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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.
You know when someone tells you you’re amazing and that anyone would be lucky to have you, and then you never hear from them again? That’s kind of what cart abandonment feels like. To take away some of that sting, you can send them emails to hopefully bring them back. And to do that, you’ll need the help of some engaging abandoned cart templates.
Before we get to those, let’s cover some of the basics when it comes to these email campaigns — like why they are so important to your retention marketing strategy.
With cart abandonment rates as high as 80 percent for some companies, that’s a lot of revenue you are missing out on if you aren’t doing something to bring them back. That’s why it’s imperative you set up an automated cart abandonment email series to send those wayward shoppers back to their carts to convert.
But don’t just take our word for it. Check out some of these encouraging abandonment rate statistics that will help you forget that 80-percent one we threw at you already:
Those stats show you that when you reach out to customers with a targeted message after they take action, you can get results. You’re able to recognize when a customer is interested in a product (they did just add it to their cart, didn’t they?), and you can then reach out to them and send them to their cart.
Ready to start experiencing some of those numbers for your brand? We’ll walk you through ways to do that in this guide, covering topics including:
We’ll share tips, techniques, abandoned cart templates, and more that will help you improve the effectiveness of your abandoned cart emails.
The shopper has browsed your site, added one or more items to their cart, and left for some unknown reason, never completing their purchase. For example, we’ve added this item to our cart on Amazon. But instead of clicking the button to checkout and providing our billing and shipping details, we left the website altogether.
The idea of “cart abandonment” is the equivalent of someone walking into a brick-and-mortar store, putting items in their cart, and then leaving before heading to the checkout counter.
It’s pretty straightforward, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. Luckily, there are things you can do to bring them back, and one of the best methods is via email.
This type of email marketing campaign helps you recapture lost sales by engaging shoppers who abandoned their carts. Basically, the email reminds them to complete their transaction — of course in a nice, fun way.
If you’ve ever added a product to your cart and then ditched it, you’ve seen exactly what we’re talking about. They have subject lines like, “Did you forget something?” or “Your cart misses you.”
Inside the email, you’ll most likely find some engaging copy that encourages them to head back to their cart, along with a photo and description of the product(s), and at least one CTA. Some brands also include information on their shipping, returns, and other selling points at the bottom of the email.
Abandoned cart emails are examples of automated campaigns. Here’s how they work:
So once the shopper adds an item to their cart and leaves your site, the platform will register this action (or lack of action, really) as an abandoned cart.
E-commerce sites like Shopify and BigCommerce will automatically track the shoppers’ actions and metrics, making your job that much easier. (And Retention.com has integrations with both of those platforms that allow you to track your revenue from contacts we provide.)
Some of these e-commerce platforms have basic abandoned cart emails, but you can also integrate with your email service provider (ESP) to create and house them there. That will give you more options when it comes to abandoned cart templates. You will simply need to integrate your e-commerce shop with your email marketing tool to create fully customizable, multi-step email campaigns that send multiple emails at certain times based on when they abandoned the cart.
Whether you use the basic abandoned cart templates available in the e-commerce platforms or in your ESP, these will automatically be sent out to potential customers who have abandoned their carts.
While you will be more limited when it comes to abandoned cart templates on sites like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, you can use these platforms to send your abandoned cart emails. So, we’ll walk you through how you can create emails on these platforms.
You’ll find some basic functionality on Shopify when it comes to creating and managing your abandoned cart emails by going to Settings > Checkout (under Abandoned Checkouts). However, if you want to be able to control the abandoned cart templates and content, you’ll have to install an app like Consistent Cart App, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Jilt, or Privy.
Since WooCommerce doesn’t have built-in functionality for cart abandonment emails, you could use either the platform’s official extension, Follow-Ups, or a free plugin like Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce.
If you go with the plugin option, you’ll see a new section in your WooCommerce dashboard: Abandoned Carts. That section will be where you can check recovered carts, edit your email content, change the sending settings, and other features.
Of these three e-commerce platforms, BigCommerce is the only one that gives you full control over your abandoned cart emails. You’re able to control the email design — like what products, text, and images they include — as well as how many emails and when you send them. You’ll find the settings in Marketing > Abandoned Cart Notifications.
