Multi-channel abandoned cart recovery is a crucial component of a successful eCommerce marketing strategy. Data shows us that 7 out of 10 online shoppers will abandon their purchase before checkout, leading to thousands upon thousands of lost sales due to shopping cart abandonment.
With so much at stake, it’s important that you have a well-executed plan in place to decrease your cart abandonment rate and recover revenue. A multi-channel abandoned cart strategy enables you to identify and re-engage customers who have ditched their shopping carts, while also nurturing new communication channels that can be used to increase customer loyalty in the future.
This guide will walk through all the steps needed to create a complete multi-channel recovery campaign, including:
- the most effective channels and customer touchpoints;
- how to optimize each channel for maximum recovered revenue.
Why is multi-channel abandoned cart recovery effective for eCommerce?
Multi-channel abandoned cart recovery helps you recover abandoned carts by increasing customer touchpoints across multiple channels. The more touchpoints a customer has with your brand, the more likely they are to be retained.
Think of it this way: if a door-to-door salesman only knocks on one door, he won’t sell very many products. But if he knocks on a hundred doors, the chance of making a sale goes up dramatically. The same concept applies here: by recovering abandoned carts from multiple channels at once, you’re increasing your chances of getting customers back into their purchase journey.
The most common channels utilized by eCommerce retailers in a multi-channel approach include:
- emails;
- SMS;
- push notifications;
- on-site retargeting (pop-ups).
Cart abandonment campaigns that fail to recover revenue often employ only a single channel, or in some cases, a single email. Keep in mind that your customers are fickle and your competition is steep. If one email is your only touchpoint it can easily be lost to a sea of similar emails from competitors.
If your goal is to recover as much revenue as possible, you need to maximize your efforts using a multi-channel approach -- and your customers will thank you for it. As much as 75% of shoppers prefer to engage with a brand across multiple channels. The cherry on top is that multi-channel shoppers spend three to four times more than their single-channel counterparts.
The most effective channels for abandoned cart recovery
1. Abandoned cart emails
When it comes to abandoned cart recovery, email is the first weapon of choice. You can boost sales by sending out multiple cart recovery emails in a sequence, which we've found to be an effective way to recover up to 30% of lost revenue.
The Average Order Value (AOV) of purchases from cart abandonment emails is 14.2% higher than typical online shopping purchases.
A best practice is to send a maximum of three cart abandonment emails in a sequence (one per day). Often, you’ll find the first email has the highest conversion rate, and that rate is cut in half with each subsequent reminder sent.
So, if your first email recovers 8% of abandoned users, the second will normally convert at 4%, and the third at 2%, giving you a combined conversion rate of 14%.
Typical cart abandonment drip campaigns are constructed as follows:
- Email #1 - Friendly reminder. Contains images of abandoned products.
- Email #2 - Follow-up email. Builds a sense of urgency for shoppers to return to their cart.
- Email #3 - Final follow-up. Often contains a discount or deal to entice shoppers on the fence.
2. Exit-intent pop-ups
Exit-intent popups are triggered when a user is about to leave your website. They can be used to encourage shoppers to stay on your site and complete their purchase or to capture contact info before customers abandon your site.
Exit intent pop-ups are a last resort for capturing customer information before they leave, but when done right, pop-ups have an average conversion rate of up to 43%. On-site retargeting ads through exit intent pop-ups can help retailers collect 20-80% more emails and information from interested shoppers.
There are many different types of exit-intent popups: some offer discounts and special offers; others may display a newsletter signup form, or encourage visitors to enter a contest or giveaway.
3. SMS notifications
Emails may result in the highest rate of recovered revenue, but according to a study by the Mobile Marketing Association, SMS has a 98% open rate. This is primarily due to the instant and personal nature of text messaging, making SMS one of the most effective channels to re-engage abandoned carts.
We recommend using SMS and push notifications as a secondary method for recovering abandoned carts. If you send an email reminder but still don’t see a conversion on your site, follow up with another email or send out an SMS or web push notification with an offer they can take advantage of immediately.
4. Web push notifications
Website push notifications, or browser push notifications, are similar to the push messages you receive on your mobile devices, but they are instead sent through a browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.
While smartphone notifications need to be sent from a downloaded app, that is not the case with web push notifications. With browser push notifications, you can send alerts to your website visitors even when they’re not on your site.
That’s why push notification campaigns have an ROI of 3500%!
Push notifications have an average click rate of around 12%, thanks to how easy it is for visitors to engage with them. Web push notifications also have a much higher opt-in rate than emails, because unlike emails they can be set up in a single click.
5. Welcome offers
Welcome offers are similar to exit intent pop-ups, though they are sent to all website visitors, as opposed to only shoppers intent on leaving your site. Welcome offers are triggered by time spent on the website, with the goal of increasing engagement and capturing new leads.
