Whether you’ve just opened your ecommerce business or your company has been in business for years, there’s a good chance that abandoned shopping carts are not a new topic for you. One study shows that the average digital shopping cart abandonment rate is 74.3% worldwide. Though abandoned shopping carts are an expected part of running an ecommerce business, many customers who leave items behind are still likely to be interested in becoming paying customers. Below, we’ve put together a few ecommerce marketing agency tips to help you convert abandoned carts:
Ecommerce Marketing Agency Tip #1 to Convert Abandoned Carts – Optimize the Checkout Process.
One of the first things that you will want to do to help you convert abandoned carts is optimize your checkout process. No matter how great your site looks or what types of products you offer, if your checkout process is not simple and convenient, you will never get a grasp on your abandoned shopping cart problem.
Here are just a few ways that you can optimize the checkout process to make it easier for consumers to complete the purchasing process:
- Limit the number of steps it takes to checkout. Today’s consumer is looking for a quick and easy checkout process. Don’t make it longer than it has to be. Keep the checkout process to one page and only ask for the information that is absolutely necessary to complete the checkout. com offers one page checkout which makes the process efficient and not overwhelming.
- Offer guest checkout.According to Baymard Institute, the second-most common reason that consumers abandon their online shopping cart is because they are asked to create an account. Although you want to encourage consumers to create an account, you should not make it mandatory as it may deter some buyers from completing their purchase.
- Make it easy to pay.Offer a variety of different ways to pay that appeal to a range of consumers. In addition to Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, and Discover, offer PayPal as an option. Many consumers may feel more comfortable paying with PayPal, not to mention, it makes the checkout process even quicker.
- Don’t hide any fees.During checkout, the consumer should know exactly how much they are paying and what the fees consist of. If you are not upfront with pricing and extra fees like shipping and taxes, this can cause you to lose the consumer’s trust and ultimately, their business.
In addition to making the checkout process fast and simple, you will also want to consider UX design factors. When designing your website and checkout page, keep your site visitors in mind. It should be easy for users to add items to their cart, view their cart, and checkout.
Tip #2 to convert abandoned carts – Retarget Customers Using Google AdWords.
Though 99% of buyers don’t actually convert the first time they visit your site and put something in their shopping cart, 75% will return a second time. The key to getting consumers to return to your site is working to keep your brand at the top of consumers’ minds even after they’ve left your site. One of the best ways to do this is through retargeting campaigns on Google AdWords.
With AdWords retargeting, you can deliver relevant messaging to previous website visitors across the Google Display and Google Search networks. After you have placed the remarketing pixel on your ecommerce website, you can create a target audience made of abandoned cart shoppers in your AdWords account. Then, you can develop strategic and targeted ecommerce ad content to use in this campaign that encourages users to come back to your site. Given that they’ve already shown interest in your brand by visiting your site, this audience provides a higher value, which means that you may want to place a higher bid on these ad groups.
Make sure that you set up conversion tracking for your ads so that you can monitor the success of your retargeting campaigns. Start off with a small remarketing list, and do some testing to find out what works best. Once you’ve found a winning formula for conversion, you can start to build out more retargeting campaigns on Google AdWords.
Tip #3 to convert abandoned carts – Reach out to Customers Again Using Facebook Retargeting.
In addition to retargeting abandoned cart shoppers on Google AdWords, you can also remarket content to site visitors on Facebook. The way that this process works is very similar to Google AdWords. However, instead of showing your advertisements on the Google Display Network, you are reaching your audience on their Facebook feed. If you have an audience that you know uses the social media platform often, this can be a great ecommerce marketing agency strategy to employ.
To get started, you will need to add the Facebook pixel to your website. Much like Google’s remarketing pixel, this pixel tracks visitor events (such as adding products to a shopping cart), which you can use to later deliver targeted Facebook content to site visitors. After you’ve added the Facebook pixel to your site, you can create a custom retargeting audience based on the events that you’ve chosen. Then, all that’s left to do is create targeted ad content that encourages your visitors to convert.
Tip #4 to Convert Abandoned Carts – Provide an Incentive For Conversion.
Sometimes simply offering an incentive for consumers to convert or return to your site (and the items in their shopping carts) is enough encouragement to convert abandoned carts. One incentive that you might provide is a discount on certain products in their cart of a dollar off amount for completing their purchase. It may come as no surprise, but according to one ecommerce survey, 54% of shoppers will purchase the products that they left in their online shopping cart if those products are offered at a lower price.
Another effective incentive may be to provide free shipping for consumers who have left items behind in their shopping cart. One ecommerce company found that offering free shipping helped boost the conversion rate by 50%. To maximize revenue, be strategic about this free shipping option. You might offer free shipping on orders that reach a certain threshold like $50 or $100. You can also offer free shipping on certain products, such as those that offer a high profit margin.
Tip #5 to Convert Abandoned Carts – Deliver an Automated Email Drip Campaign.
Another ecommerce marketing agency hack for reaching back out to consumers after they’ve left a site is the automated email drip campaign. These email marketing campaigns make it easy for your brand to automatically reengage buyers who have left their shopping carts behind. Using your marketing automation tools, you can trigger this reminder email to be sent after the consumer has added items to their cart and left your site without making a purchase.
Here are some elements that you will want to include in your ecommerce automated email drip campaign:
- Personalization – People are more likely to open personalized emails. Try using the buyer’s first name in the subject line or the opening greeting of the email. This helps promote a friendly tone and make the message more personal.
- Link to Products– The email message should include direct links to the products that the consumer has left behind. This makes it quick and simple for consumers to revisit the products as they are making a final purchasing decision.
- Link to Checkout– You should also provide a link to the checkout page. This makes it as easy as possible for consumers to complete their purchases quickly.
- Images of Products – Including images of the products that the consumer has left behind can also be effective in helping convert abandoned carts. This reminds them of what they left behind, which may encourage them to finalize their purchase.
- Contact Information– Include your company’s phone number, email address, or chat options in the email message as well. That way, if the consumer had an issue completing their order or a question about a product, they can easily contact your support team to finalize their purchase.
If you decide to provide any incentives like coupon codes or free shipping offers, be sure to make this clear in the email message as well.
Final Takeaways
Though abandoned carts are an unavoidable part of running your e-commerce business, they do not have to mark the end of your engagement with interested consumers. The tips above provide you with just a few ecommerce marketing agency tricks to help you reengage interested consumers and convert abandoned carts. By reaching back out to those who have shown interest in your brand, you can take advantage of the opportunity to encourage site visitors to act on their interest and complete their purchase.