If you want to go beyond basic abandoned cart templates and settings, it’s time to turn to a third-party ESP. That will give you full control over the look, text, and automation functions.
You can integrate your ESP with your e-commerce platform making it a seamless transition: They leave something in their cart, and the ESP triggers an automated email campaign series that will (hopefully) bring them back to their cart. There are dozens of ESPs to choose from, so find one that best fits your needs.
Now that you have a way to send shoppers an abandoned email, you need to know what tactics that email should include to increase your chances of bringing them back. Here are six ways to boost your recovery rate.
Now, let’s dive into each of these techniques a bit more to see how you can implement them into your cart abandonment email strategy.
In this day and age, it’s harder to earn online consumers’ trust because they’ve become accustomed to scams and unprofessional business practices on the Internet. If they’ve never done business with your brand before, you have to work even harder to earn their trust if you expect them to return to their cart and make a purchase. They aren’t going to turn over their credit card information to just anyone.
You can do that by showing them customer reviews and ratings for the product(s) they left in their cart. Make sure your site and emails look professional and include the basics: physical address, reply to email address, logo, and any payment verification information (showing it’s safe for them to use their credit card on your site).
Everyone loves a good discount. That’s why you see so many abandoned cart emails that offer shoppers a deal if they come back to their cart. For example, “We have great news! That [PRODUCT] you liked is now 20 percent off!”
But as consumers become accustomed to this tactic, it can lose its effect. So, instead of offering them a deal, try a different approach by giving them rewards in your loyalty program. Again, this is something you can try out to see if it works better than your regular discount message.
You could give them enough rewards points to move up to the first/next tier in your loyalty program — which then gives them a discount. Maybe 100 points is enough for a 10-percent discount. Or, 200 points will give them a $10 discount. They are still getting a deal out of returning to their cart and making a purchase, but you go about it in a different way — and they are able to move up in your program in the process.
It can be tempting to include both the item they left in their cart and also other recommended products in an attempt to up-sell the shopper or catch their attention. While it’s a good practice to try different approaches with your cart abandonment emails, try only focusing on one product when they add multiple, similar items to their cart.
For example, if a shopper has five different computers in their cart, you can bet they don’t plan on purchasing all five of them — or at minimum, they don’t have equal purchasing intent for all of them. So, your abandoned cart template could include one of the items as the main image, along with the product description.
Sending one email letting them know they forgot something in their cart is most likely not going to be enough. Just like you would send someone multiple welcome emails, you need to create an automated series to engage shoppers who have left items behind.
Don’t wait too long before sending the first email in the series. The moment an online shopper leaves their cart, your opportunity to engage this potential customer is narrowing. To make the most of this opportunity, make it a priority to reach out to shoppers within the first hour of cart abandonment. Make this part of a three- or four-email sequence to engage with the shopper.
For example, the first email can go out an hour after they abandon their cart. Then, the next one can follow up one or two days later if they don’t complete their purchase, using a different approach with the email’s content and approach.
If both of those email attempts don’t work, you can try a third (or fourth) campaign that focuses more on the product’s category or general new products. They might not have been that interested in what they added to their cart, so taking a more general approach might be a better way to engage them. The third or fourth email attempt is more of a last-ditch attempt to re-engage with a shopper who has been unresponsive to the first ones in the series.
Sending more than three or four runs the risk of annoying the recipient and getting placed in their spam folder. And we all know that’s the last place you want your messages to go.
There’s nothing like a reminder that a certain deal is about to expire or that the product in their cart is about to sell out to push them to take action. Use that fear of missing out and urgency as a marketing tactic.
Subject lines are a great place to include this method:
You can also let them know they only have a certain number of days until the items will be removed from their cart. And who really wants to have to go and add them back, right? Find a way to motivate them to head back, sooner rather than later.
There are a dozen reasons why they may have left their cart behind. Maybe they changed their mind or found something else they liked better. There’s not much you can do about those two things, but there are other potential roadblocks you can remove and/or address to get them back:
The more potential issues you can eliminate and be proactive about, the better your chances are that they will come back.
