Boost Your Sales by Recovering Abandoned Carts

The ecommerce industry keeps gaining momentum, and along with its growth have arrived some business concerns you've probably never even thought of. Did you know that many online businesses face high shopping cart abandonment rates?

According to recent studies, the global cart abandonment rate is around 70% - that means that 70 out of 100 customers filled their shopping carts up on an ecommerce site, and for one reason or another changed their minds and didn't buy anything. This may sound discouraging (because, well, it is) - but it can also be seen as an opportunity for you to recover potentially lost sales and increase your revenue through abandoned cart recovery. 

In this article, we'll dig into more about why shopping carts get abandoned online, the benefits of recovering abandoned carts, and strategies to do so.

Reasons Why Users Abandon Shopping Carts

We all know that online shopping keeps getting more and more popular - but cart abandonment has also become an unfortunate phenomenon for ecommerce businesses. Here are some of the reasons why ecommerce shoppers are just leaving their carts in the middle of the virtual aisle:

Unexpected Costs

When shoppers expect a certain total at the end of their shopping experience, unexpected charges or higher than anticipated totals can result in them abandoning their shopping cart at checkout. Businesses and online shops need to be clear about their shipping fees (and any additional costs) right on product pages, to avoid shoppers being unpleasantly surprised when a final, much higher, tally is displayed right as they're about to make their purchase.

No Discounts 

Many users look for discounts or promo codes before making a purchase, especially if the ecommerce store they're shopping at is new to them. If businesses do not provide these opportunities, customers may decide not to purchase the item at all. Another reason to offer discounts or codes is that many shoppers may start their shop by comparing prices across multiple websites; while you may not always be able to offer the lowest price, you can at least get yourself into the competition with some fun discounts or special codes your customers can use.

Complicated Checkout 

A too-complicated checkout process is another reason why users abandon their carts. Of course there are basic requirements to shopping online, but once users get past things like their name, address, and confirmed payment information, having to do even more "paperwork" before you can complete your purchase can be annoying and discouraging. These missteps may include requiring users to create a full account before buying, or making them fill out customer surveys or other unnecessary forms as part of the checkout process.

Lack of Payment Options

Users can easily be deterred from purchasing an item if the business does not accept their preferred payment option. For instance, if a user wants to pay with PayPal, and the website only accepts credit cards, the user may abandon their cart. It's good to offer as many payment options as possible, to give customers choices (and less reasons to leave.) 

Concerns About Security

Users are understandably cautious about providing their personal and payment information online. If the website does not provide a secure checkout process, users may abandon their cart simply due to concerns about security.

Distracting Pop-Ups or Promotions

Too many distracting pop-ups or promotions during the checkout process can also lead to cart abandonment. Having to click on a multitude of pop-up windows or having a promotional banner slide in right across the description of a product that your customer was trying to read may cause users to become frustrated or overwhelmed, and can chase them right off of your site.

Limited Product Information

Speaking of product descriptions - customers appreciate detailed product info such as specifications/measurements, usage details, color choices, and reviews, so they have a solid idea of what they’re purchasing. If a product page lacks information about the product, users may not have confidence in buying from your site, and may again abandon their cart.

Long Delivery Times

Long delivery times, especially for time-sensitive purchases, can also deter users from making a purchase. Securing reasonable production and delivery times and offering accurate delivery time information during the checkout process can help reduce those cart abandonment rates.

What is Abandoned Cart Recovery?

So one of the above reasons happened to you, and now you've got an abandoned cart sitting in your ecommerce store's checkout lane. 

What now? 

Abandoned Cart Recovery is the process of targeting customers who added items to their cart on an ecommerce shopping site, but did not complete their purchase. It involves using targeted marketing campaigns, such as personalized emails, retargeting ads, and specialty pop-ups to remind customers of the products left behind, and to encourage/motivate them to complete their purchase.

Abandoned Cart Recovery Strategies to Boost Sales

Improve Information

If your analysis shows that you're not providing enough information with your products, address your users’ concerns by providing detailed product descriptions, user ratings, and reviews; these can help users make informed decisions and increase their confidence in finalizing their purchases.

When you open a shop on Fourthwall, you’ll have plenty of room to customize your product name, description, details, and pricing.

Personalize the Experience

Personalized messages can help build a connection with users, and increase the likelihood of them returning to their cart. Personalization could include addressing them by name, recommending products based on their browsing history, sharing a quick blurb about how they're going to love the product they're ordering, or (if you have the data from their past shops) offering products, deals, or incentives tailored to their interests.

