segmenting your messages by the type of products the shopper left in their cart. For example, if you sell pet items and a shopper adds dog food to their cart, keep your email relevant to dog food (not cat, bird, fish, etc.).
You can take that a step further by really honing in on what they added. So, if they added wet dog food, you could send them recommendations for other types of wet dog food — not dry food or treats.
You would want to treat someone who has one item in their cart a little differently than someone who has a dozen they left behind. If they have several items in your cart, it could mean they are extremely interested in your brand. Or, it could also mean they’re unsure if the products are right for them or not.
If it’s the latter, you could help them out by including customer reviews, product star ratings, or other proof that shows it’s a quality product.
Again, a shopper who has $50 worth of products in their cart isn’t the same as someone who has $200 worth of items — especially if your average customer order value is, say, $100. You could give this shopper something special like a free gift with purchase, free shipping, or a discount. And remember to let them know about all of those goodies in the subject line.
With some best practices out of the way, it’s time to start crafting abandoned cart subject lines that will make subscribers open your emails. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry: We have you more than covered.
We’ve broken up the abandoned cart subject lines into different approach categories, but of course, some of them could easily land in multiple categories. Feel free to copy and paste these into your next campaign, personalize them for your brand, or simply get ideas from this extensive list.
No two brands are the same, but their subject lines may be. The reason you see so many brands sending similar — or exact — subject lines is because these are proven winners. So, here are a few basic examples you might see on a variety of brands’ emails.
The last two subject lines were ones Target used in their abandoned cart campaigns. Inside of the last email, the body text says: It’s an *add-to-cart* kind of day, with the CTA, “Shop now.”
You know the answer to this question because you know exactly what the cart abandoner left behind. But for the shopper, it’s a playful way of reminding them there are items in their cart. And maybe they did simply forget to complete the purchase, so in that case, these subject lines would be especially effective.
Many of these could have ended up in the “Popular and effective” section because you have, no doubt, seen several of these subject lines in your inbox a time or 10.
These subject lines use the assumptive close, which concludes the shopper has made up their mind to buy the item(s) but was interrupted — not because of a factor like shipping costs, for example. With this approach, you’re simply reminding them that they didn’t quite complete the sale… yet. You can pose these as statements or questions.
Here are a few good words to use with this type of approach:
And here are subject line examples putting this approach into action:
We all want to feel important, instead of just being another name on a brand’s email list. Consumers no longer have to settle for impersonal, transactional businesses in today’s world. Now, they have more choices than ever before, allowing them to choose to shop with brands that are authentic and provide value.
To show online shoppers you know who they are (but not in a creepy way), care about their interests, and want to give them something of value, use a personalized approach with your subject line. A little personalization can go a long way toward developing relationships that will lead to long-term value for both your brand and the shopper.
In addition to using their first name and/or the product name or category, you can also use the word, “you,” to add personal touch.
A personalized subject line makes the subscriber feel like you’ve created the email specifically for them — and that’s a pretty nice feeling. That allows you to start establishing trust and building a relationship well beyond the abandoned cart email. (Hint: That’s the whole point.)
But beyond connecting with the subscriber, personalizing email subject lines can also lead to open rates as high as 50 percent. Personalized promotional emails can result in 29 percent higher open rates, as well. Plus, brands that personalize their emails saw an 18-percent increase in revenue.
Not sure how to add a touch of personalization to your abandoned cart subject lines? Take a look at some of these examples, and test out which ones work best with your audience.
That last example came from a DSW email. The text inside reads, “Hey [Name], you forgot your bag. Actually, you forgot the really good stuff that’s in your bag,” followed by a “Go to bag” CTA.
Remember: Make sure you use the correct merge tag for your ESP so that their names appear correctly. If you don’t have a first name for them on file, have your ESP plug in something like, “Hey there!” instead. Because if you don’t, you could end up sending them an email subject line that shows up like this in their inbox: [FNAME], you forgot something! And that’s way worse than having no personalization at all.
If the cart abandoner is logged in or you use cookies and already have their information on your email list, you’ll be able to pull that data and use it for your subject line and email. But, what if it’s an anonymous online user who leaves products in their cart? And since the majority of your web traffic probably is anonymous, you really don’t want to miss out on those shoppers.
Retention.com can identify up to 30 percent of your site’s anonymous U.S. site traffic. We share that information with you, allowing you to then create an email-based retargeting campaign (i.e. cart abandonment emails). Yes, it’s CAN-SPAM compliant. And yes, we get results.
So, if you want to be able to reach even more online shoppers who have abandoned their carts on your e-commerce site, give our service a try.
Another way to personalize the email is by including the product name, such as “picture frame,” or the product category, like “home and decor.” It doesn’t have to be the exact product name, like “Medium red Gap sweater,” but even just saying “sweater” or “clothing” can work.
One reason adding the product to the subject line is so effective is because it personalizes the text, and it also reminds the shopper what product they left behind. That could lead to an, “Oh yea, I forgot to purchase that sweater I really liked,” moment. Here are a few examples of subject lines to help you achieve that:
You can also personalize the abandoned cart subject lines to your brand like in these examples:
This type of branded approach works best if you have a recognizable brand that conveys quality and trustworthiness. If your brand name isn’t as well known, that might not be the best approach to take with your subject lines.
No one wants to miss out on something great, which is why FOMO is such an amazing sales tactic. So, if you can create a sense of urgency in your abandoned cart subject lines, your shoppers will want to open the message to make sure they don’t miss out.
For example, if there’s a flash sale at a brick-and-mortar store, people will rush there because of the urgency and because they don’t want to miss out on it. In addition to the element of urgency, showing scarcity is another successful tactic with subject lines. So, mention things like limited availability and time sensitivity to encourage those opens (and sales).
You can do that by mentioning the number of hours/days left, that the product’s nearly sold out, or that this is their last chance to purchase their item. Basically, you want to give them a compelling enough reason to go back to their cart, without saying, “BUY NOW!”