One of the best ways to get ideas for your brand’s abandoned cart emails is to see what other brands are doing and what templates are available in different ESPs. So, we’ve put together a list of templates and real email examples to get your creative juices flowing. You can find others in your ESP’s template library, depending on which platform you use.
We’ll also show you what we like about the actual examples and what they could have done better.
Robly has several pre-designed abandoned cart templates, in addition to other template options you can design to be for abandoned cart emails. Here’s the first of three template examples we’ll show you:
And being a template, you can edit the text, colors, images, links, and everything else to best brand your email.
Obviously, you’ll need to change out the photos, product descriptions, branding, etc. with your own materials. But what we like about this template is that it gives you usable text — like “Don’t Forget Me” and “Hey [FNAME], looks like you left some great items in your cart! Don’t worry, we’ve saved them for you below.” The CTAs even fit the content, so you can use what’s already there.
Subject line: Go ahead, take another look
This email from Topo Designs doesn’t scream “abandoned cart,” but that helps make it different and less forceful. (Though the subject line does allude to it.) When you first look at it, the email seems to be about offering customers a deal on items the brand thinks they will enjoy. But when you scroll down, you see that there’s an item that was left in the cart.
The approach in this abandoned cart template would be especially effective if it was used in the second or third email in the series.
What else we like:
What could have been better:
Another Robly option, this abandoned cart template shows how the email design can be as targeted and personalized as the text. The header image is a pair of headphones, the same thing they added to their cart.
Sure, you might not be able to have an image like that to match each product, but you could probably create one for your main categories — like a shirt for the clothing department, a computer for electronics, or flowers for the gardening/outdoors category. Anything you can do to personalize the email, the better.
This template also comes with filler text that you could use as is (after changing out the products and images, of course): “We noticed you found these [PRODUCTS] but haven’t checked out yet — here’s some more details to help you decide!”
The template then includes the product photo, price, a product review, and star rating. And of course, there’s a CTA to take them back to their cart.
Subject line: Nomad Gear is Selling Out Quick
Selling accessories for electronics, Nomad really nails its brand with this abandoned cart email example: “Did your Wi-Fi crash? Fret not — we saved that shiny Nomad product you were just ogling.” The Internet and electronic accessories go hand in hand, and it’s also a lot more fun to read than, “You left something in your cart.”
What we like about this email example:
What they could have done better:
The last of the Robly abandoned cart templates goes straight for a personalized approach with the header having their name front and center: “[FNAME], you left something behind!”
The design then gives you a spot to put the product photo, name, quantity, and price. While it’s not the main focus of the email, there’s also a place to give them a discount code at the bottom.
Subject line: You forgot something
Seeing this abandoned cart email from Public Rec makes us happy that a brand is addressing some of the consumer's top concerns right away. Right after their header text, “Take another look,” they go straight into, “Enjoy free shipping and free returns on all orders.” If a shopper failed to purchase the items in their cart because they were concerned about either of those things, now they know those won’t be an issue and can complete their purchase.
Here are more things we like about this email:
What they could have done better:
Mailchimp also has abandoned cart email templates, which include a default logo placeholder and Cart content block. That block inserts the abandoned item(s) into the follow-up emails. You can also use one of their other email templates. Just be sure to drag a Cart content block into the email layout.
They offer three pre-designed abandoned cart templates:
Here’s an up-close look at one of them:
You can also customize the email information:
Subject line: Your basket is having abandonment issues… 🙁
We were hooked on this email from Jack Wills as soon as we saw the subject line. You don’t want to be the reason your shopping cart has emotional issues as they grow up, right?
They carry over that tone into the email with text like, “Don’t worry, we’ve got you,” and “We know life can be hectic.” So, they prove the subject line isn’t just a gimmick to get the shopper into the email: They stay true to that approach throughout the messaging.
What else we like about this email:
What they could have done better:
Abandoned cart emails allow you to provide a targeted, personalized campaign to already engaged online shoppers. Anytime you can do all of those things, you have a winning recipe for ROI.
