Abandoned Cart Email Templates & Best Practices

Long time, no see! Did you forget us?

Imagine if a close friend of yours sent that message to you. What would you most likely do?

I would like to believe you would instantly call or text back and make up for making your friend feel ‘abandoned’.

Would you do the same if a brand or a company sent you that message in your inbox?

Abandoned carts are a huge revenue loss for business owners, and sending out abandoned cart emails can be crucial to make up for potential losses and bring back interested customers to complete their orders and empty out the filled carts.

According to a study, most online retailers lose approximately 75% sales to abandoned carts and for some industries, the average cart abandonment rate is a whopping 83.6%.

Abandoned cart email marketing campaigns are a gateway to recovering these losses and maintaining a healthy conversion rate.

As a retail business owner, it is becoming increasingly important to stay top of mind to be able to drive desired results and compel interested customers to become loyal ones. Email marketing for retail is not just a tool to stay connected with customers, but a necessity to recover abandoned cart losses and maximize sales and profits.

Start sending abandoned cart emails with the Constant Contact for Shopify app

Cart Abandonment Email Best Practices

So, here’s what we know:

Cart abandonment is a big problem.
Sending out a series of follow-up emails is an effective tactic to recover abandoned carts.

That said, is every email able to bring in the desired action from cart abandoners?

NO.

And, that’s where the need to know, follow and execute abandoned cart email best practices comes in.

The thing is, your customers receive a huge number of emails every single day. And unfortunately, most of these are irrelevant to them and instantly discarded.

You are treading on thin ice here…

You have a few seconds and just about 4-5 words that go in your subject line to make an impression and generate enough curiosity to get your abandoned cart emails opened.

Yup, that’s all you have. But that’s not our final goal here.

We want our customers to not just open the abandoned cart email, but be compelled to complete their order and make a purchase. How do we ensure that?

Here are the abandoned cart email best practices that higher the chances of customers completing their orders:

1. Time

When you send out the abandoned cart email is the first and most important aspect to consider. Sending out the first email to remind online shoppers of an abandoned cart within 60 minutes is believed to bring in the highest conversions. This can be followed by another email after 24 hours, and a last and final one 3-4 days later.

Pro Tip: 2-3 abandon cart emails is the maximum you should aim for or risk being junked, or worse, make customers unsubscribe.

2. Value Addition

Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact reason as to why a customer decided to abandon the cart at this moment. The most common reasons for abandoning carts are believed to be high prices, unexpected additional charges like shipping prices and being unsure of the product. To counter all these reasons, consider adding a bonus or incentive to complete the order. This could be a discount or even free shipping. Make them an offer that is irresistible.

Pro Tip: Add the offer and coupon code details in your subject lines so your customers know there is something of additional value in their inbox.

3. Product Images

Make sure you add the exact product images so customers can have an instant visual recall. An abandoned cart email without the images of the abandoned products is sure to go unnoticed. You can also use this opportunity to cross sell similar products or recommend other products as a value addition to the abandoned products.

4. Personalize

An abandoned cart email is irrelevant unless personalized. If possible, track the previous purchases or browsing history to make the email tailor-made for the shopper. The Shopify App integration with Constant Contact makes personalization easy, quick and efficient.

Pro Tip: Give your customers a feeling that you are talking directly to them, as if you know what they want.

5. Tone

The tone of the email plays a great role in how your customers will perceive the message. The abandoned cart email is to serve as a gentle reminder or a polite request rather than a pushy promotional mail, or worse a demand.

Pro Tip: Either use catchy phrases like ‘Don’t leave us hanging’ to evoke a sense of humor and curiosity or be direct like, ‘You have left items in your cart’ to evoke the sense of a reminder.

It may sound a bit too overwhelming but the right tools and integrations will make this easy and effective. Constant Contact’s newly launched abandoned cart and coupon block feature is all about that. You can now easily add products and coupons to your emails, automate your abandoned cart emails and send targeted emails to drive better results.