Here are examples of those techniques in subject lines:
Maybe they loved the product in their cart — that is, until they saw your shipping costs, return policy, taxes, total costs, or some other element that was a major turnoff. Beside being upfront on your site about any costs that could deter shoppers, you can also address these concerns with your abandoned cart subject lines.
For example, if shipping costs are a concern, you could use your subject line to offer the shopper free shipping. Looking at your data, research, survey results, and other information to figure out exactly what the pain points are for your shoppers. Then, address those issues via your subject lines.
Conversely, you can also tell them what is right with your brand from the start so they know they don’t have to worry about having concerns. That could mean using the subject line to highlight the quality of your products, demonstrate how easy it is to shop on your site, how your brand and/or site are different (in a good way), and show it’s a brand they can trust.
If price comparisons are something they are focused on, you can experiment with offering discounts to shoppers in the subject line. It can be easy to rely on giving customers discounts because they look so enticing. However, you don’t want all of your abandoned cart emails to include a discount because then it loses its value.
If it’s a first-time cart abandoner, maybe a discount is a great way to start off your abandoned cart series. Or, if you have a regular shopper, try the discount on the second or third email in the series. Play around with the emails to see what works best for your brand and customers.
These kinds of offers can be compelling and effective. Just be sure to use discounts strategically and not as the go-to, one-size-fits-all approach.
There’s something warm and fuzzy about a truly creative subject line. Or, maybe that’s just us. But, we can guarantee you that if you can craft a subject line that encompasses your brand’s voice with a touch of creativity, you’ll be miles ahead of the other emails streaming for your subscribers’ attention.
Use that pun, add a dab of humor, and send the type of fun email you’d like to receive. Because don’t forget, your subscribers are just people like you. So if you and your team like, chances are, others will too.
The Barnes & Noble email that goes along with that subject line reads, “Check out what you left in your cart!” That’s followed by the product photo and the CTA, “View my cart.”
If you don’t convert after that email from Barnes & Noble, the next one in the series has the subject line, “Your Cart is Waiting.” The inside design of the email is the same, except the copy this time reads, “Did you forget what you left in your cart?” The same CTA, “View my cart,” is there, as well.
Finally, if neither of the first two emails worked, Barnes & Noble sent out a third email contender to win the shopper back. The subject line for this one was, “Open for an Update on Your Cart.” The email’s text read, “Last chance to grab what you left in your cart!” along with the same CTA as the other two emails. As the text suggested, this was the final abandoned cart email they sent following the abandoned cart action.
While they might not have actually wanted whatever was left in their cart, now you can try to convert them with other products or sales you have going on.
If eyes are the window to your soul, does that make subject lines the window into your email? Or, have we had one too many coffees today? You tell us. Either way, we can’t overstate the importance of a great subject line, whether you’re sending an abandoned cart email or another type of email campaign.
There’s plenty of data out there showing abandoned cart emails work and help brands recover potentially lost sales. So, it’s crystal clear why every marketer should include an abandoned cart email series as part of their strategy.
You can try different approaches with the design, text, send times, and, of course, the subject lines. No matter which types of subject lines you decide to use, make sure you regularly test and refine them. What worked in the past might not work going forward, and vice versa. And what works for one brand might not work for yours.
So, try out these abandoned cart subject lines, see what works, nix what doesn’t, and create a plan that’s best for your brand. We hope these best practices and subject line examples give you inspiration and help you engage more of your online shoppers.
When you consistently test and optimize your emails, you will be able to drive the best results.
7 out of 10 online shoppers abandon their carts, representing billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Imagine if you could instead reliably recoup even some of those lost sales.
Using retention marketing tactics, you can re-engage customers who have abandoned their carts and bring them back to your shop.
Read on to understand everything you need to start putting that lost revenue back in your pocket where it belongs.
Retention marketing encourages customers to return to your website or store to make repeat purchases. It means focusing on the customer's experience and building brand loyalty to boost word-of-mouth advertising.
At its core, retention marketing means keeping the customers you already have and increasing their spending on future purchases.
Your business can utilize many effective retention marketing strategies, including reclaiming abandoned cart revenue.
The bottom line is to create engagement and loyalty in the customers you have already converted.
This loyalty also leads to reaching new customers or clients through word of mouth.
Retention marketing aims to keep customers engaged with your company and product to increase their lifetime value to your business. The end goal of retention marketing is to increase your profits. For example, in a recent article, American Express noted that it costs 6 to 7x more to get new customers than to retain old ones.
By changing the focus to keeping customers interested and engaged with your brand, you can spend less to make more profit in a shorter time.
Spending less on marketing while making more sales is a dream come true. This is why retention marketing is essential to any modern business.
In addition, advertising on every platform has become much more expensive. According to Digital Information World and Business Insider, we are seeing huge increases in social media marketing costs.
For example, Facebook ads rose 89%, while advertisements on YouTube now cost 108% more than last year.
Clearly, the cost of acquiring new customers is only going up, so retention marketing is becoming even more critical.
There are many benefits to retention marketing.
One of the most significant benefits, besides the increase in profit margins, is that it increases the lifetime value of your customers.
Happy and loyal customers will buy more, come back more often and tell others about you.
When you make efforts to engage with old customers, they reward you with increased sales. As a result, you will have to spend less on advertising.
Understanding your customer's wants and needs deeply enough that you can keep them happy and engaged takes some work.
Likewise, setting up the required metrics to accurately measure your campaigns' results can take time.
Making sure your customers have a positive experience with your brand takes time and effort.
Customer service can be expensive and hard to get right if customers have unrealistic expectations.
It can also be challenging to show customers over time that they are still appreciated.
Retention marketing and acquisition marketing are two very different types of marketing. They have different goals and employ different tactics.
Acquisition marketing is more direct and easier to measure.
In contrast, retention marketing is often concerned with subjects such as loyalty, which is more of an indirect result of many combined efforts.
The most significant difference between these tactics is the type of customer they focus on.
Retention marketing focuses on customers you already have, while acquisition marketing focuses on getting new customers.
The actions taken in Retention marketing campaigns ensure that customers continue purchasing products in the long term.