One question many people ask, though, is if these emails are too good to be true. In other words, are they compliant? To answer that question, we’ll ask you one:
The CAN-SPAM Act for the United States doesn’t require that a subscriber opt-in to your list, just that they can opt-out to any email you send. That’s why Retention.com can collect anonymous traffic off of your website and send you their contact information so that you can target them with emails. Just remember: This approach only works in the United States and isn’t GDPR compliant, which does require you to have explicit consent to email EU consumers.
To take that a step further, Retention.com is also Spamhaus compliant because, in part, we provide verifiable consent (the source record and opt-in date) of every email we pass along to our users. Those source websites’ privacy policies state that by opting in, the subscriber is agreeing that their information will be shared with a partner network for marketing purposes.
Now that you have a firm grasp on what does and doesn’t work with abandoned cart emails, it’s time to start creating some of your own and adding them to your automation series. Add your brand’s personal touch to the templates so your subscribers know exactly who it’s from, and test different versions until you find the winning combination. And if you want to start collecting engaged, anonymous traffic you don’t already have off of your site, we can help!
Not all emails are created equal. That’s why different companies have such a range of open and click-through rates. Abandoned cart emails are no different. To ensure yours is going to bring you the best results and get that contact back to their cart, incorporate these best practices into your abandoned cart email strategy. Which of course should be part of your overall retention marketing strategy.
With that, let's get started!
This is the first thing users will see when you send them an abandoned cart email, so don't disappoint. Nearly half of all email recipients say they open an email based on the subject line. So, what should you say to get the open?
The best approach is to keep your subject line simple and to the point. Let them know exactly why they are receiving this message. Consumers receive hundreds of emails a day, so cut to the chase.
Not sure what to include in your subject line? Try some of these components:
Here are more than 10 examples of subject lines that work:
Adding personalized information, like the shopper’s name or the item they left in their cart, will better catch their attention and clearly state this email is just for them.
Alerting potential customers they might lose the items they’ve placed in their carts is a great way to tap into the scarcity effect as a marketing tactic, as long as you’re being honest.
You can do that by incorporating one of these tactics into your email:
This email from Google is a great example of creating urgency:
From the headline, “Going, going, (almost) gone,” to the content saying their popular items sell out fast, this cart abandonment email is all about creating a sense of urgency. The email is short and to the point, which is a definite must for this type of message.
They also include the company’s contact information, which consumers could use if they had any questions or issues. That’s great to include in case the original reason they didn’t make the purchase was because of an issue or question.
If your subject line does the trick, your potential customer will have made their way into the email body. Yay! Now that they are there, you’ll want to make sure your content makes these three points:
Everything you should include in your email is a means to that end. Basic elements to include in the email that will help you reach that goal include:
Your brand’s personality needs to shine through with every piece of marketing content, including your cart abandonment emails. That allows you to recover sales by being distinctive in a cluttered inbox.
This is a great example from Columbia:
The reason for your abandoned cart email is to get that shopper back to their cart to complete the purchase. One major part of doing that is showing them exactly what they’ve left behind.
Using a large product image can turn a good abandoned cart email into a great one. Your abandoned cart email should be designed to reignite your customer’s excitement. There’s a reason the shopper added the item to the cart in the first place, so remind them of that.
People might not remember what products had them clicking the “add to cart” button in the first place. If they open your email and are still confused, they’re probably going to delete the email, and you’ve lost a potential sale. So, make the product image the main event.
Maybe they didn’t complete the purchase because the product wasn’t the best one for them. To combat that issue, you can (sometimes) include an alternative product to the one in their cart. We say “sometimes” here because you might not want to do that with every abandonment email, since that could take away from the main one they really do want. They did add it to their cart, after all.
You could send them an email with the product in their cart as the main image. Then, include two or three similar product photos (with links) below that, in case one of those better catches their eye.
This approach is similar to what you see on Amazon’s “Customers who viewed this item also viewed” section:
Or, you can try showing them related items to include in their cart that won’t distract from the primary product, such as:
You want to give them items of value, without taking away from the item they obviously like.
There are several reasons why people might leave their cart, as we covered above. So, why not address a few of those possible problems or questions in your email? That will help you cover several bases and get them back to their cart.
