Are you making one of these common abandoned cart email mistakes? 

Nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned. While there are a number of different reasons customers abandon carts, it’s a huge loss for companies. For every abandoned cart, there is a loss of potential revenue. 

That’s why abandoned cart emails are so important in today’s eCommerce driven world. With the right strategy in place, you have the opportunity to win back those customers who left products in their cart. 

Abandoned cart emails remind customers about something they left behind in their cart. A simple reminder can bring shoppers back to your site and help increase your company overall. Image courtesy of Shopify.

But for many companies, their abandoned cart strategy falls short. While there are a number of reasons why your strategy may not be working, but in this article, we’ll look at 4 of the most common mistakes. 

Here’s a quick look at what mistakes we’ll discuss in more detail: 

• Only sending one abandoned cart email
• Not taking the time to segment or personalize your emails
• Adding too many distractions to your emails
• Sending your abandoned cart emails at the wrong time

4 Abandoned Cart Email Mistakes

Abandoned cart emails can provide you with an opportunity to recover sales and bring customers back to your website. But there are multiple mistakes you could be making that are hurting the performance of your campaign. 

Let’s take a look at 4 things that could be hurting your abandoned cart email. 

Only Sending One Reminder Email

How many abandoned cart emails are you sending your customers? If your answer is just one reminder email shortly after they left their cart, you’re missing out on the potential to recover sales. 

You abandoned cart strategy should include multiple contact points with your customers. In fact, sending three emails is the most effective way to reach your customers and increase sales. With each email that you send your customers, the more likely you are to recover a portion of the lost revenue. 

Sending your customers’ multiple abandoned cart emails will increase the chances that they will come back to your site and make a purchase. The first email in the series should be a subtle reminder, from there you can encourage them with urgency and discounts and coupons. Image courtesy of Litmus. 

By sending your customers three abandoned cart emails, you can expect to see a conversion rate that is 26% higher than just sending one email reminder email. 

Here are a few best practices for each email in your abandoned cart series:

• Email 1: Use this email as a friendly reminder to your customers about the products they left in their carts. It shouldn’t be too pushy or overly promotional, just a quick “did you forget something?” reminder. 
• Email 2: This email may get a little more promotional and start putting a little urgency on the customer. Remind them of the products they left behind and let them know if there are limited quantities or a sale is about to end. 
• Email 3: The third email is your last attempt at bringing them back. At this point, you may want to make the email even more enticing by adding a coupon or discount code. It’s your last chance to try and land the sale, so why not go out with a bang. 

You’ll quickly see that putting sending abandoned cart emails in a series of three will benefit your sales. So if you haven’t already started doing this tactic, now’s the time to start.

Forgetting to Segment and Personalize Your Emails

Chances are good you use segmentation and personalization in your everyday email marketing — but are you taking the time to build them into your abandoned cart strategy? 

Sending irrelevant content in abandoned cart emails is no better than sending it at any other time. Many companies think that sending an email reminder about a specific left behind is enough personalization. While it might add a sense of personalization, you have the opportunity to take these emails a step further. 

Having a deeper understanding of your customer segments can provide them with additional content that will interest them. The more relevant the content is to your customer, the more likely they are to open that email — and emails in the future.  

To take personalization to the next level, you can use predictive analytics to serve your customers with even more relevant content. This technology will analyze your customer data and help you identify opportunities to improve your customer interactions. 

Here are a few different ways you can use customer data to improve and further personalize their abandoned cart experience with predictive analytics: 

• Track browse and purchase history to provide customers with relevant products they may be interested in. 
• Understand what customers are more likely to purchase when sent a coupon or discount code
• Know when to send emails to your customers based on their most active time frames

Personalizing your abandoned cart emails provides you with an opportunity to capture even more sales from your customer base. The more you know about them, the better you can serve them content they want. 

Having Too Many Distractions

Are your abandoned cart emails too busy? If a customer can’t quickly and easily find the most important details in your email, they likely won’t come back to your site to make a purchase. You should not have tons of promotional content within your abandoned cart emails. 

If you are asking them to finish checking out, telling them to follow you on social media, promoting new blog posts, and asking them to sign-up for your newsletter all in one email — you’re doing too much. 

Make sure your abandoned cart emails are clear and free from distractions. A clear call to action that will let your customers know what the next step is and increase the likeliness of landing a sale. Image courtesy of Listrak.  

The call to action needs to be clear and clutter-free. Adding all of these other actions will take away from the main thing you want your customers to do — complete their purchase. In the grand scheme of it, making a sale is more beneficial to your company than getting one more Facebook follower. 

Make it easy on your customers and don’t add all of these other distractions. Your sales will show it once you trim down all the extra fluff and distraction.  

Sending Abandoned Cart Emails at the Wrong Time

Just as with traditional emails, when you send your abandoned emails is very important. If you send your emails at the wrong time, they won’t get opened and risk getting lost in the sea of emails your customers receive each day. 

Timing is important when it comes to abandoned cart emails. Knowing when to send customers reminder emails about the products they left behind can help increase conversion rates and revenue. Image courtesy of Marketing Charts. 

Depending on what products you sell, the timing of when you should reach out to your customers may vary. If your products are items that require more research, sending a reminder email within an hour might not provide them with enough time to have made a decision — but you also don’t want to wait too long and risk being forgotten. 

Here are a few best practices around when to send your abandoned cart email series: 

• Your first email should be sent within a few hours of the abandoned cart
• When sending the second email, you should wait at least 24-hours before reaching out again
• The third email should be sent within a few days of the abandoned cart

Keeping in mind that your customers and your products will require a unique experience. You need to take the time to learn what works based on their needs. Predictive analytics can help you better understand this information based on their previous behaviors. 

Once you know this information, you can start sending your customers abandoned cart emails at the right time. 

Improve Your Abandoned Cart Strategy

By knowing these common mistakes, you can work to improve your abandoned email marketing strategy. Don’t lose customers by only sending them one email, at the wrong time, or without any personalization. Following these tips will help your abandoned cart emails provide your company with increased revenue and provide your customers with better customer experience.