Retention marketing tactics build loyalty and connection with your customers.
In contrast, acquisition marketing strategies focus on advertising to gain new customers.
Deciding how to divide your marketing budget between retention and acquisition depends on your current customer profile.
Brandalyzer does a great job of breaking down the mathematics of this complicated formula.
However, you can't go too far wrong if you spend 75% of your marketing budget on retention.
However much you decide to spend, it is clear that focusing more on retention than on acquisition will lead to greater success for your business.
Forbes recently conducted a study, and one of the notable findings was that merchants that spent more on retention in the last 1-3 years had close to a 200% more likelihood of being successful than their counterparts who spent more on acquisition.
There are many types of retention marketing, and you can choose the tactics that resonate most with your business.
For example, an online coaching portal could send personalized messages to encourage clients through SMS messaging.
Here are some other types of retention marketing campaigns:
Retention marketing tactics don't have to be expensive. However, the most effective strategies are thoughtful to engage repeat customers.
Email marketing to recapture abandoned cart revenue is one of the most profitable and effective strategies.
According to the Harvard Business Review, It is best to concentrate on the initial experiences a customer has with you in your retention marketing efforts.
Focusing on the first purchase experience statistically brings the most ROI and should be taken care of first in a retention marketing campaign.
Personalization can be used to enhance any of the other highly effective tactics mentioned above. You can employ personalization as a tactic through the many stages of the customer's journey.
Personalization as a retention marketing strategy has been shown to increase the number of customers a business gains and their lifetime value to you.
This personalization tactic provides valuable content across channels like email, social media, or even (SMS) text messages!
Finding the right tactics for your business can depend on your niche. Make data-driven decisions to decide on the best customer retention strategy.
First, find the right tools and formulas and measure your customer's data.
Then find out what successful metrics are for your business.
Looking at what successful metrics are for your industry is an effective way to begin. Then measure your customer data.
With the data in hand, you can see where you fall short. This will empower you to create the best retention marketing tactics for your business.
Decide what tactics will bring you the most profit and quickest returns. Target these first to create an effective retention marketing strategy.
Using the right tools is integral to creating an effective retention strategy. They will help you determine your goals and inform your strategy.
For example, if you recognize that you have a lot of dead emails on your list and want to bring these lost customers back, you can utilize Retention.Com's Reactivate campaign. This can help you increase your email opening rate from 2-3% all the way up to 40%.
What Tools Should be Implemented?
Having Customer Retention Management tools and identity resolution software can make all the data about your customer base easily accessible.
Another way to increase customer satisfaction while gathering data about them is to install a chatbot on your website.
When you have the information you need about your customers, it is much easier to tailor content for them.
To create an effective retention marketing strategy, we recommend the following steps:
It is a great idea to concentrate first on the projects that will give you the most significant return and then go to the less profitable but still rewarding projects. For example, focus on the first purchase.
Measuring the success of your marketing efforts with cutting-edge tools that give you accurate data will bring you the most accurate results.
Use mathematical formulas that allow you to accurately pinpoint your statistics.
You can find many of these on the Appcues Blog, where they explain the different statistics you can measure along with the formulas.
For example, churn rate = (number of customers at the end of the year - new customers)/number of customers at the beginning of the year.
Here are some of the ways you can measure your success with your retention marketing efforts:
Peter Drucker, the first thought leader in business management, famously said, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."
To guide your strategy, measure which tactics work best with your customers. This way, you can direct your budget to the most effective campaigns.
In retention marketing, some of the most profitable success measures are product return rate, ROI, revenue and customer churn, customer lifetime value, repeat purchase ratio, and time between purchases.
It is best to find the measures that mean success for your niche. For example, in some niches, buying only one or two products in a lifetime is common.
Comparing the repeat purchase ratio for that business to the ratio desirable for most stores would create unrealistic expectations.
Finding out what metrics are considered successful for your niche is worthwhile.
Every website needs tools that measure your marketing data. These tools will let you know the ROI of your retention efforts.
Some of the essential tools are Google Analytics and Retention.com.
Combining these two tools will give you the information you need to gather the statistics to measure your retention marketing efforts.
For example, with Retention.Com, you can measure and keep track of your cart abandonment rate and the abandoned cart recovery rate.
On your Retention.com dashboard, you get real-time reporting. For example, you can easily see your revenue and ROI tracking and how many people have added to the cart, all in one place.
Now that you know how to start measuring your data and how you can utilize retention marketing to 5- 10x your current profit margins, nothing can stop you!
If you're still unsure how to re-engage with your customers and reclaim those abandoned carts, then book a demo with Retention.com. We can show you how easy it is.
We all recognize the value of cart-abandonment emails. But what about those lurkers who don’t actually drop something in the cart? They’re probably still interested, and may only need another touch or two to activate and become a customer.
A browse abandonment email can remind them of all of the amazing products on your site that they have already viewed and how they’re missing out if they don’t click through to go back.
You don’t want to miss out on this online segment of browse abandonment shoppers because it’s quite large — and can bring you some serious ROI if you properly engage them. Just consider these stats:
Ready to bring these browsers back to your site so they can convert? We’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’ll explain:
..and how is it different from cart abandonment?
A browse abandonment prospect enjoyed looking at your products but, for whatever reason, never added the item to their cart to make a purchase. The key here is: they may be just as interested in your product but didn’t take the time to make that one extra click to drop it in the cart.
Their behavior and views will dictate the type of campaign you send them, along with any other data you have on them (ex. past purchase history).
Both are automated flows that you should absolutely have set up in your email/SMS marketing software like Klaviyo. But it’s critical that you take a different approach for browse abandonment than you would for cart abandonment. Because the behavior and goals are different.
Someone who abandons their cart is one step closer to making a purchase, so your cart abandonment email strategy should be focused on getting them back to their cart and the specific products they left behind.
A browse abandonment email is more about reminding them of what product or category they viewed. They may have viewed one product, multiple items within a product category, or products across many categories.
A good browse abandonment strategy is about remarketing your products and brand at a slightly higher level than a cart abandonment email. And it should always be part of your owned marketing channel strategy, preferably using first-party data.