This makes your abandoned cart emails welcomed in your subscribers inbox and a great way to cut down on all those loss in sales.

Designed to bring online shoppers back

Now that we have gone through the cart abandonment email best practices, it is also necessary to understand that a supporting and impactful email template is equally important. When you design your email template, especially for your abandoned cart emails, a number of design elements need to be considered.

To put it simply, an abandoned cart email template needs to be attractive, clutter-free, to the point and with a very bold and clear Call-to-Action in order to significantly increase conversions.

Abandoned cart email templates

Customers who have left abandoned carts have also left behind a great advantage for you – you know that they are interested.

Unlike promotional emails that you send out to all your contacts or other promotional activities you may plan to generate interest, that base is already covered here.

For some reason, the cart was abandoned and now all you need to do is rekindle that interest and this time make it irresistible to walk away from.

A persuasive and impactful abandoned cart email template needs to be the perfect finish to the journey your customers have already started.

What makes an abandoned cart email template impactful? What are the basic elements of an abandoned cart email template? How do you make sure that the customer takes the desired action and completes the order? Keep reading to find out.

7 essential elements of an effective abandoned cart email template:

1. Subject Line

The first and most important element that you must consider is the subject line of your abandoned cart email. If your subject line is weak, vague or spammy, the customer may not even know what the body of the email has. A strong, direct, funny or simple subject line that draws attention to the cart and what value it brings to the customer will compel the customer to at least open the email and read further – ultimately increasing your email open rate.

2. Image

If the customer has abandoned a pair of blue socks in the cart and your email shows images of red sweaters— there’s no connection and zero recall for the customer. This will lead to an instant walk out. The images you add to your abandoned cart email must be the same as the items abandoned in the cart— the product that got the customer’s interest in the first place.

3. Call-to-Action

What is it that you ultimately want your customers to do after reading your email? Make a purchase and complete the order in this case, right? Have a clear Call-to-Action button that links to the exact page where customers can complete their purchase order. Make the Call-to-Action button stand out and impossible to miss to ensure a high click-through rate.

4. Copy

Abandoned cart emails are best kept clutter-free. Avoid large paragraphs or stories and stick to just the basics. A great copy on top, something bold and catchy, followed by a small description of the abandoned products is enough text for an abandoned cart email.

5. Clickable Links

Make all relevant and possible links clickable; taking them directly to the page where they can complete the order.

6. Identifiable

Make sure your email template design is easily identifiable by your customers. Simple ways to accomplish this are by adding in your brand logo at the top of the mail, adding reachable contact information, and using your brand colors. With Constant Contact you can easily create design templates that match your brand.

7. Address Problems & Give Solutions

If you feel that the customer has abandoned the cart because of a certain problem- address it. If the problem is high shipping charges, offer discounted ones. If the problem is lack of trust, offer privacy policies. If the problem is high prices offer discounts. Adding value with solutions to the most probable issues will generate the greater possibility of the customer completing their purchase.

Let’s recap.

Identifying the need to send abandoned cart emails is the first step to recovering losses and customers. What follows next are finer details and important steps that you need to take to ensure that the abandoned carts drive the desired action from your customers.

Start with a brainstorming session to identify what will work best with your customers. This includes the tone, approach and design elements.

Next, think of the many additional ways you can lure people back in with an abandoned cart reminder email. This includes added discounts and other deals that make it a complete package.

Then go on and get creative.

Think of the design elements that best resonate with your brand and your customers. This also includes the tone and approach you want to go for.

Finally, start putting it all together and make changes along the way until you strike the bullseye!

Planning, designing, and sending out abandoned cart emails may seem like a long and tedious process, but once you know what works it’s all an easy sail from there. Design a master abandoned cart email template and then just personalize it for each of your customers as and when required.

Believe me, you’ll soon start noticing how abandoned carts start getting empty; ready to be filled again.

Customers appreciate when a brand makes the first move and is willing to please them. Be that brand and woo your customers. Always follow the cart abandonment email best practices and never fail to impress.