Using your customer research and website usability testing (or some of the top reasons we mentioned above), create an email that shows you understand their concerns and will address those issues directly with this abandoned cart email. That’s exactly what Whisky Loot did in this fun email:
The brand stays true to its voice by sharing a lighthearted checklist of things customers can do with their product. The email also answers questions that might be holding up people from making the purchase.
This is a great tactic you can easily incorporate into your message. You can use some of the top questions you hear from people on your:
Besides some of the top concerns — like shipping costs or returns — it can also help to include if you offer financing information for more expensive items. For example, if you provide 0% interest, include that in your abandoned cart email.
Big-ticket items require a significant commitment from an online shopper. These purchases are a big decision. It's your job to convince customers to trust in your brand, and the safety of financing without interest gives customers one less reason to bail out of the purchase. A large, “0% interest” banner is perfect for your price-conscious customers.
(Bonus: For expensive items, incentives like an offer or free gift are great ways of enticing the customer to complete their purchase — especially if that gift is an accessory matching the abandoned item.)
Also, make sure to give them contact information for your company if they have other questions, in case you didn’t cover theirs.
Let them know exactly what you want them to do once they open your email (i.e. purchase the items in their cart). Do that by making the CTA prominent in your design. The components of a good CTA for an abandonment email are:
Here’s an example from Bearsville Soap Company that uses the “Return to your cart” CTA:
The CTA emphasizes how easily they can finish the checkout process they started, without being pushy. We also like the bear emoji in the subject line, which helps the message stand out and reinforce branding.
You can set up a series that goes out all on its own – and wins back revenue that would otherwise have disappeared. Like we mentioned above, you’ll want to send the first email fairly soon after they leave their cart. You should also continue to follow up with them using a series of emails if they don’t complete their purchase after the initial email.
This example sequence is one that many brands, including Target, use following a cart abandonment. It starts on Day 3:
As you can see, an abandoned cart email strategy includes way more than just one message. You want to use the information you have on them, like what they’re interested in, to provide the most targeted emails possible.
Here’s an example of an email series Wayfair sent after we added curtains to our cart:
They sent a total of five abandoned cart emails spanning nearly two months. These are the subject lines they used:
This is the email they ended the campaign with, which was similar to the first one we got:
They not only showcased the product we had originally added to our cart (curtains), but they also included other popular home items.
What do you do before making a purchase? We’d venture to say the vast majority of you look at reviews to see what others have to say about a product first. We all want to see that social proof, so use that to your brand’s advantage by including reviews in your abandoned cart emails.
Go through your reviews, and pull out the best ones for the product or service they’ve looked at. If you don’t have any, reach out to your top customers for one. The subject line could be:
Like with any of your email marketing campaigns, you’ll need to include an Unsubscribe button or link somewhere in the body of your email. Make unsubscribing as easy as possible, so don’t try to hide it or make it super small.
It doesn’t help you or the shopper if they aren’t interested in receiving your emails, and they can always resubscribe later if they choose. If you try to force people into receiving your emails and buying your stuff, you’re destined for complaints, failures, and a struggle to maintain profitability. Let people opt-out before they start to distrust or dislike your brand.
An effective unsubscribe button usually is at the bottom of an email. That’s where readers will look. Try to use a different color, font, or even use italics to make an unsubscribe CTA stand out. You don't need to go overboard with font size. You can keep a smaller size font if you want, but make sure it’s readable.
Abandoned cart emails are about more than getting the shopper to complete their purchase. The email should also be helpful and answer questions so they can complete the purchase when they're ready.
Take this opportunity to create a lasting relationship with your customers and aim to convert your shopper into a loyal brand fan. You want them to become promoters of your business, not just a one-time customer.
While short-term profits from discounting and sales promotion are great, what happens when your promos run out and it’s just a regular day? If you have an effective email cart abandonment strategy in place, you won't have to worry about not having a sale to lure them in.
You’ve seen the stats, best practices, and tons of examples. You have power and knowledge. We’ve given you everything you need to make your abandoned cart emails the best they can be.
Even if you follow these steps to a T, you might not be able to capture every single abandoned cart user. Not every shopper is serious about making a purchase, or maybe they are just comparing products.
