Abandoned carts are the arch-enemy of e-commerce businesses. Having a major effect on potential profit, abandoned carts are a frustratingly common occurrence for any online store.

Shopify estimates that the e-commerce industry loses up to $18 billion each year in potential revenue, with only 31% of users returning to their cart.

There are two key elements in reducing the likelihood of your store being impacted by abandoned carts: reducing the chances of carts being abandoned in the first place, and bringing customers back to purchase if they’ve left.

Before we hit the strategy, let’s dive into why shoppers may abandon their carts.

According to the Baymard Institute, there are four main reasons carts are abandoned:

Extra costs are too high

Around 55% of cart abandonment comes from extra costs being too high (e.g. shipping, tax, service fees, etc.). Cost is a major factor in the decision-making process and with recent increases in the cost of living and competition, customers want to feel as though they are getting a good deal. 

Account is required

Customers want convenience and efficiency during their checkout process. While having an account can reduce time to checkout in the future, for first time customers, having to create an account can turn them away. If your store doesn’t have the ability to checkout as a guest, you might see upwards of 24% cart abandonment as a result.

Customers are saying that having to populate fields that are unnecessary and don’t relate to the purchase of the product is a cause of frustration. This can ultimately increase the likelihood of them abandoning their cart.

Checkout is too long

18% of customers abandon their carts if they feel the checkout process is too long or complicated.

Gathering customer information is important but there needs to be a balance between what is absolutely necessary to collect, and creating a simple, streamlined checkout experience.  On average, the checkout process includes 23 form.

They don’t trust the site

Having to put your credit or debit card details directly into a website that they have not purchased from before is a red flag for many shoppers. E-commerce stores without secure payment options such as PayPal or Shop Pay could see up to 17% of shoppers abandon their carts during their checkout process.

Now we know some of the main reasons why shoppers abandon their carts, let’s dive into how we can reduce the number of abandoned carts and make sure we aren’t losing profits.

Offer incentives

Incentives are an easy way to get your customers to complete their purchases on the spot or to bring them back to checkout.

Here are my 3 favourite incentives:

1. Monetary discounts

Discounts come in many forms. Typically, you might see a $10 or 10% off coupon via a discount code but these aren’t the only ones. For example, you might get half price on a second item that you purchase or even a buy one get one free. Keep in mind, however, that most shoppers know that if they abandon their cart they will likely receive a discount offer. Use this method sparingly to prevent it becoming expected, causing shoppers to abandon their carts on purpose to get the deal.

2. Free shipping

There are many times when we have gone to purchase on a site and been baffled by the cost of shipping that has been added to our cart. A free shipping coupon code is just the thing that can turn a cart abandoner into a sale. If you already have free shipping incentives when customers purchase a certain $ amount, perhaps you can offer discounted express or next-day delivery as a way to entice them back.

3. Thank you gift

Offering a freebie to a customer can be an effective way of getting them to return. This can be anything from free samples to tote bags, or a free gift with purchase. Make sure that the product you are offering doesn’t ultimately affect the margins of the sales but has enough value for the customer.

Have a seamless checkout process

Customers want to take the least amount of clicks to checkout. Making sure that the checkout process is as easy as possible is key. Plugins like Shop Pay allow customers to have all their details pre-filled during their checkout process, allowing for a quick sale. Using the Shop Pay service allows customers to increase the speed of their checkout by 4x and, according to Shopify, can be proven to increase conversion rates by upwards of 36%.

Even if you aren’t on Shopify, check out your e-commerce platform’s app marketplace to find a plugin that will help speed up your checkout process. Our sister agency Iterate also has an article about what not to do in your checkout funnel to ensure that your checkout is optimised, so you don’t add to the number of abandoned carts you have!

Use a well-known e-commerce platform

The user experience when shopping online is the starting point of ensuring that the customer completes their purchase. Using a well-known platform such as Shopify will allow the customer to have a positive experience regardless of device or location.