Welcome offers are perfect for gaining newsletter subscribers, sweepstakes entries, and promoting current deals or coupon codes.
How to optimize your multi-channel recovery campaign
Personalization
Did you know that personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates on average? In fact, personalized email subject lines result in 26% higher open rates.
When sending out abandoned cart reminders to your customers, it’s important to make sure that the content is personalized to their exact interests, wants, and needs. Be sure the email looks familiar and matches what they were looking at when they abandoned their carts.
This can be achieved by using dynamic product reminders that include information on any product viewed or added-to-cart before abandoning their carts.
Automated email timers
A common myth is that cart abandonment emails are just spam – but that is far from the truth. Cart abandonment emails are beneficial to both shoppers and eCommerce businesses, but you must send your emails carefully.
The optimal timing for a three-email campaign is as follows:
- Email #1 - 20-30 minutes after abandonment.
- Email #2 - 1-2 days after abandonment.
- Email #3 - 2-5 days after abandonment.
Email subject lines
Your email subject line is your first opportunity to make a good impression and persuade customers to open your email. In fact, 64% of people say that the subject line is what influences their decision whether to open an email or not.
Some examples of high-performing email subject lines include:
- “{Name} Seems like you left some things behind!”
- Best for the first abandonment email
- Helpful, support-based tone
- "You might miss out on this incredible offer. It’s about to expire."
- Performs well for the second abandonment email
- Creates a sense of urgency
- “You've got one more day to get 20% off!"
- 71.7% open rate as final abandonment email
- Uses discounts to entice stubborn shoppers
Real-time tracking
Real-time tracking is the ability to see what customers are doing in real-time. Real-time tracking is available from select cart abandonment tools and is an important feature to consider when investing in cart abandonment solutions.
Real-time tracking can help you understand your customers' behavior and predict their next steps so that you're better able to create an experience that feels natural and intuitive. Capture email inputs as they’re typed into your site, collect customer data before the checkout process, and later export collected data for use in future marketing campaigns.
With real-time tracking, you'll have access to all of the information necessary to personalize messages based on individual customer needs — even if they haven't yet made a purchase.
Browse abandonment
Browse abandonment is the act of sending emails to customers who have browsed your site but haven't initiated the checkout process. It's important to remember that users who land on your site are not necessarily ready to buy, but that doesn't mean they aren't worth a follow-up.
Consider it this way: cart abandoners are your hottest leads, while browse abandoners are warm leads. Another way to think of it is “shoppers vs window shoppers” or “those who want something versus those who just want to look around". As such, you should consider using different types of messaging for each channel segment and personalizing them accordingly.
Real-time notifications
Real-time notifications refer to in-depth tracking of abandoned cart activity. Cart abandonment solutions with a real-time notification feature will notify you of an abandoned cart as it happens. This feature is critical for increasing your response time and improving your potential for recovery.
When a customer abandons their shopping cart, the system can send you an email with real-time updates on what products they were looking at. If there is any chance that someone might buy something from your site and then leave without completing their purchase, it's best to react immediately by contacting them before someone else does.
Some abandonment tools include the option to preset automation to trigger when an order of a certain value is abandoned. This allows you to react to high-value orders at lightspeed, thus increasing your chances of recovering as much revenue as possible.
A/B testing
Conducting an A/B split test involves sending two different versions of your email to a sample group of customers. The only difference between the two emails is whichever factor you're testing for (eg. subject line, call to action, etc).
Traffic is split between the two versions of the email, with Version A being sent to half of the sample group and Version B ー to the other half. Real-time metrics for each email are then compared side-by-side for conversion rates, open rates, and other important metrics.
To begin a split test for your email campaign, first select one clear factor to test. There are many possible factors that can be tested, including:
- subject line;
- CTA copy;
- email copy;
- CTA button placement & color;
- discount codes and offers;
- personalization (BEDS);
- images and design.
We highly recommend investing in a cart abandonment solution that includes A/B testing features. With the right tools in place, an A/B test can be up and running in just a few clicks. Otherwise, your A/B testing will need to be conducted manually by sending each email variation to a small percentage of your list.
This can be done using any standard email marketing software or service, or if you don’t have access to these tools, then try using Google Forms as an alternative (but note that this does not allow for tracking and reporting).
Conclusion
And there you have it. A complete checklist for multi-channel abandoned cart recovery. Don’t forget, it’s all about making sure your customers are satisfied, and keeping them engaged. The more you can do to make this happen, the more money you’ll recover in the long term!
To effectively optimize your multi-channel abandoned cart campaigns, start using the CartStack solution for your nopCommerce online store. This service helps you regain lost clients and generate new sales automatically by fusing multi-channel abandoned cart remarketing with on-site conversion tools. Install CartStack and increase conversion rates now!
