What Does Cart Abandonment Mean?

Cart abandonment is when a shopper finds things they like, sticks them in an ecommerce cart, and then...they quit before actually purchasing.

According to Baynard Institute, over 69% of online shopping carts are abandoned. Yikes.

I know, we all do this sometimes. And often for legitimate reasons. We get a bit tempted by something, then figure it's actually out of our budget. Or we find something elsewhere that just suits our needs better.

But there are also reasons for abandoning a cart that are less obvious, and more possible to change. As a merchant, there are some things you can do to minimise cart abandonment.

How Can We Get Customers to Come Back?

Optimise Your Checkout Process

Making sure checkout is as smooth as possible on both desktop and mobile is essential. If it's loading slowly, takes too many steps or is frustrating in any way, people will give up.

You can help improve this process by offering payment gateways your customers are already used to, like Apple Pay. You can also explore using Shopify's Buy Button - an easy integration into social media that puts a checkout right in front of your customers.

Remind your shoppers why they liked you in the first place

Once you've connected your Shopify store to MailChimp, you can can send automatic notifications to people who have abandoned their carts, and remind them what it is they wanted to buy.

You'll set up a template and MailChimp will do the rest. Be sure to let your personality and branding shine, and keep it feeling like a friendly person rather than a robot.

For example, think about how you might respond differently to:

"Hey there! Looks like you've left something behind and we miss you. Here's a discount code just for you," compared with

"You've abandoned your cart. Complete your purchase now!"

Timing matters

You want to remind your shoppers about their abandoned carts while it's still fresh in their mind, but after they've had a second to think things over, too. Most experts recommend sending your emails just 24 hours after they've abandoned their carts so there's some wiggle room.

How to Troubleshoot Your Abandoned Carts With Follow-Up Emails

Sending a follow-up email to shoppers who have abandoned their carts can help nudge them to come back. You can offer discounts to incentivise them, put pictures of the products they were interested in, and guide them straight back to their cart. You can even put product recommendations for similar products they may even like more.

Abandoned cart emails are based on data that comes from your store's history. When they are automated through MailChimp, you'll be able to automatically send intuitive emails with relevant information.

Here are a few things you should include in an email template:

Problem: Shoppers liked your products but got caught up doing other things.

Solution: Remind shoppers what they left in their cart

You can include product photos of what shoppers were looking at before they left. They'll be able to click through and go straight back to their cart

When you're writing your template text, try to include a sense of urgency. Use phrases like "Get ready for summer with the (x product) you loved" or "Get in quick before they're gone" etc.

Problem: Customers turned away because of unexpected or high costs

Solution: Give your customer a reason to come back with discounts

There are plenty of reasons why shoppers may abandon a cart, but one of the big ones is that the shipping costs or taxes throw off their willingness to pay. For those customers, offering a discount can help you increase conversions and make a sale that would otherwise not exist.

Make sure your expected shipping fees are clear on your website before your shoppers get to the cart to avoid those shocks that turn customers away.

Problem: Your shoppers are interested but not totally on board

Solution: Make some product recommendations

Maybe your shopper saw something they kind of liked, but not enough to buy. Putting some product recommendations in an abandoned cart email can show your customers items they might not have been aware of before, and maybe even like better.

Problem: Your shopper has questions they couldn't find answers to

Solution: Make your contact details more prominent

If someone goes onto your website and can't easily find an answer to something they want to know, they might want to get in touch. Make sure you're putting your customer service phone number in a prominent position in your emails and on your website.

How Do I Set Up An Abandoned Cart Email System?

Before You Start

• You’ll have to connect your Shopify store in your MailChimp account before you can create this automation email.

• If you've got any other automated abandoned cart services outside MailChimp, we recommend you turn them off. You want to nudge your customers, but not bombard them.

• You must include the Cart content block in your abandoned cart email. Classic templates are not compatible with the abandoned cart email unfortunately, so choose a template that is.

Quick Note: If a customer set to get an abandoned cart email actually purchases something before it's sent, they’ll automatically be removed from the queue. Sweet.

Add Automation

To create an abandoned cart email that automatically sends to relevant shoppers, follow these steps.

Navigate to the Automation page.
Click Add Automation.
On the Explore Automations page, locate the Abandoned Cart Email.
Click Add Automation.
In the Add Automation pop-up modal, select your connected store from the drop-down menu.

Edit Your Email Template

In the Automation Builder, you'll be able to edit emails, including frequency and content. This is where you write your catchy phrases and choose what kinds of discounts (if any) to include.

The automatic series includes three emails to your abandoned carters. Unless you change the settings, your potential customers will be reminded one hour, 24 hours, and three days after they've left your website. You can adjust the content and setting manually for each of the three, or choose to send only one or two emails.

Confirm and Begin

The Confirm step is where you’ll review your automation.

1 Review the checklist, and test each of your emails if you haven’t already.

2 Click Resolve or Edit to make changes to any section of the automation.

3 When you’re ready, click Start Workflow.

You're ready to start getting your customers back.

Review Your Abandoned Checkouts

It’s a good idea to review your abandoned checkouts to find patterns that may suggest why customers aren't completing orders. To view your abandoned checkouts from your Shopify admin, click Orders, then Abandoned checkout, and see what you find.

What Now

Elkfox can help you make the most of your Shopify store, and set up Shopify and MailChimp together. For more information, contact us today.

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