Let’s look at some of the best practices for your browse abandonment email strategy.
The goal of your browse abandonment email templates is to catch the shopper’s attention and make them want to go back to your site and purchase the items they viewed.
In addition to the normal email marketing best practices, here are a few techniques specific to browse abandonment that you’ll want to follow.
The subject line is the first thing the reader is going to see, so don’t let it disappoint. It’s either going to get them to open the email or send it to their Trash. The purpose of the subject line is to tell them why you’re emailing them and encourage them to check out whatever they were viewing.
Here are some examples of browse abandonment subject lines that work:
These can be similar to cart abandonment email subject lines, but of course, you wouldn’t say they left something in their cart or anything like that. You would use words more like “viewed,” “saw,” or “looked.”
Stick with something that’s short, sweet, and to the point. You can add in a touch of personalization or an emoji to help the email stand out, as well.
Once they open your email, you want to make it worth their while. And luckily for you, browse abandonment emails don’t have to be in-depth or flashy when it comes to the content. Actually, it’s better when they aren’t.
Here are the basic elements you’ll want in the body of the email:
All of these components make it easier for the user to recollect what they abandoned.
Here are some more in depth content tips to ensure the best possible engagement:
Just like you want to send the browse abandonment email shortly after they leave your site, you also want them to head back to your website ASAP. You can do that by creating a sense of urgency and fear of missing out (FOMO).
For example:
You want the shopper to know you’re emailing them because they browsed your site. If you don’t tell them why you’re emailing them, you’re simply sending a promotional email. Or, they could think it’s spam if it doesn’t specifically apply to them.
Remind them by keeping the focus on the product they viewed, and give them a clear CTA that will take them back to it.
Consumers are becoming more comfortable with email retargeting, to a certain extent. And as more brands are focusing on browse abandonment, shoppers will come to expect this type of message.
To help yours stand out from the pack, add personal touches, like putting their names in the subject line or email. That will show them:
While this email marketing practice isn’t new, you still want to be careful with how personal you get. People know their online behaviors are being tracked, but there’s a fine line between personalized and stalker.
For example:
You can thank them for checking out your products and include a link if they want to view it again. But, you wouldn’t want to say something like, “We see you visited our site on Monday at 1:33 p.m. and viewed these 10 pages.”
You get the point.
Showing the shopper recommended products is another good tactic for luring them back to your site. The customer browsed your site but didn’t want the specific item they viewed. Maybe they just didn’t find the right one?
Offer products that are similar or related to the browsed item in case they would prefer a different look, style, feature, or price point. It still provides value, even though it isn’t the exact item they originally looked at.
To pull off this method, you’ll need to make sure all of your products are correctly categorized and tagged so your automated emails are able to pull from the correct batch of items when addressing customers. Yes, this does take more work on the back end, but it can be really successful when done right.
The “recommended” approach only works if the items are actually something they would be interested in and closely related to the original item. You wouldn’t send them information on a men’s jacket if they originally viewed dog treats. (Unless it’s some really large dog that’s into wearing human clothes or something. We won’t judge.)
Simplicity is the name of the game when it comes to browse-abandonment templates. If your design is too cluttered, your audience will probably hit delete and move on to one of the dozens of other messages in their inbox. You have a limited amount of time (and space) to make an impression, so make it a good one.
A good technique is to make the product they viewed the main attraction, placing the image, description, and CTA to get back to it near the top of the email below your logo or related header image. If there’s more than one product they viewed, use the one they spent the most time on — or pick one as the main image and include the others at the bottom.
The idea behind showcasing the product is that if they were once interested in it, they are more likely to return to see it again, compared to a random promotional product.
Did the online shopper spend a minute on the product page, or did they view it for two seconds? The answer will determine whether or not you email them.
Sometimes visitors accidentally click a link when they intended to view another product. So, if they only spend a second or two on the page, there’s no reason to email them about it. Chances are, they won’t even recognize the product anyway.
If they received a browse abandonment email last week for a different product, it’s probably too soon to send them another one for the latest item they viewed.
Sending too often can make your email marketing campaigns look like sales materials (not a good thing), and they could start ignoring your messages. Or worse, they could send them to the dreaded spam folder.
Now comes what you’ve been waiting for: the list of browse abandoned email templates. These emails are ones brands have sent out, but they give you an idea of what works.
Of course, you’ll want to create a template that fits your branding and voice, but these five browse abandonment email templates can give you ideas to get you started.
Minimal text and images do the trick in this J.Crew browse abandonment email template. The header text, “Like it? (We had a hunch.),” is to the point and engaging — the definition of short and sweet.
Instead of featuring one product, they include a CTA to the product category, “Knits & Tees,” along with a related photo. In case they aren’t that interested in the original category, J.Crew also includes links to three other categories: pants, shirts & tops, jewelry.
The U.K. brand Debenhams leads with header text that will make you want to sing: “Is it me you’re looking for?” They follow that with text that tells the reader exactly why they are receiving this email: “We noticed you’ve been looking at these items recently and don’t want you to miss out. Here they are again so you can add them to your shopping bag.”
We like how they include the product photo, description, and “View now” CTA that will take them straight back to that product. There are links to the brand’s different departments at the top of the message, as well, in case they would rather check out one of those.
This email also addresses common questions or pain points that could have kept them from completing a purchase initially:
If shipping or returns were a concern, now this shopper knows the brand’s policies and can move forward with a purchase.
Another U.K.-based company, ASOS does a great job with this browse abandonment email template. The header text, “Oh hello again,” gives the shopper a glimpse into why they’re receiving this email, and the body text fills in the gaps: “Sure, first impressions count, but second impressions are what really matter. Take another look at the styles you were checking out earlier.”
They then include the product photos, descriptions, and prices below so they can click whichever one they’re most interested in. And if all of those options aren’t enough, they can also click the CTA, “See what’s trending,” to see what else the brand has to offer. At the bottom of the email, they also include that they offer free delivery.
