The abandoned cart flow, a must-have for all eCommerce: discover how to convert with minimal effort, because it's much easier to incentivize someone already close to making a purchase who, for some reason—potentially trivial—hasn't completed it.
How often does it happen that a customer adds an item to their cart only to abandon it? Did you know it's possible to create an incentive to finalize a purchase?
Approximately 75% of carts are abandoned. This means that only 1 in 4 customers who add something to their cart complete the transaction. But for us at magnews, this represents a great opportunity: activate an effective strategy to seize it quickly.
Activate an abandoned cart flow
Use one of the templates already available on magnews or create your flow from scratch.
The workflow templates available have already defined the starting event linked with your eCommerce solution. Moreover, they include a series of recommended actions and waits.
Follow three simple steps to activate your abandoned cart flow on magnews.
First step: deactivate abandoned cart emails from your eCommerce
Turn off cart recovery emails from your eCommerce or any plugins. magnews automation flows give you more control over the content and quality of the emails.
Second step: edit your emails
Click on the Send Message node to enter the designer.
Add the dynamic block to display the items left in the cart in the email body.
Then, customize the email to align it with your brand identity:
- Upload the logo in the header;
- Edit fonts and colors of buttons and backgrounds through the Styles section;
- Write a subject and text that matches your tone of voice.
Have you already set up the brand kit? If so, you'll find the logo, colors, and socials already set up.
Once the email is prepared, click on Preview and see how it will appear on desktop and mobile devices.
After completing the design, click Activate to make the email effective, then return to the workflow editor.
Edit the other emails in the series in the same way. You can use them to provide more information on shipping methods, return policies, or how to contact the customer service center. Or, you can share a promotional purchase incentive, as long as it aligns with your commercial strategies.
Third step: activate the workflow
Before activating the flow, conduct a test with a trial contact and verify that everything is in place.
For example, register on the eCommerce and add items to the cart: this way, you should receive the prepared communications and you can verify the behavior of the wait nodes.
Don't want to wait for the set time? Search the workflow among the active sessions related to your test and manually advance to the next step.
In a few minutes, you can test a workflow with a series of emails, set to last a few days overall.
Once the test is completed, activate the workflow to enroll all contacts who have left an abandoned cart.
Some useful tips
Here are some useful tips regarding workflows.
- Only contacts who leave an abandoned cart after the workflow activation enter the flow: create one as soon as possible to engage the maximum number of users.
- The flow proceeds from the event to an exit node: when a contact leaves an abandoned cart, they enter from the first event and proceed down the flow; if they make a purchase while in the flow, the condition check node will exit them with a positive outcome, preventing them from receiving further irrelevant communications.
- Narrow down eligible contacts: in the workflow settings, under the Limits section, you can allow entry only to contacts belonging to certain audiences or meeting specific conditions. During testing, restrict it only to your contact and those of your team.
- A contact can enter the workflow once only or multiple times within a time frame: define the entry frequency; if your strategy includes economic incentives, you can decide to recognize them only once every six months.
Best practices for abandoned carts
Why did the user leave items in the cart without completing the purchase? The reasons can be numerous.
Here's the most frequent ones and how to address them with email content.
- Unclear return policy: purchasing online can seem riskier for customers as they can't see, touch, or try the product; clearly reiterating the return policy is a good way to reassure customers.
- Unclear customer support: just like the return policy, providing clear information on how to contact customer service is a good way to let them know you'll be available for any doubt, question, or issue.
- Price: it’s always among the main reasons why customers abandon a cart; is there a way to work around the problem without abusing discounts, which impact your profits and brand image? For example, offer free shipping or a 10% coupon; furthermore, you could condition them to the cart amount to invest in the most profitable ones.
- Simple forgetfulness: most purchases are made on mobile, so it's easy to add something to the cart and then forget to complete the checkout: including images, descriptions, and prices of the items can increase the conversion rates of your flow.
Not just emails
Email remains the preferred channel for abandoned carts: it effectively transmits all content and incentivizes the customer to complete the purchase. Additionally, it is perceived as less intrusive compared to other direct channels.
However, you can also leverage SMS to redirect to the cart page: often, multichannel approaches yield better results!
Utilize AI nodes
When talking about wait times in a series of emails or incentives, there's no universal answer.
Use the AI Wait nodes and let magnews determine the ideal wait time, measured against the conversion rate.
Want to measure the effectiveness of shipping costs compared to a coupon? Create two separate branches in the flow and let AI Split handle it. Progressively, contacts will be directed down the branch with the highest conversion rate, leaving a residual share on the other.