Even if you don’t close every sale, you’re creating a solid foundation that will help the visitor learn about your brand, that you care about current/prospective customers, and make it easier for them to find your products if and when they decide to make a purchase.
It takes several interactions with a consumer before they ever convert, and abandoned cart emails are a great way to start engaging with them. So, it’s time to get started, and add them to your marketing strategy!
Getting customers to visit your site and place items in their cart is only half the battle. According to Baymard Institute, cart abandonment rates average around 70% on most e-commerce sites. Re-engaging even a fraction of these customers can drastically increase a business's revenue. Luckily, there are numerous straightforward ways shopping sites can reclaim abandoned cart revenue.
Abandoned cart emails are nothing new; you’ve likely received these emails from Amazon and other e-commerce sites you frequent. However, many abandoned cart emails feel more like advertisements than personalized messages.
Personalized abandoned cart emails drastically improve revenue potential, especially those acknowledging your customers’ shopping habits. For example, triggered emails that recognize first-time shoppers may read differently than those sent to long-time customers. Emails sent to new buyers can offer introductory gifts or how-to guides, whereas those sent to long-time customers may provide benefits for their loyalty.
Reclaiming abandoned cart revenue gets trickier when you realize how many of your customers are unidentified. In some cases, these customers aren’t on your email list. In other cases, they’re on your email list but aren’t logged in.
Sending emails to unidentified customers can be challenging. Luckily, Retention.com’s CartID+ tool can use cookies to reach out to otherwise anonymous customers. CartID+ can even send abandoned cart emails to customers who haven’t opted into your newsletter.
Emails aren’t the only way to get a customer’s attention; text messages can be a more engaging medium for retention marketing. Some sign up for website mailing lists using emails they’ve created to collect spam mail. Although abandoned cart emails aren’t spam, some of your contact attempts won’t be seen if you only use emails to engage cart abandoners.
SMS notifications can’t be flagged as spam and are more likely to be seen than emails. Additionally, some studies suggest mobile customers are more likely to abandon their carts than desktop users. Text messages are an ideal way to communicate with your mobile site users.
Personalizing communication is an exercise in futility if you know nothing about your customers. Apps like Retention.com’s Enrich tool can provide valuable information about the people visiting your site. Learning more about your shoppers’ demographics and interests can enhance your email-campaigning efforts.
Knowing whether a customer has a kid, a pet, or a specific hobby will improve your site’s product recommendations. The Enrich tool, combined with your abandoned cart information, is vital to building a customer profile to enhance your triggered emails.
Sometimes, people abandon their carts because they decide an item’s price is too high. Offering a discount can be an excellent way to reclaim abandoned cart revenue. As a matter of fact, some customers abandon their cart specifically because they think they’ll receive a discount.
Popular sites like LifeHacker teach customers to use cart abandonment as a method for buying products at a lower price. It isn’t uncommon for a customer to place a product in multiple carts across multiple sites and buy it from the one that sends them a coupon. Still, you don’t have to cut into your profits to engage customers.
Sites like Amazon observe products that customers leave in their carts and send them emails when they go on sale. This method lets you re-engage cart abandoners while making the most of your planned discount events.
Many customers abandon carts because they don’t want to waste time creating an account. Customer accounts are ideal for collecting emails, phone numbers, and addresses for future engagement campaigns. Still, customers who can’t buy your products without creating an account may choose to shop elsewhere. Guest checkout pages are a simple way to make it easier for customers to shop on your site.
Some customers abandon their carts because the shipping costs catch them off guard. Some sales methodologies suggest obscuring a product’s price by hiding shipping costs until the customer is ready to check out. However, the modern consumer has grown tired of dishonest sales practices.
Although you may not be able to reduce shipping costs, being upfront about them can reduce your abandoned cart rates.
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach in retention marketing. You shouldn’t spend time on campaigns that you run blindly. Monitoring your engagement campaigns and investing more time and effort into the methods yielding the best results is essential.
If you’re considering an application or service to help you with customer retention, you should ensure it offers in-depth reporting. Retention.com tracks revenue and ROI weekly and monthly, making it easy to access your needed data. Additionally, Retention.com has valuable insights into the domains, landing pages, and times of day that generate the most emails.
