When it comes to ecommerce optimization what is the greatest missed opportunity? Would it be A/B testing? Or performance testing?
What about shopping cart recovery service and shopping cart abandonment software?
A lot of effort goes into optimizing shopping carts, guiding the customers through the conversion process, and even with this it is still common to see rates of abandonment at 50% or higher. The problem that causes shopping cart abandonment is not that the button was not large enough, or colorful enough, or that the web forum is too lengthy. Reasons may vary depending on the person but some of the most common are people mistakenly thought the transaction went through when it didn’t, people leaving and not being able to remember the URL, in certain cases people like to hold items for a later time, and other people just get distracted.
Shopping Cart recovery service and shopping cart abandonment software emails have been found to have a much higher conversion rate and ROI rather than a regular email. This gives you a very good chance to save sales at a very minor cost to you.
Shopping Cart Recovery Service and Shopping Cart Abandonment Software: The Missed Opportunity
According to a study by Econsultantcy and RedEye 54% of companies do not go after abandoned shopping carts, only 26% actually do. If we take away the 20% of companies that state that shopping cart recovery service and shopping cart abandonment software is not relevant to their business we are now looking at 32% of companies that put an effort toward shopping cart recovery service or shopping cart abandonment software and 68% that do not.
Now when you compare these numbers with other surveys that have found that 54% of companies are using A/B testing, this makes shopping cart recovery service and shopping cart abandonment software is probably the biggest missed opportunity when it comes to ecommerce optimization.
Just shopping cart recovery service and shopping cart recovery software is not enough. There are certain practices that can better the process of shopping cart recovery service and shopping cart abandonment software.
Do Not Delay
This process is nothing like dating, where you take a girls number and wait for 4 days before calling her to make it seem like you are busy all of the time. Conversion rates will not rise by allowing the customer to sweat due to your self-control.
54% of all carts which have been successfully recovered have been recovered within the first few hours after abandonment. This fact comes from SeeWhy research which has compiled data from over 60,000 such cases. After 48 hours 10% of shopping carts have been shown recovered and after a week up to 82% are able to be recovered.
11% is the conversion rate for real-time emails, 6% for 24 hours, and 3% for 7 days. Open rates have been found to be higher also. After 24 hours it is 60% vs. 55% and goes to 50% after 7 days. Revenue has been found to be 11, 4, and 3 dollars respectively.
A great benefit about instant emails is that they minimize the risk that the customer will convert before the big batch of shopping cart recovery service or shopping cart abandonment software emails go out every day. This process also saves you from sending out irrelevant emails and you could also entice the costumer by offering a discount if they had simply not completed the purchase.
Make the Change from Manual to Automated
Some more research done by Econsultancy and RedEye has shown that a great shift from manual recovery to automated shopping cart recovery service and shopping cart abandonment software from 2010 to 2011. This is a great thing because software is faster, smarter, and makes things look better than we can. Therefore you should embrace the technology.
Serial Stalking is good
You should make a plan to send 3 triggers, those being one in real-time, the next after 24 hours, and the last after 7 days. Make sure that the emails are slightly different. The first should just be a nice reminder and the next two should make a better deal for the costumer. This should let the person reading the email know the laps of time and also gives you an opportunity to stagger offers. For best results divide the customers into 3 sections. People that have not opened the email at all, people that have opened the email but have not clicked on it, and people who have opened and clicked the email then target them accordingly. To start off stick with the 3 emails but you may find later on that more emails work better for your specific site.
Test Different Creative and Segment
Depending on what the shopper puts in the cart you may like to trigger different offers and messages. You may want to offer free shipping on high ticket items rather than low price or low ticket items. At times certain product categories might have a longer visit to purchase or longer days to purchase. Also reminders rather than a discount can be effective without causing you to lose profit. Keep in mind the more exclusive your item is the less you need to invest in wooing your customers. For one example Victoria’s Secret doesn’t use other retailers. Customers in their case may just need a simple reminder that their cart is ready for the purchase to be completed. They may be motivated by something like a click button for a bonus gift if the customer completes the purchase now.
A good thing to do is to treat emails as if they were landing pages therefore testing them. As anyone knows the layout, copy images and calls-to-action all have a great impact on conversion and persuasion. Please do not just set the email and forget it. For design tips and inspiration please look for different posts.
Do not Reward Abandonment
Try to discourage customers from abandoning carts to receive the gift or discount by switching up your offers. Do not send a discount on the first email every time. If it is possible try to separate email accounts that have made purchases after receiving a discount or gift. Switch between friendly reminder emails that are set on real-time triggers.
Your Value Proposition Needs to be plastered
Make sure to persuade comparison shoppers to shop at your site regardless of the price. Including your value propositions is key and do not be discreet about it.
Capturing the Email Address Early On
It is not possible to trigger without an email address, so make sure to get the address first. The most efficient way to do this is making an email address the first step and not just part of the first step.
Using Facebook
What’s the deal with cart summery pages prior to collecting an email address? It is possible to tie some shopping carts back to email addresses if they were referred to by an email campaign. Most of the time it is possible to use Google’s Remarketing program which allows a person to target shoppers that abandon carts with whichever creative you choose. This may include such things as discounts or bonuses found on your site. The offer you have placed will follow the customer on any site that Google displays ads on and this includes Facebook. This process may get you more attention than a traditional email would.
A cool idea also is to work both at the same time. Why not run a shopping cart recovery service or shopping cart abandonment software email program right alongside the remarketing campaign and double down on your effort?
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