Not only does Hot Chocolat mention that the shopper viewed products on their page in this email — “We noticed you recently viewed our website” — but they also phrase the wording like they are doing them a favor by letting them know — “Here is a reminder of what you liked.” We love that approach because it’s not too pushy, and it provides value for the shopper.
Though the main header image isn’t the product they viewed, it does a good job of representing the brand. Then, the browsed product is just below with a photo, description, and price, which we always like to see used in browse abandonment templates.
This email example is longer than the other ones we’ve featured so far, showcasing holiday products, things they might like, and social media photos.
Although, we feel like they could have played off of their products a little more with something like, “Did you smell something sweet?” We do love a good pun.
Who could say no to this adorable pup on VetRXDirect’s browse abandonment email? Definite cute points for this one. They follow that image with, “At your bark and call,” which is a perfect complement to the dog photo. Then, they get to the point, “We heard you dropped by but didn’t stay.”
The brand also puts a way for the shopper to contact their team if they have any questions, which can be a great way to win them back if the reason they didn’t purchase was because of an issue or question.
From there, they include the products they viewed, and they use a clever CTA:
That makes the shopper’s job easier and gets them even closer to converting. We also like how they tell their shipping policy and include a customer review on the company. And of course, we love the furry friends at the bottom, too.
To build customer trust with the brand, they show their verification information at the bottom of the email, as well. This email is a great example of staying true to your brand and voice, while also getting to the point that the shopper left the site before making a purchase.
You’ve designed the perfect browse abandonment template, so now you need to know who to send it to. Using cookies to identify and track your current subscribers is a great option. But, what about the anonymous traffic that visits your site but never converts? That’s where Retention.com can help.
You place our snippet script on the pages you want to collect contacts, and we can identify up to 35 percent of your anonymous traffic you would otherwise lose out on. And yes, Retention.com is compliant with the U.S.’s CAN-SPAM Act.
Want to learn more?
Depending on the ESP you use for email marketing, there may be templates already designed that are meant for browse abandonment emails (or you can tweak a cart abandonment email). You can also build an email with your ESP’s design tools.
However you create the email, make sure the message:
If you make that the focus of your browse abandonment template, you’ll have a solid foundation for re-engaging the shopper.
In this article, we'll cover why email automation is important for your Shopify and Shopify+ business, especially when it comes to cart abandonment, and we'll walk you through how to do it on one of the most popular automation platforms out there - Klaviyo.
So let's get started!
Have you ever been shopping online, added an item to your cart, and then left the site without completing the purchase? We've all been there. Life gets in the way, or we get distracted, and before we know it we've abandoned our cart and moved on with our day.
Sometimes we don’t even get to the point of dropping something in the cart. We browse generally, dive deep into a specific category of products, or simply spend time pondering the purchase of just one product.
As an eCommerce business owner, it's important to have email automation in place to recapture shoppers who have abandoned without purchasing. It’s core to any retention marketing plan.
Statistics show that over 70% of people who add items to their online shopping carts abandon them before completing the purchase. That's a lot of potential sales that are being lost! Not to mention the other folks who spent time browsing then disappeared. They’re probably just as interested!
With email automation, you can send a series of emails to shoppers who have abandoned their carts, abandoned their browse, abandoned a category, or abandoned a product, reminding them of the items they were interested in and giving them a special offer or incentive to complete their purchase. Email automation is a highly effective way to increase sales and revenue for your eCommerce business.
Email automation can seem daunting if you've never set it up before, but there are many software platforms out there that make it easy to get started. In this blog post, we'll give you a step-by-step guide on how to set up email automation for your eCommerce business using the popular platform Klaviyo.
Email automation is important for Shopify businesses because it helps increase sales and revenue by recapturing shoppers who have abandoned their carts. By sending a series of targeted emails reminding shoppers of the items they were interested in and providing them with a special offer or incentive, you can encourage them to complete their purchase.
According to statistics, over 70% of people who add items to their online shopping carts abandon them before completing the purchase. That's a lot of potential sales that are being left on the table! With email automation in place, you can recover some of those lost sales and boost your revenue.
Email automation can also help you create more personalized experiences for your customers and build relationships with them over time. By segmenting your email list and sending targeted emails based on shopper behavior, you can create more relevant and engaging experiences that will make customers want to do business with you again and again.
Klaviyo is one of the most popular platforms for setting up email automation flows for eCommerce businesses. Klaviyo integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and custom stores built on other platforms like ReactJS. In addition, Klaviyo offers a wide range of features and customizable options to fit the needs of any business size or type.
Follow these steps to set up your first email flow in Klaviyo:
Now that your flow is set up, Klaviyo will automatically send out emails according to the schedule and trigger events that you specified. You can always go back into your flow at any time and make changes if needed.
Fortunately, we have a trove of resources to help you out at every turn. Check out these articles for deep dives on the following topics:
You should find everything you need in those links to build a robust marketing program around abandonment flows.
There’s still one question in your head, though… how do I even identify who these abandoners are, if they haven’t signed up or purchased something from me in the past?
Retention.com specializes in retention marketing and e-commerce solutions, including cart abandonment and re-engaging potentially lost customers. We provide one-click integrations with leading marketing automation platforms.
Our dashboard features a user-friendly interface to easily connect to any email marketing application in under a minute. Retention’s integrations automatically update and suppress contacts daily.
We can help you reclaim up to ten times more abandonment revenue by leveraging industry-leading Identity Resolution technology. When an unidentified customer abandons a cart, we identify them. Then a personalized flow automatically triggers in the messaging platform.
Scale up your abandonment flows and improve your retention marketing strategy. Get in touch with Retention.com today to find out how we can help.
Email automation is key for any eCommerce business that wants to boost sales and revenue. By sending targeted emails reminding shoppers of items they were interested in and providing them with an incentive to complete their purchase, businesses can increase their conversion rate and recapture lost sales.
Nothing is more powerful for an e-commerce brand than email automation flows. And that includes the four critical abandonment flows. They sit right at the core of any good retention marketing strategy.
