Abandoned carts are the bane of any eCommerce professional’s existence, as they represent a critical missed opportunity. Someone visited your site, reviewed at least one product (sometimes multiple products), and loaded up a cart in anticipation of a purchase – and then they left without actually completing that purchase.
There are many possible reasons why someone might abandon a cart on your website, but no matter what, you know they were interested in your products; they just didn't follow through.
What's the best way to recover this potential purchase? Is it possible to change someone's mind and get them to come back to complete their checkout?
Why People Abandon Carts
Let's start by exploring why people abandon their carts in the first place. These are some of the most common motivators leading people to abandon their carts.
- Account creation requirements. Some people abandon a cart once they are forced to create an account with a website they have no intention of using in the future. Obviously, account creation is beneficial for you and your brand, as it gives you contact information and encourages use in the future. However, this step can be seen as a nuisance to some customers, prompting them to abandon the experience altogether.
- High delivery costs. The vast majority of customers would prefer free shipping to a comparable discount on the things they buy online. For some psychological reason, shipping costs are dissuasive. Even if your users have a shopping cart full of products they genuinely love for a price they're willing to pay, if they see a shipping cost that's too high when checking out, they'll be willing to abandon their cart. Offering free shipping isn't the only way to prevent this possibility, but it's one of your best bets.
- Difficult checkout processes. If the checkout process is long, complicated, or confusing, you can count on carts being abandoned. People want a checkout process that is smooth, fast, and easy; If they don't get it, they'll go somewhere else.
- Security concerns (or other second thoughts). Abandoned carts sometimes result from security concerns or other second thoughts. Your users may start to second guess whether they’re getting a good deal – or whether their transaction will be processed efficiently and securely.
- Simple procrastination. Sometimes, people abandon carts simply because they’re procrastinating. They haven't fully made up their minds about whether they want these products or whether they're worth the price, so they're delaying the decision.
How to Recover Abandoned Carts
There are essentially two categories of strategies designed to mitigate abandoned carts. One set of strategies is designed to make onsite improvements, so that users have a better experience and are less motivated to abandon their carts. For example, offering more payment options, streamlining the checkout process, and foregoing forcing users to sign up for an account can all help. However, these strategies are more about preventing carts from being abandoned than they are recovering carts that are already abandoned.
The other set of strategies is designed to reach out to customers who have abandoned their carts in the recent past. These strategies are designed to present your users with messaging that persuades them to come back to your site to complete their purchases.
Outreach Strategies for Recovering Abandoned Carts
There are many different outreach strategies you can use to recover abandoned carts, but one of them stands above the rest: embedded video in email. Sending an email to a person who has abandoned their cart is a reliable way to reach out to them, specifically, and encourage them to come back to your website to complete the purchase. Embedding video in that email will simply make your strategy even more powerful.
Why embed video in email?
- Automation. This type of outreach strategy is easy to automate. You don't have to manually chase down every single person who abandons a cart on your website. Instead, you can simply send out one or two automated emails to reach people who never completed their purchases.
- Personalization. With the right tools, like Viewed.video, you can personalize the videos you embed in your emails. This means you'll be able to reach an individual with a custom message, making the email much more relevant to them and encouraging action more successfully.
- Engagement. Most people find video to be much more engaging than written content or other forms of content. That's because videos are a multimedia experience, incorporating both visual and audio elements. It's also because videos are much more streamlined and faster to process and consume. In any case, embedded videos in email will help you gain much better engagement rates from your audience.
- Conversion rates. As a direct result of higher engagement and more personalization, you can expect higher conversion rates when you incorporate personalized, embedded videos into your outreach strategy.
Of course, there are other ways that you can recover abandoned carts on your website.
- Experience improvements. Don't forget about the onsite strategies that can prevent abandoned carts; fixing some of these experiential issues can encourage customers to come back to your website and complete their purchases. It will also serve to reduce the likelihood of abandoned carts in the future.
- Push notifications. Consider using push notifications to bring user attention to your website after they leave it. Push notifications are relatively easy to set up, so if you recover even a few abandoned carts this way, it will be worth your while.
- SMS text. If you have access to your customers’ phone numbers, consider utilizing SMS text to notify them that they have an abandoned cart. Reminding them of the interesting and attractive items they were about to buy could be all it takes to encourage them to come back.
Abandoned shopping carts are a frustrating missed opportunity, but you always have a chance to recover them. Sign up for free at Viewed.video for more information on personalized, embedded email video – and start generating the revenue you’d otherwise miss!