While a custom design has the most potential to really deliver on user experience, if that is not a viable option for your business, most e-commerce platforms have a large range of easy-to-use templates and designs that are user-friendly and will complement your store’s appearance and brand dramatically. These templates are likely to be user-friendly, intuitive and familiar to the customer. This will likely result in the customer having a positive experience with your store and will have a higher chance of converting.

Ensure your abandoned cart email automation is optimised and set

Email automation might just be the most crucial way to reduce the number of abandoned carts your business gets. Using an email marketing tool allows you to create simple but effective abandoned cart emails to target your customers after they have left your site. You have the ability to customise send times and the content of these emails so it’s tailored to your brand and brand messaging.

Here are our top five best practice tips for your email automation:

• Products left in the cart should be front and centre
• Clear calls to action should be placed as high as possible and repeated throughout the email
• Use dynamic content to show live, up-to-date information where possible (Name, total cart amount etc.)
• Send more than one email to increase the chances of conversion
• Show reviews and testimonials of that or similar products

Losing customers to abandoned carts can significantly impact your business’ potential revenue. However, as we have outlined, there are many ways you can reduce the number of times it happens.

Keep in mind that you won’t be able to win back every abandoned cart that your shop has. It happens all the time in e-commerce stores and even at in-person physical stores with ‘window shoppers’ and the like but you can reduce that percentage. You could also try boosting your e-commerce sales in other ways or implement tactics for building loyalty.

Reach out to us if you want more information about this topic!

Click Frenzy is fast approaching so if you’d like to capitalise on the millions of users who’ll visit the online marketplace, here are a few key things you should work on over the next two weeks!

Before getting into it though, you’ll need to make one key decision – will you officially join Click Frenzy, or unofficially ride off the hype?

Option 1. Taking part in the official Click Frenzy promotion

Many big-name online retailers use this event to generate large volumes of traffic and clear out stock. You’ll see brands like The Iconic, City Beach, PetStock, and Michael Hill all featured on the platform. On day one of last year’s event, participating retailers saw an average of 65% increase in traffic to their site. Featuring on the platform not only means you’re more likely to be seen by people in the shopping spirit, but also more likely to reach new customers.

However, you do need to pay to be there just like with any other form of advertising. You can use their self-serve advertising tool to see what the process is like and how their pricing model works. Before choosing this option, weigh up whether the cost of advertising on the platform will be outweighed by the increased sales.

Option 2. Making the most of people’s deal-finding goals unofficially

You can capitalise on purchase-driven mindsets without paying to feature on the platform. You can still generate a great deal of buzz within your own community through earned media advertising. If you have a solid earned audience (think email databases and social media followers), you may decide that this option is enough for you to get the pick-up in sales that you’d like.

You may also choose to run ads on social media or Google search to reach additional audiences. Click Frenzy has a fixed $0.80 cost per click on top of the fixed fee to feature a deal. Compare this to what your average CPC has been in the past (with a little wiggle room for increased competition) to help you decide which option is best.

Whichever option you decide on, there are several things you can do in the lead-up to the special event to help maximise your results.

Put Consideration Into Your Deals

It’s important to spend some time putting careful thought into the deals you offer as part of your sale. Potential customers will expect big discounts (remember, Click Frenzy does crazy 99% off deals), but it’s still essential to keep your bottom line in mind. If you can’t financially offer big discounts on your products, consider if you can provide small free gifts or free shipping instead.

You may wish to use this as an opportunity to promote some of your lesser-known or new products as well. Think about creating bundle deals specially for the event and pairing them with your more popular products.

Come up with a Backup

Selling out of your top products is a great thing, but it’s good to have some backups in mind in case you do. If potential customers visit your site wanting to purchase a specific item but you’ve sold out, is there something else you can promote instead? A similar product that would serve the same purpose for them and help ensure you don’t miss a sale.

Make the Most of Social and Email Marketing

Make it really clear when and how people will be able to access your deals!