From welcome emails to ongoing drip marketing campaigns to re-engagement, you want to make sure you have a robust plan to stay top of mind, without, of course, turning anyone off.
But there’s a big gap that many brands miss when rounding out their marketing strategy, and that’s abandonment flows. Today we’re going to get into the fundamental abandonment flows, and why you should have automation for each of these flows.
It stings when someone is so close to buying your products or services, but then for whatever reason, they never click “Purchase.” Or maybe they don’t even add an item to their cart. But they sure did think about it. Luckily, there are ways to not only capture this whole segment of window shoppers and reach out to them.
In this post, we’ll cover some of the key abandonment flows you should be thinking about and adding to your automation strategy. These abandonments include:
E-commerce businesses on Shopify and Shopify+ face cart, browse, category, and product abandonment every day.
Capturing shoppers who fall into these categories is important because it can lead to more sales and a better bottom line for your business.
Email marketing automation flows are an effective way to capture these shoppers and turn them into customers.
When cart, browse, category, or product abandonment occurs, an email marketing automation flow can be triggered to send a message to the shopper.
This message can include a discount code or other incentive to encourage the shopper to come back and complete their purchase.
Email marketing automation flows are easy to set up and can be a great way to boost sales and improve your bottom line.
If you haven't already, consider setting up email marketing automation flows for cart, browse, category, and product abandonment. It could be the key to increasing sales and improving your business.
Let's dig into these different types of abandonment, and why they matter.
Cart abandonment is when a shopper adds items to their cart but does not complete the purchase. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as the shopper getting distracted or finding a better deal elsewhere.
Cart abandonment is a big problem for e-commerce businesses because it can lead to lost sales and revenue.
According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.23%. That means that for every 100 people who add items to their cart, 69 will abandon their cart without completing the purchase.
This is a significant amount of lost sales and revenue for businesses, which is why capturing these shoppers is so important.
Browse abandonment is when a shopper views products on your site but does not add anything to their cart. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as the shopper not finding what they are looking for or getting distracted.
Browse abandonment is a big problem for e-commerce businesses because it can lead to lost sales and revenue.
According to Barilliance, the average browse abandonment rate is 87%. That means that for every 100 people who view products on your site, 87 will leave without adding anything to their cart.
This is a significant amount of lost sales and revenue for businesses, which is why capturing these shoppers is so important.
Category abandonment is when a shopper views products in a certain category on your site but does not add anything to their cart. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as the shopper not finding what they are looking for or getting distracted.
Category abandonment is a big problem for e-commerce businesses because it can lead to lost sales and revenue.
According to SalesCycle, the average category abandonment rate is 81%. That means that for every 100 people who view products in a certain category on your site, 81 will leave without adding anything to their cart.
This is a significant amount of lost sales and revenue for businesses, which is why capturing these shoppers is so important.
Product abandonment is when a shopper views a product on your site but does not add it to their cart. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as the shopper not being interested in the product or getting distracted.
Product abandonment is a big problem for e-commerce businesses because it can lead to lost sales and revenue.
According to Invesp, the average product abandonment rate is 95%. That means that for every 100 people who view a product on your site, 95 will leave without adding it to their cart.
This is a significant amount of lost sales and revenue for businesses, which is why capturing these shoppers is so important.
What marketing automation tools can Shopify and Shopify+ eCommerce brands use to create email flows for cart, browse, category and product abandonment?
There are a number of marketing automation tools that you can use to create email flows for cart, browse, category and product abandonment. Some of these tools include:
Each of these tools has its own unique features and capabilities, so be sure to research each one to find the best fit for your business.
Fortunately we have a trove of resources to help you out at every turn. Check out these articles for deep dives on the following topics:
You should find everything you need in those links to build a robust marketing program around abandonment flows.
There’s still one question in your head, though… how do I even identify who these abandoners are, if they haven’t signed up or purchased something from me in the past?
Retention.com specializes in retention marketing and e-commerce solutions, including cart abandonment and re-engaging potentially lost customers. We provide one-click integrations with leading marketing automation platforms.
Our dashboard features a user-friendly interface to easily connect to any email marketing application in under a minute. Retention’s integrations automatically update and suppress contacts daily.
We can help you reclaim up to ten times more abandonment revenue by leveraging industry-leading Identity Resolution technology. When an unidentified customer abandons a cart, we identify them. Then a personalized flow automatically triggers in the messaging platform.
Scale up your abandonment flows and improve your retention marketing strategy. Get in touch with Retention.com today to find out how we can help.
If you haven't already, consider setting up email marketing automation flows for cart, browse, category, and product abandonment. It could be the key to increasing sales and improving your business. And make sure you're capturing everyone who shows interest in your products.
Abandoned carts can be the bain of a Shopify eCommerce brand’s existence. Imagine being a brick-and-mortar store and having people walk in, fill up carts, and then simply walk out, leaving a jumble of filled shopping carts near the front door.
It happens in the outside world too, but it's epidemic online. And these abandoned carts represent billions in lost revenue. That’s why every Shopify and Shopify+ brand should have a strong abandoned cart plan as part of their overall retention marketing strategy.
This article will look at some of the top reasons that shoppers abandon their carts, and what you can do to not only minimize abandonment but also to get some of those shoppers back in to make the purchase.
Why, oh why, do they do it?
Shoppers don't feel a sense of urgency to complete their purchase when they're just browsing an online store. They can always come back later and buy the item, so there's no need to act now.Second-guessing the purchase
Will this item really be worth it? Is it the best quality? Do I really need it? shoppers may have doubts about an item before finalizing their purchase.
Online shoppers can get easily distracted by other tabs, notifications, or emails. Once they click away from your website, they may not come back.
If the checkout process is too complicated or takes too long, shoppers get frustrated. This one happens plenty in the physical world as well.
Obviously, it’s hard to control for some of the reasons above. You can’t keep a shopper from getting distracted by an email or call, can you? So you focus on what you can control. Oh and don’t worry, we’ll show get to how you win back those distracted shoppers later.
Let's focus on #4 above - a complicated checkout process. What are some of the main reasons consumers find checkout processes too complicated?
