Engaging Shoppers to Become Buyers: Software Solutions to Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment

Website traffic is up, so why aren’t sales?

If your e-commerce store is seeing an uptick in website visitors but needs to increase sales, it may be time to implement cart abandonment software to turn shoppers into buyers.

What is Cart Abandonment in E-Commerce?

Simply put, when consumers shop on your website and fill their shopping carts but fail to complete the checkout process, that’s cart abandonment. Each item left in the cart is considered “abandoned,” which is more common than you may think. Baymard Institute “calculated the average cart abandonment rate of 69.99%.” (Source)

Top Reasons for Cart Abandonment

You’re probably wondering why the cart abandonment rate is so high. Well, shopping cart abandonment is the digital age version of window shopping. In fact,?according to the Baymard quantitative study, 58.6% of US online shoppers indicated they were “just browsing” and abandoned their cart before even initiating the checkout process. Furthermore, this same study revealed five additional reasons cart abandonment occurs.

The?2022 Baymard Study?Found:

48% of online shoppers abandon carts after being turned off by extra costs, such as high shipping rates, taxes, or additional fees

24% of online shoppers abandon carts because they were unwilling to create an account if required during the checkout flow.

22% of online shoppers abandon carts due to slow shipping and delivery options.

18% of online shoppers didn’t trust the site, which resulted in cart abandonment.?

17% of online shoppers cited a complicated or long checkout process as the reason for lost sale. /

So how can businesses move consumers from the browsing experience to the buying experience? That’s where cart abandonment software comes in.

How Cart Abandonment Software Can Help

Just because a casual shopper abandons a cart doesn’t mean the sale is lost. On the contrary, cart abandonment software can help you acquire sales by improving the on-site shopping experience, thereby detouring abandonment, and using marketing automation to manage abandoned cart recovery.

Detouring Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment software helps companies get a better understanding of online consumer behavior. Findings can reveal e-commerce pain points that companies need to resolve. For instance, a simple and transparent return policy that is clearly articulated on your website can offer a shopper peace of mind and build trust. Another pre-abandonment strategy is to display shipping rates and delivery dates early in the shopping process, so buyers are not shocked at checkout. Even better, offer a code to access free shipping at checkout, and you’re more likely to motivate the shopper. In fact,?Shopkick reports?that 94% of consumers consider free shipping a crucial incentive to detour cart abandonment. These practices frequently result in captured sales that could have otherwise been lost.

Cart Abandonment Recovery

Once a shopper abandons their cart, companies must use marketing tactics to persuade them to return and complete the checkout process. There are three highly regarded abandoned cart recovery strategies: exit intent pop-ups, email marketing campaigns, and online ads.

Cart Recovery Strategy One: Exit Intent Popups

When a shopper indicates they are leaving the site, often by clicking or navigating to an exit button, a site can automate a response to show an ‘exit intent popup’ offer intended to entice the consumer to complete the purchase. The offer will show a call to action to keep the consumer on the site longer, like an exclusive sale or one-day-only coupon offer. A timely pop-up with the right offer can be enough to turn a potential abandonment into a successful sale.

Cart Recovery Strategy Two: Email Marketing Campaigns

Email campaigns are a proven strategy to achieve abandoned cart recovery. That’s why?71% of marketers?trust this post-abandonment strategy to retarget customers and increase sales. Using one to three follow-up emails, retailers can:

Send an abandoned cart email that shows the items left behind to reinvigorate the buyer’s want reflex

Offer reviews to build trust and showcase other happy buyers

Include a call to action to bring the consumer back to the site.

The call to action is critical. Discount offers are often the most effective strategy used in email marketing. Creating urgency by indicating a limited quantity or “almost sold out” update can also entice a more immediate response.

The timing of the email is critical. The first message should be sent within the first 24 hours, and some studies suggest that it’s best to have the reminder go out within three hours of the shopping experience. The second and third attempts should only be days apart and occur in the first week following the shopping experience.

Make sure the email subject line is specific and engaging, and personalize the content within the email.?Salesforce reports?that email marketing with effective retargeted messaging results in 17.6% more sales conversions.

Cart Recovery Strategy Three: Retargeting Ads

Thanks to cookies that track visitor activities and IP addresses, companies can pay to re-engage previous website visitors using online retargeting ads. So, even though the shopper is no longer on your company’s site, you can follow them to their social media feed or online search to serve an ad reminder about the abandoned cart. These ads are personalized to the consumer’s interests and therefore are more successful in gaining attention. Like in the email campaign, the ad must have a strong call to action to create a conversion.

Top Cart Abandonment Software Solutions

When considering which cart abandonment software solution is best for you, look to the companies that effectively detour abandonment and re-engage consumers with cart recovery strategies.

Omnisend

Omnisend?offers a free trial to let companies learn first-hand how their strategies turn shoppers into happy customers. Omnisend captures email addresses and cookies, so their strategy includes email marketing and retargeting ads.

Digioh

Digioh?is regarded in the marketplace for its pre-abandonment solutions. When companies use Digioh, consumers are more likely to fill their carts and complete the checkout process all in one transaction, thanks to the company’s focus on enhancing the shopping experience. Using analytics, Digioh helps make real-time recommendations about products the consumer may want based on recent shopping activity. These prompts build trust and enhance the shopper’s experience.

OptinMonster with Drip

OptinMonster?tracks the shopper’s cursor and uses exit intent pop-up ads to entice the potential customer to complete the checkout flow before navigating away from the site. Behavior automation helps personalize and target ads to generate conversions most effectively. OptinMonster works well in conjunction with?Drip, a service that specializes in cart abandonment email marketing. Learn more about?OptinMonster with Drip.

Retainful

Retainful?maximizes the power of email marketing at every stage of the marketing funnel to help companies re-engage shoppers. Pre-built templates make it easy for you to develop and deliver email campaigns that result in conversions. And while email marketing is the cornerstone of the Retainful success model, the software also offers exit intent pop-up ad functions and cart tracking.

Active Campaign

Active Campaign?is unique in its approach to helping companies understand why consumers abandon carts, thereby arming you with information to detour abandonment. Retargeting emails are sent to shoppers, and as an extra incentive, if a consumer doesn’t complete a purchase, there’s a form that asks consumers why. In exchange for a response, consumers get a credit towards their future purchase. Furthermore, Active Campaign’s abandoned cart calculator helps companies track lost revenue due to abandonment.

CartBounty

CartBounty?is an excellent solution for smaller companies that rely on WordPress sites. As a WordPress plugin, CartBounty it’s an excellent tool for beginners to improve e-commerce business practices and reduce cart abandonment. Features of CartBounty include email marketing, exit intent pop-ups, and optimization of the checkout flow.

Enhance Your Consumer Connections

Once you have incorporated cart abandonment software into your e-commerce strategy, you will increase consumer interaction opportunities. Make sure these interactions go one step further than just a product reminder. Weave cause marketing into your strategy and emphasize your company’s purpose at every touchpoint, especially if a portion of proceeds helps a cause. After all, purpose-driven ads have been proven?more effective two-thirds of the time.

If you’re new to cause marketing, you can use a resource like DailyKarma to help develop, execute, and track your cause marketing campaign efforts. Your combined efforts to incorporate cause marketing tactics and implement cart abandonment software solutions will yield maximum revenue results.

Bye, Bye Abandoned Carts. Hello Revenue Spikes.

Abandoned carts offer untapped revenue potential. With the right cart abandonment software and effective retargeting strategy, you can turn an abandoned cart into a big payday. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to optimize your website’s e-commerce flow and re-engage valued consumers.