A couple of days before the event, we recommend posting on all of your relevant social channels to capture as much of your audience as you can. This could include a combination of feed posts with the details and stories with countdowns.

Pair this with email communications to retarget past customers and subscribers. Depending on how well your database has been segmented, you should also tailor these emails where possible. Consider contacts that are yet to make their first purchase; an email to them could read, ‘Have you been a bit unsure about your first purchase? Maybe one of our biggest sales of the year will help.’ Or, if you’ve got a group of VIP customers who always shop with you, you could offer them an exclusive deal, ‘We wanted to say an extra special thank you this weekend! Use the code ABC123 for a fun surprise.’

Perform a Website Health Check

You’re potentially (hopefully) about to get a lot of traffic on your site, so let’s give them the best user experience possible. Particularly if it’s been a little while since you last reviewed everything, you’ll want to check on your checkout flow, your chatbot / customer service setup, and general usability.

We know that 87% of people will stop a purchase and abandon their cart if the process is too difficult. We don’t want that to happen during a big event.

The team at Iterate, our sister agency, have written an article all about getting your website ready for Click Frenzy. Take a look at it to find out how to ensure your site has the best chance of converting customers.

Double Check Your Email Workflows

Your customers’ experiences after they check out are just as important as the purchasing process. You want to make sure any automated emails you have set up (think confirmation emails, shipping updates, and friendly check-ins) are all fresh and up-to-date.

Keep Their Advertising Rules in Mind

Keep in mind that Click Frenzy is a brand in its own right and they have specific regulations surrounding the promotion of their trademark. Without explicit permission from Click Frenzy, you cannot use the term ‘Click Frenzy’ or feature their logo on any external promotional material.

When promoting your sales through social media posts, on your website, or in marketing emails, please remember to use different phrasing. This could include, ‘Special 24 Hour Sale’, ‘Shopping Frenzy’, ‘Deal Weekend’, or anything along these lines.

If you’re reading this the day before Click Frenzy or even after the event, don’t worry! These same tips will help you prepare for Cyber Weekend later in November or Boxing Day/New Year’s sales as well.

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What is Click Frenzy and how does it work?
Click Frenzy first launched in Australia in 2012 and is inspired by the huge Cyber Weekend deals seen in the USA (and now here too). Essentially, Click Frenzy acts as a marketplace for all of the biggest deals that are available during the limited time window. To officially be part of Click Frenzy as a brand, you actually need to pay an advertiser’s fee for each of your deals to feature on the platform. If a user clicks on your ‘ad’, they’re taken to your website to complete the purchase.

Litmus provides an analysis of how it works form the technical side:

1. When a user starts up their Apple Mail App, this will trigger a download of the email images to their device from their email host.
2. In intervals, Apple will download all the images to Apples Privacy Cache. This download will be by a proxy with an IP address, which is assigned to the general location of the user.
3. Apple’s caching process will require them to request the content and images from the email service provider, which includes requesting the open tracking pixel – this is what makes the ESP assume that the email has been opened by the user.
4. When the user actually opens the email is when all the content will get downloaded and display the images, which will come from the Apple Cache, not the ESP or webshot server.

Very techy, I know! What this really means is that Apple will open the email for you and then once you actually intend to view it by clicking on the email, it will show the content that was sent.

And you need to be prepared, as according to Litmas:

Black Friday will continue to be stretched out

After the ballooning of Black Friday in 2020, we don’t expect to see it bounce back to the original one-day event. Black Friday as a multi-day event is here to stay in 2021 for the majority of retailers, and customers are starting to expect it. 

Online sales will continue to skyrocket

In America in 2020, many popular items were out of stock online before the sun rose on Black Friday. Users know that they can buy online at midnight when many sales begin, getting ahead of the curb and snagging up those deals before the physical doors even open. We anticipate online sales for Black Friday will continue to surge in 2021 and beyond, particularly as more retailers have opened online stores in the past 18 months.