Online shoppers want to be able to check out quickly and easily. If there are too many steps involved in the process, they will likely abandon their cart.
How can e-commerce brands avoid having too many steps in their checkout process?
Some websites require users to create an account before they can checkout. Many shoppers simply do not want to create an account in order to complete their purchase. If this is a requirement, they will likely leave your site and find a similar product elsewhere.
What is your solution to this? Allow guest checkout. You can still capture vital information like name, address, phone and email, which every shopper expects to have to give to make a purchase. Once you have this identifying information, you can continue to market to them and convert them to account holders down the road.
Nothing is more frustrating to an online shopper than finding out there are hidden fees at the end of the checkout process. These unexpected costs can cause shoppers to abandon their purchase altogether. This can include things like shipping or VAT that were hidden from the customer until deeper into the checkout process.
You can solve this by being transparent early in the cart process as to what fees will be included, or simply add them to the total cart cost as the customer is shopping.
If the layout of the checkout page is confusing or difficult to navigate, shoppers may become frustrated and abandon. Keep it simple - customers should be able to easily go back a step and make changes without losing the inputs they have already made. Don’t make them enter info twice. The road to purchasing should be clearly marked and easy to get to.
If the shopper is having trouble inputting payment options, they will likely prefer to buy from a competitor that has ApplePay, Paypal, or other widely-used and easily automated services. Some people simply find that getting their credit card out of their wallet is more daunting than just finding the product on another site with easier checkout options.
This one is a no-brainer, but you should be employing every mainstream payment option out there.
But even if you work against all of the above, shoppers will still abandon carts… it’s just a fact of eCommerce life. What’s a brand to do about it?
Capture abandoned cart user identity, and bring them back with email and SMS marketing.
Email marketing to cart abandoners will help get them past some of the other stumbling blocks mentioned in the intro, like a lack of sense of urgency, or second-guessing the purchase. It can also help recapture shoppers who simply got distracted before they checked out.
You can send a series of email reminders, each with a different offer or incentive, to encourage them to come back and complete their purchase.
This is just the tip of the iceberg though…
Fortunately, we have a trove of resources to help you out at every turn. Check out these articles for deep dives on the following topics:
You should find everything you need in those links to build a robust marketing program around abandonment flows.
There’s still one question in your head, though… how do I even identify who these abandoners are if they haven’t signed up or purchased something from me in the past?
Retention.com specializes in retention marketing and e-commerce solutions, including cart abandonment and re-engaging potentially lost customers. We provide one-click integrations with leading marketing automation platforms.
Our dashboard features a user-friendly interface to easily connect to any email marketing application in under a minute. Retention’s integrations automatically update and suppress contacts daily.
We can help you reclaim up to ten times more abandonment revenue by leveraging industry-leading Identity Resolution technology. When an unidentified customer abandons a cart, we identify them. Then a personalized flow automatically triggers in the messaging platform.
Scale up your abandonment flows and improve your retention marketing strategy. Get in touch with Retention.com today to find out how we can help.
Email marketing can be a powerful tool in getting shoppers to come back and complete their purchases. By using email subject lines, images, videos, and countdown timers, you can create a sense of urgency that will encourage abandoned cart email conversion. And by offering discounts, coupons, and free shipping, you can provide shoppers with incentives to come back and buy. So if you're looking to recapture lost sales, email marketing is a great place to start.
It never feels good when someone visits your site and then leaves before making a purchase, especially when they’ve been viewing some of your products. Stings a little, doesn't it? They obviously have some level of interest in your products, especially if they have visited and viewed items multiple times.
These potential customers are like digital window shoppers since they never added an item to their cart. Luckily, there’s an automated marketing campaign you can use to lure them back to your site — and we’ve got plenty of browse abandonment examples to give you ideas on how to create yours, don't worry.
While cart abandonment normally gets marketers' attention, there’s a lot you can (and should) do to win back shoppers who have looked at your products. Even though they haven’t added anything to their cart, there’s obviously some interest if they are looking at the items.
Sure, there’s going to be a lower conversion rate for browse abandonment visitors compared to cart abandonment visitors, considering they are a step behind those users. However, the pool of browse abandonment is much larger because more people view your products, compared to the smaller number who actually add items to their cart. And you don’t want to miss out on any of them.
With the right tools, you can track which pages they viewed so you can send them automated emails specifically tailored to the types of product categories they are most interested in.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Ready to round out your retention marketing strategy and start bringing back your lost potential customers? Then let’s jump right in!
Simply put, browse abandonment is when:
That’s why, so often, this practice is referred to as window shopping. However, don’t confuse browse abandonment with cart abandonment, since those are two different stages.
Whereas cart abandonment is as close as someone can get to making a purchase without actually doing so, browse abandonment is a step behind that. However, it’s just as important to engage these site visitors because they have some level of interest in what you’re offering.
This type of marketing campaign checks off several email best practices: It provides targeted content at just the right time to an audience that has shown interest in your products or services (when done correctly, that is).
You aren’t sending out a bulk email about your products, hoping one of your subscribers is interested in something in the campaign. No, you’re sending a personalized message based on an action they made at just the right moment (preferably within 30 minutes to an hour of when they visited your site). Those are the ingredients for an engaging campaign that can bring you serious ROI. Do we have your attention now?
These emails help keep your visitors involved with the product and tempt them to go back to your site to see more (or revisit what they already looked at).
We’ve shared these statistics before, but just consider this:
The numbers don’t lie. So, if you aren’t already implementing browse abandonment emails into your email marketing strategy, now is the time to start.
There are a few ways to structure your browse abandonment emails, so we suggest testing them out to see which ones bring you the best results:
Or if you want to really go for it, combine a variety of these methods into one email campaign.
Helping you get that message across are these different email marketing components and browse abandonment examples.
