5 Abandoned Cart Recovery Strategies For E-commerce - Updated 2023

When it comes to shopping online, one of the biggest dangers is the abandoned cart. According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.82%.

That means that for every 100 people who add items to their online shopping cart, 69 of them will leave without completing the purchase.

Abandoned cart recovery is a tricky problem for e-commerce businesses. Your company needs to recover the abandoned cart to continue to sell other products. 

Recovering is a tough ask for any business, especially for those who sell digital goods. The traditional model doesn’t work for many stores due to the small margin on each sale. With e-commerce, that margin is even smaller. 

Fortunately, you’ll learn how to do it right with this guide. And, if you’re wondering how other merchants handle shopping cart abandonment, keep reading to discover their best practices.

What Is Abandoned Cart Recovery?

Abandoned cart recovery is the process of contacting a customer who has recently purchased a product but does not intend to buy from you again. After you recover the abandoned cart, you can encourage online shoppers to buy other products from you.

Why Is Abandoned Cart Recovery Important?

If you don’t get that customer to add their email in the checkout flow, there’s no way to get them to the next step. After all, that first purchase is what gets you the email address. Alternatively, you may also provide your email address to a popup form. It’s also the best sign you can get to see if they’ll become a future customer.

Why is recovering abandoned carts so important? Because if you don’t, you’ll miss out on sales. After all, nearly all purchases come with a customer’s email address and other information such as their name and the product(s) they purchased. You can then market to them, send them emails, and more when you get the email address.

Why Is Recovering Abandoned Carts Difficult?

There are many reasons why recovering abandoned carts is difficult. One reason is that customers may not remember their cart contents or may have decided they no longer want the items. 

Additionally, customer contact information is often not available, making it difficult to reach out and remind them of their forgotten items. Finally, some customers may be concerned about security and privacy issues, making them reluctant to provide their information to retrieve their cart. 

Overall, recovering abandoned carts can be a challenge, but some strategies can be used to improve the chances of success.

Strategies For Recovering Abandoned Carts

While recovering abandoned carts is a difficult task, there are a few strategies you can use. Here they are:

• Generate Emails

The best way to recover abandoned shopping carts is to send emails to your current and prospective customers. Send them an email that reminds them that they left items in their cart. Consider offering them a discount on their next purchase.

Abandoned cart email campaigns are effective, with an estimated $2.64 in revenue generated for every $1 spent on the campaign.

• Show You’re Active

Another great way to recover abandoned carts is to show customers that your online store is active. You’re sending them emails, replying to their emails, and so on.

• Offer A Larger Rebill Amount

Last but not least, offer a higher rebate amount than what’s listed on your product pages. This is because people are more likely to rebill a larger amount than a small amount.

This means that you are offering a higher percentage back to the customer for any future purchases they make. 

For example, if your product is $100 and you offer a 20% rebate, the customer will get $20 back for any future purchase they make. This is a great way to increase customer loyalty and get them to come back for more!

If you’re already doing this naturally, this is an easy way to boost your revenue.

• Estimate The ROI Of Rebill Based On Historical Data

Rebills are one of the least effective strategies for recovering abandoned carts. Why? Because the ROI is way too low. Rebills are rarely worth your time. At best, you might get one sale out of it.

And that’s not even counting the time you wasted on the abandoned cart in the first place.

What is a Rebill?

A rebill is when a customer is charged again for a product they’ve already purchased. This can happen if the product is defective, damaged, or simply not what they wanted. In any case, the customer is entitled to a refund.

The reason why rebills are so low is that it’s an improbable scenario. You have to assume that a customer will add you as a favorite and then check out again. That’s very unlikely.

• Add A Forced Rebill Option To Increase Sales

One of the best ways to get your customers to add their email addresses is to force their address. Therefore, use a method like an address confirmation to get them to provide their actual address. If they don’t have to enter it themselves, they are more likely to do it.

This is especially true if they’re buying other products simultaneously. Therefore, force the address at sign-up if you’re offering a bundle deal. This will help you recover more abandoned carts.

Reasons Why Shoppers Abandon Their Cart

There are many reasons why shopping cart abandonment occurs, but some of the most common include:

Not Ready To Buy

Some shoppers aren’t sure if they want to make a purchase, so they add items to their cart to save them for later. They may also be comparison shopping and not ready to commit to purchasing from a particular store.

