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Many shoppers who visit your eCommerce website don’t complete a purchase or even add an item to their cart — and they probably aren’t signing up for your email newsletter. So what email marketing strategy options do you have for reaching these users and enticing them to buy something?
Enter the browse abandonment email.
Here’s how well-timed browse abandonment emails can help you reach formerly anonymous shoppers and increase your eCommerce revenue.
Browse abandonment emails are not the same as cart abandonment emails, but they serve a similar purpose of reminding users to return to your site and make a purchase.
As mentioned above, some shoppers will visit your site and exit before adding anything to their shopping cart. Those are missed opportunities for sales — unless you collect shoppers’ email addresses and send them a reminder to continue shopping.
But do browse abandonment emails actually work? Yes! When you send this type of email, it’s going to people who have already demonstrated their interest and intent to purchase by shopping on your site. According to data from Klayvio, browse abandonment emails have a conversion rate 9.6x higher than the average email campaign.
The ultimate goal of a browse abandonment email campaign is to increase sales by encouraging customers to come back to your website and make a purchase. Other goals include:
Browse abandonment emails can be very effective, but you must be thoughtful and strategic about crafting your campaign messaging. Here are a few best practices to follow:
As you set up your first browse abandonment campaigns, remember these tips for more effective email marketing:
With some experimentation and adjustment, you can craft a winning browse abandonment email marketing strategy that engages customers and drives revenue. If you’re looking for a partner to help you identify and target the right customers, look no further. Retention.com has a proven track record of helping eCommerce brands boost their revenue. Request a demo today!
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.
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.
We all recognize the value of cart-abandonment emails. But what about those shoppers who don’t actually drop something in the cart? They’re probably just as interested, and may only need another touch or two to activate and become a customer. This is where browse abandonment best practices can help.
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.
In this article we will discuss some browse abandonment email best practices. If you need a more thorough primer, check out our Ultimate Guide to Browse Abandonment. And don’t forget to check out our best browse abandonment email templates and be inspired to set up your own flows!
So, you already know the why and the when of sending browse abandonment emails as part of your complete remarketing strategy, but just want to tighten up your email game? Let’s get going!
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, like this email from Public Rec. 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. The above email from Adidas nails it. 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.
So that’s it - make sure you consider the above best practices when designing your bowse abandonment email remarketing campaign, and you’ll see that engagement rate (and ROI) go through the roof!
Looking for some great examples of browse abandonment email templates? Still confused about the how, why, and when? Check out our Ultimate Gude to Browse Abandonment.
Oh, and wondering how you even get access to these browse abandoners?
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?
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.
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?
When an online shopper leaves one of your company’s products in their cart, you send them an email letting them know. (At least you should be doing that!) But, what if they — like most potential customers — never actually make it to the cart? Simple. You turn to a browse abandonment strategy.
And we’ll help walk you through all of the steps involved with converting these lost shoppers into customers. Here’s what you’ll learn about browse abandonment in our extensive guide:
In case you’re new to this term or need a bit of a refresher, here’s a definition of browse abandonment:
We guess you could think about it like online window shopping.
They enjoy looking at your products but, for whatever reason, never added the item to their cart to make a purchase.
Unlike with cart abandonment, this practice doesn’t involve the shopper putting anything in their cart. So, it’s like a step before cart abandonment, you might say. But, that doesn’t mean it’s any less important to re-engage these shoppers. Actually, it’s just the opposite.
Once a person commits the crime of browse abandonment, what should you do? (OK, it’s not a crime, but it sure does sting, doesn’t it?) The answer is simple: Send them an email.
We’ll go into more detail about what the email should look like, but it’s just an automated, targeted message to shoppers who viewed certain products on your website. The email serves as a reminder to the shopper that they expressed interest in an item.
And if you’re already saying that you don’t have time for something like that, might we remind you that it’s automated. So, you set it up and let the email boost your ROI. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
We’re sure you’re already putting a lot of effort into recovering users who abandoned their cart, right? However, not as many resources focus on the browse abandonment users. And we are here to tell you that’s a mistake.
Consider these statistics:
Each view, visit, click, and search done on your site is a shopper expressing some level of interest in your products. You just have to figure out how interested they are in making a purchase and what you can do to encourage that conversion.
A data-driven approach that leverages browser behavior data — including browse abandonment — could be the key to unlocking higher conversions and ROI. Browse abandonment emails are key to your conversion rate optimization strategy and have been shown to convert six times more than other marketing channels.
You can use email-based retargeting platforms like Retention.com to collect the email addresses for browse abandonment visitors.
While converting traffic is a great goal, it’s also important to effectively re-engage your website visitors. By using browse abandonment emails you can push them back to the spot they left off, no matter where they are in the buyer’s journey. Even if they don’t end up making a purchase right then, you’re laying the groundwork to nurture that relationship.
So, the question isn’t if you should incorporate this marketing practice but how you can start using it now.
Before you can start putting your browse abandonment email campaign to work, you’ll need to build a browse abandonment series. You can create that series via your email service provider (ESP).
Here are components you’ll need to figure out when creating your browse abandonment email strategy.
You need to know who you want to send the emails to. For example, do you want to target everyone who abandons a browser, or do you only want to reach a specific audience within your list?
