Increase Sales with Abandoned Cart Strategies

[AdamB]

Based on an average of reported data, roughly 70% of shoppers on an online store abandon their cart. If you are unfamiliar with the term, an abandoned cart is one where a visitor adds items to the cart but leaves without completing the purchase. This figure means that most websites only capture 30% of potential customers and represents a huge opportunity to increase sales. Let’s take a look at some strategies to improve the effectiveness of your abandoned cart emails.

Catchy Headline Text

One of the first parts of your email a customer will see is the headline text; in some cases, it might even be the only thing they see before they delete the email. This means you want your headline to be short, impactful, and on-brand. For example, if you know discounts are popular with your customers, you could use the headline to introduce a coupon.

It’s not too late! Save 20% with coupon code LASTCHANCE20

Coupons

Speaking of coupons, creating one specifically for abandoned carts is an effective way to win back more buyers. With coupons in Square Online, you can also track their usage to see how they are performing. This makes it easy to try different coupon amounts to find the best balance of discount versus profit margin.

Include a CTA

Include a call-to-action button in your email and link it to your online store. A CTA reduces customer effort by providing an easy way to get back to your store. This is added automatically with Square Online, and you can move the section containing the button up or down in the email.

Testimonials

Consider adding customer testimonials or reviews to your email. This can help convince buyers through social proof, a phenomenon in which people copy the actions of others when they see those actions as good and correct. By letting your potential buyers see that other customers viewed their purchase as the right thing to do, they will feel more confident about completing a purchase.

Timing

Lastly, find the optimal length of time to wait before sending the email. Generally speaking, shorter durations are better, though you may find that something longer is more effective with your customers. 

Tip: If you use Google Analytics, note the average duration of visits and set your email delay to something that would happen soon after.

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Questions or Comments? Reply below and let me know! 👇

[TCSlaguna]

Thanks for this @AdamB 

I think Timing is important. I found that if we do events too close to each other, the attendance of each event is slightly lower than if we spread them out a little more. Having time to send multiple emails about an event allows us to remind customers and build up interest. 

I always have a difficult time with creating catchy headlines. That's why I discuss it with our staff before settling on one. 

[AdamB]

Thanks for the comment, @TCSlaguna. Timing really is a huge part of making these effective so you get people when they're most likely to act on them.

[Thevioletfox]

As a shopper, I know a lot of folks will abandon that cart knowing/hoping a coupon code will follow! 

[AdamB]

[shopfybr]

Thanks for sharing this helpful info.

Question- do you recommend giving a coupon in the first abandoned cart email? Wondering if this will train customers to abandon cart and wait for the coupon.

Does Square marketing allow for multiple abandon cart emails? Like the first can say "Oops, forgot something?" and then the second could have a coupon?

[AdamB]

We don't yet support successive emails, although that would be a great addition! You could try setting up further emails using Square Marketing automated campaigns, though.

It's possible customers could learn to expect that, but if it was me I'd probably rather get a sale with a coupon than no sale at all. You could experiment with not including a coupon at first, then with an automated campaign include a coupon.

[SammyGrace2414]

I haven't used the abandoned cart email yet. Sounds like I need to look into this further! 

[JUYBoutique20]

Since I'm focusing on my online store more this year, I need to look at this email campaign.  

[walmart]

this is great

[hwb1]

How do you see (who/when) someone abandons their cart?

[RobynR]

Hey @hwb1,

Welcome to the Community! It's always nice to see a new face.

That's a great question. You can view reports about abandoned carts by going to your Square Online Overview page > Reports > Abandoned Carts. Here's a link to learn more about Square Online reports.

Please let me know if I can assist you with anything else.

[thewebsitechick]

In addition to the coupon, you could do a exit intent trigger for a pop-up that says something like "Wait, before you go!" and link it to a promo code, check out our Square Online Popup guide here for more info - https://www.thesquarelab.co/p/square-online-popup-tutorial