Shipping Costs

Unexpected shipping costs can be a dealbreaker for many shoppers. According to UPS, 56% of shoppers say that they have abandoned a cart because of unexpected costs. Shops offer free shipping to combat this, but often at the expense of their margins.

Complexity Of Purchase

If the purchase process is too complex or takes too long, shoppers will likely abandon their carts. If shoppers don’t see their preferred payment options available, they may abandon their carts.

Problems With The Website

If the website is slow or difficult to navigate, shoppers will likely give up and go somewhere else. Checkout page errors can also lead to abandoned carts.

Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

So how can you reduce your cart abandonment rate and recover lost sales? Here are some abandoned cart recovery strategies for e-commerce stores:

Send A Reminder Email

One of the most effective abandoned cart recovery strategies is to send a reminder email to customers who have left items in their cart. This reminder email should include the items left in the cart and a link to complete the purchase.

Offer A Discount

Another way to encourage customers to complete their purchase is to offer a discount, such as free shipping or a percentage off the total purchase. This can be included in the reminder email or displayed prominently on the website.

Make The Purchase Process Simpler

Try simplifying the purchase process if you find that customers are abandoning their carts due to complexity. This may mean reducing the number of steps in the checkout process or making it easier for customers to enter their shipping information.

A complicated checkout process can also lead to abandoned carts, so make sure the checkout process is as streamlined as possible.

Improve Your Website Design

Make sure your website is easy to navigate and visually appealing. This will help keep shoppers engaged and reduce the likelihood of them abandoning their carts.

Offer Customer Support

If customers have questions or encounter problems during the purchase process, be sure to offer customer support. This could include a live chat, a phone number, or an email address.

By following these abandoned cart recovery strategies, you can reduce your cart abandonment rate and recover lost sales. So don’t give up on those carts just yet!

How Long Does It Take To Recover An Abandoned Cart?

The average abandoned cart recovery time is 24 hours. However, it can take up to a week for some customers to receive their recovered items. There are a few factors that can affect the amount of time it takes to recover an abandoned cart, including:

• The size of the order: Larger orders may take longer to recover than smaller orders.
• The shipping method: If the customer chose a faster shipping method, their order will likely be recovered sooner than if they chose a slower shipping method.
• The number of items in the cart: If the cart contains a large number of items, it may take longer to recover than if it contains a smaller number of items.
• The availability of the items: If the items in the cart are out of stock, it may take longer to recover the order than if the items are in stock.

If you are concerned about the amount of time it is taking to recover your abandoned cart, you can contact the customer service department of the company from which you placed the order. They may be able to give you an estimated recovery time based on the factors listed above.

Which Tools Can Help You Recover Abandoned Carts?

Countless tools can help you recover lost customers. However, the ones we recommend are specifically designed for this problem. Let’s look at both of these tools in detail and see how they can help you recover lost customers.

AbandonedCartTracker

First, let’s talk about AbandonedCartTracker. This is more of a service provider than a tool. However, it’s great for recovering both lost customers and abandoned carts.

Once you sign up with AbandonedCartTracker, you’ll get reports. One of those reports is called AbandonedCarts. That report shows you the number of carts that are currently uncollected. You can also see the length of time they’ve been abandoned. This is useful because it helps you determine which carts to focus on.

TargetedEmail

Next, let’s talk about TargetedEmail. This email software allows you to send marketing campaigns with urgency.

The great thing about this software is that you can send emails triggered by actions, events, etc. You can also choose to activate emails with a time-to-action (TTA). Your emails will be sent when your customers are in the specific store section. That’s a great way to promote your products.

Once you get your email software up and running, you’ll want to choose which products you want to send emails for. You can do that by going to your Campaigns page. You can then create new campaigns and choose which products you want to target.

One of the best features of this email software is called Cart Recovery. This feature lets you recover unopened orders. You can then send them emails that promote your other products.

Final Thoughts: Is Recovering Abandoned Carts Worth It?

Recovering an abandoned cart is necessary, first because it’s a common thing to do if you want to run a successful e-commerce store. And second, because it’s profitable. That being said, it’s also a challenging endeavor that may or may not work for any given store. Interested in  e-commerce strategy services? Contact our team at Bluetuskr, a e-commerce marketing agency.