The performance of browse abandonment emails can be improved by segmenting and changing the message and tone for different customer groups, tailoring content by on-site behavior. You can also highlight selling points like next-day or free delivery.
When you send the emails and how many you send can have a big impact on the campaign’s results. For example, someone casually viewing a pair of shoes on your site doesn’t want to be bombarded with emails encouraging them to buy them. So, the frequency and volume of the emails needs to match the shopper’s level of interest.
Here are things to consider when trying to gauge their intent:
Overall, a good starting point is to send one or two emails. You’ll be able to get the product back in front of them without overwhelming them.
As for how quickly you want to send these emails, time is of the essence. Remember, they only browsed the product (it’s not in their cart), so send the email within a few hours (day at the latest) of them leaving your page.
After you know who you want to reach with the email, when you’re going to send, and how many emails you want to send to each shopper, it’s time to start laying out the different components of the email. Here are some best practices for creating engaging browse abandonment emails.
The first thing the recipient will see is the email’s subject line, 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:
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.
This browse abandonment email from American Giant uses the subject line, “Did you see something you liked?” Then the body text says, “Hi there, we noticed that you were browsing our site but that you haven’t checked out yet.”
They then encourage them to reach out to Customer Service if they have any questions. That’s helpful because the visitor might have left the site because of an issue.
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.
Take this Target browse abandonment email for example:
The only text in the email is, “It’s an *add-to-cart* kind of day.” That’s followed by a clear CTA: “Shop now.” It doesn’t get any more basic than that, and it works! Below the CTA, Target shows the photo, description, and price for the item(s) that they browsed, followed by the “Check it out” CTA.
If you want to take your email a step further, you can include a “Recommended for you” section with related products. Since they were only browsing and didn’t actually add it to their cart, they might want to see other options. That’s exactly what Target does at the bottom of the email:
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 also find more ideas about what to send your contacts in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_tPhVVRNkU&feature=emb_title
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:
Want more inspiration? Check out these browse abandonment emails from a variety of brands.
This email approach is popular with several brands, including Columbia. They send browsers a message letting them know the price has gone down on something they viewed, along with other items they might like.
We like their CTA, “Reveal New Price,” because it gives the recipient even more reason to click it. If for nothing else, they are probably just curious to see how much it costs now. While they don’t include the price for the main item (because of the mystery CTA approach), they do include the price for the recommended products.
Anytime you can tailor the content to your brand, do it! LEGO does a great job of staying true to the brand’s voice and products with the text, “Like what you saw? Make it yours in a snap!” They go with a simple CTA, “Shop Now,” followed by the product description below.
But, instead of simply displaying the product they browsed, they include the text, “Go ahead, take another look,” above it. Again, that helps set their messaging apart from the dozens of others consumers receive on a daily basis. LEGO ends the email using their products to represent support, deliveries, and parts, so you have to love that.
This browse abandonment email from Adidas is a little bit longer than your average one, but it works for what they’re trying to do. “Is your wi-fi okay?” is a fun and easy way to see why they left your site before making a purchase.
Something else we like about this email is how they share reviews for the product they viewed. Consumers love to see what other people have to say about a product, so this brings that information straight to their inbox. They even included a review that wasn’t four stars, which gives the brand credibility.
This email from Framebridge comes off more like a deal message, which is especially effective for when someone has been looking at several products within a category. They start out the email with “We see you have great taste,” which shows this email is targeted to the recipient, without being too straightforward about what they browsed.
They follow that up with “Top Products Hand Selected for You,” with photos and the CTA, “Start framing now,” for the different options.
Still have some questions about using browse abandonment? Check out these FAQs.
Q. When should you send a browse abandonment email?
A. The best time to send one is within an hour or two after a visitor browses your ecommerce site and leaves without placing an item in their cart. The sooner you send the email, the more likely they are to remember viewing the product. And by waiting an hour or two, you give them time to go back to the site if they planned to.
Q. Are there ways to prevent browse abandonment?
A. While email retargeting helps after a visitor has already browsed and left your site, pop-ups and other forms of communication on your website can help reduce the chance of them leaving without making a purchase. On-site messages can tell the visitor the product they are looking at has a limited availability, offer them a discount, or see if they want to speak to customer service.
These kinds of messages can be incredibly effective in moving customers further down the purchasing funnel, which ultimately reduces browse abandonment.
Q. Is it OK to send a second browse abandonment email if they don’t engage with the first?
A. Absolutely! Here’s an example of how you can space them out:
Q. Can you use browse abandonment on your Shopify site?
A. Yes. While Shopify doesn’t offer browse abandonment automations directly on their platform, you can use third-party integrations or an ESP that integrates with Shopify.
Q. How does Retention.com help with browse abandonment?
A. At Retention.com, we focus on email-based retargeting. For us, that means using identification technology — usually cookies or cross-device ID — to identify anonymous website visitors. Those visitors are then matched to a partner network database of contact records (with opt-ins), and the end user is sent email addresses of people who aren’t already on their list.
So, we can identify some of your site’s visitors, from browse abandonment and beyond. Check out this video for more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrwXkq_pVao&feature=emb_title
Stop losing potential customers, and start targeting them with browse abandonment campaigns. Considering most site visitors never put anything in their cart — like 95 percent of them — you don’t want to miss out on the chance to reach this large audience.
So, start by creating an automated browse abandonment email series that will help bring some of that lost traffic back to your site!