Optimize Your Website

Improving the user experience in general and making the checkout process more streamlined will always go a long way toward helping reduce cart abandonment rates. This could include reducing the number of form fields or steps required to complete the purchase; optimizing the website for mobile devices; or upgrading the quality of your product photos, product descriptions, and FAQ section. Ensuring that your customer service department is easy to contact and quick to reply is another plus.

Maximize Payment Options

Offering plenty of payment options prevents your customers abandoning their cart simply because they didn’t have the “right” method to pay for their selections. At minimum, make sure you include all major credit cards and at least one other method, such as a digital wallet like PayPal; this is definitely a case of “the more choices, the better.”

Fourthwall alleviates this problem by offering a wide range of payment options, including most major credit cards and debit cards, gift cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and even selected local payment methods for specific countries, such as France’s Cartes Bancaires and Germany’s GiroPay.

Offer Rewarding Incentives 

Incentives can be powerful motivators for users to complete their purchase. In addition to offering a discount or free shipping on the contents of an abandoned cart, you could also throw in a free gift with purchase, a discount code for a future purchase, or a referral code where the customer will get a bonus of some sort for bringing their friends to your store. Offering such incentives can increase the likelihood of users returning to their cart and finishing the purchase.

Send Reminder Emails

One of the simplest and most effective strategies for Abandoned Cart Recovery is sending timely reminder emails. These emails should remind users of the items in their cart in a friendly, positive way and offer an incentive, such as a discount or free shipping, to encourage them to complete the purchase.

Implement Retargeting Ads

Retargeting, or "remarketing," ads are paid, targeted advertisements that display to cart abandoners and people who have interacted with your website. These ads can specifically highlight the items they left behind, and offer an incentive for your customer to return and buy them. For instance, if a customer put a customized water bottle in their cart, but left without purchasing it, your ad can retarget them so that when they're searching for water bottles online later, they're served an ad for your store’s water bottles.

Use Recovery Tools

Fourthwall keeps the Abandoned Cart Recovery process simple by offering their own easy-to-use Abandoned Cart Email settings for your Fourthwall store. You can additionally integrate Klaviyo with your Fourthwall store for even more customer tools to gain analytics, boost sales, and retain customers.

Tools like Meteorik or Black Crow are available for some sites to help businesses recover abandoned carts. These tools automate the recovery process by tracking your abandoned carts and sending targeted automated emails that prompt users to complete their purchase. 

5 Benefits Of Recovering Abandoned Carts

As an ecommerce business, abandoned carts represent lost revenue and can be detrimental to your overall sales and profits. This is where Abandoned Cart Recovery steps in. Here are five benefits of implementing Abandoned Cart Recovery strategies:

1. Recovers Lost Revenue

Abandoned Cart Recovery can recover lost shop revenue by reminding potential customers of the products they left behind and motivating them to complete their purchase.

2. Provides a Personalized Approach

Abandoned Cart Recovery strategies like email campaigns can provide a more personalized approach to communicating with users, increasing the chances of both getting the abandoned purchase completed, and also establishing customer loyalty to your shop.

3. Fine-Tunes User Experience

Simplifying the checkout process and addressing recurring pain points of your customers can improve their shopping experience and, in turn, improve their perception of your store. By analyzing the reasons for cart abandonment, you can gain insights into customer behavior and use this data to fine-tune how your store functions.

4. Improves Conversion and Retention

By bringing back potential customers in spite of their previously abandoned cart, abandoned cart recovery helps increase conversion rates for your business. Abandoned Cart Recovery can also help improve customer retention by providing a personalized approach to make returning customers feel valued.

5. Reduces Cart Abandonment Rate

By successfully recovering abandoned carts, businesses can ultimately reduce their overall cart abandonment rate, increase their revenue, and grow a loyal customer base.

Optimize Your Store To Avoid Cart Abandonment With Fourthwall

Fourthwall empowers creators to open their own ecommerce store and sell merchandise directly to their fans. This lets you strengthen your brand, create a loyal base of customers, and expand your online community like never before. 

With Fourthwall, you can really amp up your store by adding dozens of customized products with plenty of color options and space for your own detailed descriptions; thanking your customers with customer video messages; and integrating all your socials so your customers and fans can find you across the internet. You can also offer memberships, direct fans to your own fully branded mobile phone app, and so much more.

By running your own Fourthwall store and having that direct relationship with your fans/customers, you can understand your audience better, collect relevant analytics, tailor your store’s merchandise offerings to your customers' interests, and minimize the dreaded cart abandonment!