Customer retention refers to the number of people who make repeat purchases from a business. Growth hackers will tell you that by increasing customer retention rates, you can often increase your revenue faster.
The thing is, customer retention can be difficult for e-commerce businesses because there are so many alternatives available for consumers. However, a retention marketing plan can help you improve customer retention and increase your bottom line.
Without retention marketing, you're constantly prospecting for potential customers rather than focusing on building a loyal customer base. The truth is you need to do both, but many e-commerce businesses focus on the new consumer.
Here we discuss retention marketing and industry technology and offer five solutions to keep customers coming back.
Retention marketing focuses on engaging returning customers rather than targeting new ones. The goal is to increase customer loyalty by consistently giving them added value and more opportunities to purchase your products.
McKinsey Insights reports in 2022, more US consumers switched brands and retailers, looking for value. What's more, a little over a third of consumers opted to buy from private labels.
While your business needs new and returning customers, retention marketing will increase customers' lifetime value and long-term profitability.
Retention marketing is about communication with your customers and using available technology to leverage data for actionable insights. Technology is a driver in retention marketing.
It leverages strategies to keep customers engaged and loyal to your brand based on relevant data. Real-time reporting tools provide deep insights into:
Additionally, an integrated dashboard enables businesses to connect seamlessly to top email marketing applications, such as SalesForce and Marketo. Using technology to leverage insights and act on them is the foundation of customer retention.
If you want loyal customers, focus on building long-term relationships and delivering value throughout the customer journey.
Loyal customers spend more and will likely refer their friends and family to your brand. Reliable customer support is vital to building brand trust.
Today, customers expect to be able to reach customer support 24/7. Automation makes it possible to be there at all hours, and you can follow up if needed.
Provide customer service with easy access and accurate responses to solve customer issues. Listen and collect customer feedback. Then use it to improve customer experiences.
Nurturing customer relationships by providing ongoing service and support helps build lasting customer relationships that drive revenue.
When your customers give social endorsements, it increases customer retention. Encourage current customers to share their thoughts on your product or service, or implement a refer-a-friend campaign encouraging customers to endorse your brand.
Communities increase customer retention. Share your vision, and talk about topics your customers are interested in that naturally relate to your products or services.
Retention marketing is all about knowing your customers. To that end, you can leverage customer data to understand their preferences and motivations. Customers will come back to make purchases if they're getting value from your brand.
Use the data to build buyer personas that represent the type of person who uses your product or service. Then create campaigns that add value for them.
Loyalty programs reward your customers for buying your products and services. It can be anything from surprise swag to exclusive access that only loyal customers can purchase.
Loyalty programs and discounts show your repeat customers that you appreciate their business. Similarly, referral programs reward your customers when they send friends and family to your business.
E-commerce loyalty programs help brands build community and generate data to gain personalization insights. Consider implementing VIP benefits to increase customer lifetime value.
Social media contests encourage brand loyalty, build trust, and are a low-cost way to engage customers.
Email is an opt-in channel. Once they sign up, you can use customer emails to follow up, offer discounts, and find upsell opportunities.
To that end, it's essential to dedicate more attention to email campaigns to increase customer retention.
Email represents 50% of Latico Leathers' total revenue, and they wanted to dramatically increase their email list, drive a positive ROI, and maintain or increase their sending reputation. The company integrated Resolve with Klaviyo and experienced a 45% open rate from Resolve contacts.
You can customize email marketing campaigns and messaging for your audience. Analytics reveal which emails your customers open and don't open.
The data allows you to refine your email campaigns to suit your customers' preferences. Retention emails help build your email list, and you can segment it according to the most engaged to the least active recipients.
First, use data analytics to measure your cart abandonment rate. If it's high, revisit your email marketing campaigns to determine why they don't resonate with your audience.
Cart abandonment could also be website related. For example, checkout may not be a user-friendly experience. Once you gather insights into why customers abandon their carts, you can set out to re-engage them.
Leverage industry-leading identity technology to increase cart abandonment revenue. For example, GetEmails enables businesses to send abandoned cart emails to users, even if they still need to opt into your newsletter.
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.
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.
