5 Key Reasons Why You Need to Use Omnichannel Abandoned Cart Campaigns
Online store visitors abandon their shopping cart for all sorts of reasons. Some are put off by shipping fees, while others experience technical problems. Many are merely browsing and comparing products with a view to buying later on. For online stores, abandoned carts are bad news, as they equate to lost revenue. However, as this article explains, by putting an omnichannel abandoned carts strategy in place, you can start to recover lost sales.
What should an abandoned carts strategy look like? In simple terms, it should provide a way for you to reach out to all those people that exit your store after leaving items in their cart, so you can entice them to revisit and complete their purchase. The best way to do this is by adopting an omnichannel approach and targeting would-be shoppers with abandoned cart messages across different marketing channels.
The effectiveness of abandoned cart messages
Abandoned cart messages, sent via push notification, email or SMS in particular, are extremely effective. Check out the following benefits of them below:
1. Abandoned cart messages are ‘omnichannel’ and offer greater visibility
Abandoned cart levels are very high where mobile devices are concerned, with a 78% cart abandonment rate, compared to 67% on desktop. But this stark statistic does highlight that many people like to browse and shop via their mobile phone.
By sending out push notification and SMS abandoned cart reminders, you can reach potential customers where they’re already hanging out. Abandoned cart push notifications and text messages help to support other marketing channels, like email, making them truly omnichannel.
2. Abandoned cart messages can be automated
There are many time-consuming tasks you need to undertake to ensure success for your e-commerce business. Thankfully, sending out abandoned cart campaigns isn’t one of them. Using an omnichannel marketing solution, you can activate and set up your campaigns and then trigger them to send automatically, every time a visitor leaves an item in their cart.
3. Messages are well-timed
To recover lost sales from abandoned carts, you must act quickly. A tool that engages with would-be shoppers at precisely the right times, when they’re most likely to make a purchase, is incredibly valuable.
Abandoned cart messages are best sent out in a flow of three messages. According to insights from 3000 Shopify stores, the first one should be sent out at around 50 mins after a visitor abandons their cart. The first alert tends to convert very well, but a second and third reminder should be used as a follow-up, as these are also proven to get strong engagement. See the screenshots below.
Abandoned cart SMS timings
4. They’re highly relevant
Relevancy and personalisation is the key to any successful marketing campaign; abandoned cart campaigns included. Abandoned cart messages not only get in front of the recipient at the right time, but they also remind them about a product they were just looking at online and are already interested in. When personalized with the recipient’s first name, this type of campaign helps to grab attention and reinforces your brand and products.
5. Abandoned cart messages offer high conversions
When used in combination with an incentive, such as a discount, or free shipping offer, abandoned cart campaigns can quickly turn your interested prospect into a customer. Sometimes, all a store visitor needs for them to take action is a little nudge. An incentive can be the icing on the cake.
For best results, include a countdown timer with your discount code to help create a sense of urgency. Use compelling copy within your message content too. For example, you could follow this type of message flow:
- 1st reminder - use this as a friendly reminder to encourage your store visitor to complete their purchase.
- 2nd reminder - this one should include your time-limited incentive, such as free shipping if the recipient completes their purchase within 24 hours.
- 3rd reminder - your last message should inform the recipient that the incentive is about to expire and they should take action now to benefit.
Other considerations for your omnichannel abandoned carts strategy
When planning your strategy, it’s best to start with push notifications first, before using SMS. Although text messages are very powerful (they have a 98% open rate), push notifications are more affordable to use, and they’re also highly effective. You can back up your strategy by sending out SMS abandoned cart campaigns to those recipients who didn’t take action to complete their purchase as a result of your push notification campaign.
In any case, you’re likely to get more push notification subscribers than you are SMS subscribers. The reason being is that visitors don’t need to part with much personal data in order to become a push notification subscriber. They don’t need to submit their email address or phone number, for instance.
Another benefit of using push notifications for abandoned cart alerts before other channels is that they’re triggered sooner. Subscribers usually sign up when they first land on your store and you can track abandoned cart activity as soon as items are left in the cart. You don’t have to wait for visitors to reach the checkout page and enter their phone number or email address to be able to follow up with an abandoned cart reminder.
Top takeaways
To get the most out of your abandoned carts strategy, adopt an omnichannel approach. Use web push notifications and SMS campaigns to support your email activity.
Remember to:
- Use push notifications first, as these are cheaper to use and they’re very effective.
- Set up a message flow of three abandoned cart reminders and send at the optimal times as mentioned above.
- Add value to your messages by including an incentive, along with a countdown timer.
- Use an app that can automate your abandoned carts strategy to save you time.
An abandoned carts strategy is essential in helping you to recoup what would otherwise be lost sales for your store. By following the guidance set out in this article, you can start driving more sales right away.