Before they open your email for the main messaging, you first need to catch their attention with the subject line. Here are a few browse abandonment subject line examples to use:
You can personalize the subject line to stand out even more, like including their name and/or the product:
Once they are inside your email, everything (from the content to the CTA) needs to be about getting them back to your site to check out your products. So, make sure your browse abandonment emails:
Since they didn’t add the item to their cart, they might not have been sold on the items they were looking at. Showing them other options — especially ones you know other customers like — helps them see what else is available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_tPhVVRNkU&feature=emb_title
Browse abandonment emails aren’t too different from the ones you’d send when someone abandons their cart. Instead of letting the shopper know they left something in their cart, you can say things like “we saw you looking,” “we noticed you browsing our site,” or “we thought you’d enjoy this.” That lets them know why you’re emailing them and also that this message is targeted specifically for them.
Just like you would suppress your email lists in Retention.com to keep from paying for contacts you already have, you’ll also want to use suppression with your browse abandonment campaigns. For example, if someone views 20 different product categories, you don’t want to hit them with 20 different email campaigns at once. No one cares that much about your products.
Use your autoresponder campaign and suppression to:
For example, if they’ve opened a browse abandonment campaign in the past 60 days, don’t send them another one. Or, if they’ve made a purchase in the past month, you can suppress their email address, too.
Your campaigns are trying to reach people who looked and left, not ones who have already engaged or converted recently. And you can use suppression to keep from sending those people too many messages.
Need a little inspiration for your next campaign but not sure where to start? We’ve put together 11 browse abandonment examples to get those creative marketing juices flowing. See how different brands handle their browse abandonment emails, from their subject lines down to their content and images.
Simple and straight to the point is a great tactic for browse abandonment emails, which is exactly what American Giant did with this email campaign. It features the product they viewed with a brief paragraph of text.
We like how they say, “You haven’t checked out yet,” even though the item was never in their cart. It’s also clear why the person is receiving this email, another plus.
Do you know what the No. 1 hurdle is for shoppers and what keeps them from making a purchase? Shipping costs. That’s why this browse abandonment example from Public Rec perfectly addresses a pain point that just might get the shopper back to their site. After reminding them to take another look, their email says, “Enjoy free shipping and free returns on all orders.”
That’s followed by an image, price, and CTA for the product they viewed. If the reason they left before making a purchase had to do with shipping costs, you’ve just won them back over.
In the bottom part of this email, MCM used the technique of showing similar products within the same category as the item the visitors viewed. They titled this section, “You may also enjoy,” followed by three products with links to view each item.
Three is a popular choice for how many products to show. It’s enough to give them some variety, but it doesn’t overwhelm them with options.
We like how they include photos of different products with individual links. However, we’d like to see prices for the different items included. The more information, the better.
If your site requires users to search for specifics — like with travel sites — do them a favor and save their searches, like London North Eastern Railways. And then send them a browse abandonment email letting them know you saved them.
Just like shipping costs can be a major roadblock for e-commerce sites, having to look up (and remember) dates, routes, and other information can keep people from going back to your site to complete their purchase. Anytime you can make the buying process easier, do it.
What better way to get a shopper to open your email than by using a subject line that tells them of a specific payoff they’ll receive? That’s exactly what UNIQLO does in this campaign. Not only does this email example remind them of an item they viewed, but it also gives the shopper an added incentive to go back because now that item is available at a lower price. Everyone loves a discount!
This email from 23andMe gets right to the point from the minute they see the subject line (because isn’t that the point?). They put the product name in the email subject line so the shopper knows exactly what the email is about and what they browsed.
In the email body, the company explains why the person needs the kit and gives them a simple CTA to click to go back to the product.
We’re getting some serious FOMO vibes from this ASICS subject line. Once viewers open the email, they’re shown the main product they viewed, along with other popular options they might be interested in. It’s a classic approach that works, which is why so many brands use it.
You’ll notice that in addition to showing other shoes, the brand also includes a pair of shorts. Those might not be in the same category as shoes, but they go together and could be a great up-sell item. So, see which products and categories pair well together to determine if there are ways to incorporate this tactic in your emails.
We like the use of the text on the images in this Worx email, along with the header, “Take another look.” It’s simple, eye-catching, and gets the job done.
In addition to the product the shopper viewed, the email also includes “we think you’ll like these” products, too. As you can probably tell, showing related products is a popular technique with browse abandonment emails.
Also popular for re-engagement campaigns, this subject line works for browse abandonment examples, as well. PacSun’s email goes with a simple email header — “Still interested?” — followed by showing the product image, description, original price, the markdown price, and a CTA to “Buy now.”
The email also includes a menu bar if the subscriber wants to check out any of their other products or categories.
Who said email marketing had to be boring? (Not us, that’s for sure!) Bonobos gives their shoppers something to smile at to get them back to their website. I mean, who doesn’t love seeing someone in a chicken costume?
Getting distracted is a major cause of both cart and browse abandonment, so use that in your campaign. The reader might think, “Oh yea, I did forget about that product. I’ll go check it out now.”
You aren’t confined to only including product photos in these emails, so get creative!
Create some urgency with your campaign, like in this browse abandonment example from Dot & Bo. This email has it all. From telling them the item is still available and showing the markdown to giving them other recommended products, it’s a shopper’s dream come true. OK, that might be taking it a bit far, but this example does give the consumer plenty of reasons to head back to their site — and that’s what you’re after.
Below all of that marketing goodness, the email also includes the brand’s most recent sale collections. Sure, that category might not be related to the one they originally viewed. However, it’s timely and shows them how they can find discounted items. We haven’t seen this type of approach in many browse abandonment emails, but we love it.
Before you create and send automated emails to these delinquents — uh, I mean browse abandonment visitors — you need to first know who they are and what products or categories they’ve viewed. That’s where Retention.com can help.
We identify up to 35 percent of your anonymous traffic, so you’re able to collect email addresses for people who aren’t on your lists. Using our integrations with dozens of ESPs, those emails will trigger your automated browse abandonment email campaign. Pretty sweet email-based retargeting, eh?
Once you create your email campaigns, automation journey, and how you’re going to collect their email addresses and pages viewed, you’re off to the races to bring back those browse abandonment visitors. See how you can incorporate the ideas from these browse abandonment examples into your next campaign!
Ready to learn more?
