One of the major reasons for revenue leak for an e-commerce business is cart abandonment. We live in a world where customers have too many options, and they can easily get distracted by better offers and quicker delivery. It has been observed that almost 70% of customers’ online carts never reach checkout. As a result, the companies lose a significant share of their potential revenue.
The customer might have liked and wanted the product, but their purchase was interrupted. An abandoned cart simply means that the customer is still interested in the purchase, but they have not completed the final step. It does not entirely mean that the sales opportunity was completely lost to the seller or the company. To boost their conversions, the companies need to make full use of the cart recovery strategies. These strategies are cost-effective and do not require the companies to spend their extra time and effort to achieve conversions.
5 Strategies That Can Help You Recover Cart Abandonment With Ease
The following strategies have been based on real-time conversion mechanics, psychological triggers, and behavioral insights of the customers-
Multi-Step Reminders to the Customers
As the customers are increasingly subject to a ton of emails every day, your cart abandonment email has a high possibility of getting ignored or lost in their mail chain. Therefore, sending one email is simply not enough. To encourage the customers to proceed to checkout within the next 24- 72 hours, you must send them multiple emails to help complete their purchase. Here’s how your reminders should look:
Email 1: First Reminder
For this email, you need to keep a friendly tone and remind the customers that they have a saved cart, which includes their potential savings and benefits.
Email 2: Value Reinforcement
You need to show the customer other testimonials of successful deliveries. You need to show customer stories, ratings, and feedback, which give them social proof to make their purchase.
Email 3: Create a Sense of Urgency
The customers are more likely to complete their purchase if the companies target them based on a sense of urgency. They could highlight features such as a limited stock, convenience, and shorter delivery timelines. This will help the customers make quicker decisions and expedite their buying process. This has been an old strategy that has worked well for all businesses alike.
Email 4: Offer Incentives
To make your brand look empathetic and care-based, you could come up with small discounts, reward points, and free shipping. This can help the customer proceed towards checkout.
You need to make each email personalised and care-based. This can help achieve better click-through rates and subsequently increase the sales for any given company. The brands can use the given data intelligently, and the customers will feel recognised. The companies should also make sure that they do not feel intrusive to the customers in this process.
High-Intent Messaging
Customers these days are more likely to check their SMS and WhatsApp messages than their email. One of the key reasons for this behavior is that the WhatsApp messages are crisp and easily accessible. This can help the companies in converting a dropped sale into a captured conversion. As these messages are delivered quickly, the customer is more likely to read them. They allow an immediate check-out reentry and build a direct contact with the customer. Therefore, the companies need to make their message conversational and not salesly. They should also include a short and direct link to the customer’s cart. They should use time-bound triggers and highlight the benefits of this conversion.
Nowadays, WhatsApp offers a plethora of features that can help in building trust among customers. These features include chatbot, product photos, and a payment gateway. This allows the customers to complete their purchase and reduces the friction between the wishlisted products and the final payment cycle.
Using Exit-Intent Pop-Ups
Various factors, such as unexpected shipping costs and uncertainty about the product quality, are likely to cause cart abandonments. The companies are now making use of exit-intent pop-ups to provide an easy resolution to these problems. These pop-ups show up right when the customer is about to exit the website or application and leave their purchase unfinished.
These pop-ups mainly target the following areas: price sensitivity, high shipping rates, and building trust among customers. These small additions and incentives offered by the companies can help in reducing the cognitive hesitation of the customers.
These pop-ups function on the psychology of the customers; they might need one last reassurance before making their purchase. To achieve maximum conversions, the companies should avoid generic pop-ups. They must make full use of segmentation based on product type, customer purchase history, and value of the carts.
Retargeting Ads
The dynamic Ads act as a powerful conversion strategy because they reinforce the memory of the customers, build repeated exposure, and recreate an emotional trigger. They thrive on a sense of familiarity and awaken the previous desire of the customer, which they had while adding the product to their cart.
In recent times, almost all platforms, such as Google and Meta, are targeting customers based on their previous behavior. They have a strategic advantage as compared to the generic ads because they continuously play on the memory of the customers.
Easy Checkout Experience
One of the most important aspects of cart recovery systems is to ensure that the customers do not feel overwhelmed at the checkout page. Companies need to employ strategies such as an auto-fill of details, one-page checkout, and transparent shipping rates. As we live in a competitive world, and a customer has the option to assess the advantages offered by the competing brands, they are quicker to drop the purchase and switch to the other service provider/ brand. To thrive in this market, every brand needs to incorporate the latest technological advantages to stay relevant in the market.
Why Cart Recovery Strategies Matter in South Africa?
With an increased digitisation in South Africa and a highly sensitive user base, these cart recovery strategies are gaining increasing prominence. The cart abandonment in South Africa can happen due to multiple factors such as connectivity issues, high data consumption, and complex interfaces. The South African buyers are also more likely to compare their shopping experiences with other successful apps and interfaces. They all aim to get the most seamless shopping experience.
Therefore, a cart recovery strategy becomes critical if they want to achieve better conversion rates. If the companies are able to make full use of mobile-friendly checkouts, zero shipping costs, and timely communication, they will be at a lower risk of cart abandonment. The generic global strategies will always be less effective if the sellers can give importance to support and local payment behaviors and implement personalised recovery touchpoints.
How Can Companies Make Full Use of Cart Recovery Strategies?
Abandoned carts do not imply a disinterest on the part of the customers. They only mean a buying journey that has remained unfinished. If the businesses are able to make good use of a timely intervention, they can revive their customers and achieve successful conversion. With the help of omnichannel recovery systems, the companies will be able to employ retargeting ads, emails, and systematic messaging. This also helps them avoid the additional cost of advertising and ensure a seamless checkout. As the customer acquisition costs are on the rise in a globally functional economy, a company can save major costs and increase its revenue in a dramatic fashion by making full use of the cart recovery strategies. This makes the e-commerce business more resilient and helps in elevating the overall customer experience.
