Abandoned Cart Email

Many times, shoppers add a product to their cart but don’t proceed to complete the payment process. 

Statistics indicate that about 70% of online shoppers abandoned carts without purchasing.

They may add the product to the wish list while they compare prices and check other shopping platforms — but end up abandoning the product. 

Although users do not buy items due to various reasons, with the situation being so, your best bet to win them back is to set up and send them an automated abandoned cart email to remind shoppers they have items they are yet to purchase. 

The automated cart abandonment email serves as a nudge to enable them to complete the checkout stage. In a nutshell, abandoned cart emails allow you to encourage potential customers to return and purchase the item. 

But, how do you craft a creative abandoned cart email? What tips can you consider when crafting one? Let’s find that out in this article.

What is an abandoned cart email?

An abandoned cart email is an email you send to shoppers who leave items in their online shopping cart without completing their purchases.

It serves as a nudge and a friendly reminder to shoppers who may have forgotten about the products they intended to buy. 

Abandoned cart emails are mostly needed by eCommerce businesses and most companies with productized services and an online store where their target audience can self-serve and buy products.

Cart abandonment emails come as a complement of their online and email marketing strategy to help ensure that customers go all the way through to purchase.

Cart abandonment emails are automated email that get triggered once a potential buyer abandons their cart without completing their purchase.

Think of as a follow up email or reminder email to get them to complete their purchase. They are set up through an email marketing software.

Source: Really Good Email

In the example above, the abandoned cart email is simple and filled with marketing tactics to catch the recipient’s attention and re-engages customers to complete the purchase journey.

“The Great News” is a remarkable introductory text that intrigues the customers and prompts them to open the emails.

Meanwhile, “its prices just went down” is a great incentive that gently compels them to buy at a discounted offer, thereby fostering sales.

Another interesting feature is how the email copy included similar products, shirts of different patterns and colors as alternatives, to encourage conversion among customers.

How to write creative abandoned cart emails?

Although clear email copies with vivid images can prompt your customers to take an action, catching their attention may be a bit difficult if they can’t buy your products with ease.

Hence, the need to communicate arises. But before you create your piece, here is a vital prerequisite you should consider.

Start with a compelling subject line

When writing an abandoned cart email, your first step to success is to ensure that the subject line is captivating.

In a world where your customer’s inbox is filled with tons of emails, your only shot is to grab their attention.

Here are a few tips to write compelling subject lines. 

Leverage FOMO.

Your best approach to pick people interested in something they’re abandoning is to show them how they’re missing out. That’s why the fear of missing out (FOMO) will work for abandoned cart emails. 

Leveraging FOMO boils down to creating a valuable deal for the product they abandoned and creating a sense of urgency so that recipients will want to open your email and check it out in a given time frame. 

Even if they are not particularly interested in the product or promotion you offer, the FOMO can make them want to see what the offer is about, so it’s almost a sure open. 

Strike curiosity.

Creating subject lines that spark curiosity is a proven strategy for driving more email opens. People who are curious always ask questions and look for answers. 

Your prospects’ interests will be piqued with curiosity-provoking subject lines, and they will want to learn more.

Personalize it.

No two prospects are the same, and people want to feel individual. Not surprisingly, emails with personalized subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened.

By creating personalized subject lines you are giving yourself a better chance at getting a response on your cart abandonment email. 

You can personalize your subject line by including the date they made the uncompleted purchase, what items they abandoned or at what point they abandoned their cart. 

Mention the value.

If you are offering something valuable about the product they abandoned, you need to make it known upfront by mentioning it in the subject line. 

That said, are you offering: 

• A discount code?
• A free trial?
• A giveaway contest?
• To solve a problem?
• To help uncover churn?
• New experiences?
• Etc.

Whatever value you bring to their table with your new email, if you can sparkle in the subject line, it will help you win more openings and drive more interested people.

Leverage name recognition.

We all have celebrities, influencers, or like-minded people that we respect, admire, or/and look up to. 

Learning about your audience and mentioning the names of figures they respect and recognize in your subject lines can pique their interest and make them want to read what you have to say.

And more so if the product they abandoned is somehow related to the person you want to mention. 

Mind you, relevance is a fundamental factor to success with this. Mentioning people that are in no way associated with your brand, product, or service just throwing out a name for the sake of recognition won’t get you any results. 

Use contextual information be empathetic

If you want to write a creative abandoned cart email piece, then you need two vital pieces of information to scale you through. 

• Understand why the customer was interested in the product in the first place. 
• Understand why they didn’t complete the purchase process.
• List all the potential reasons because of which they may have stopped the purchase process. 

If you can identify all the potential blocks to their purchases, ignite them and provide solutions that ease them in your email copy, you are halfway on the journey. 

To do this, you may need to ask yourself these questions.

• “Are the shipping costs exorbitant?”
• “Is it that they came across unexpected shipping costs?”
• “Are your customers finding it difficult to register a new account?”
• “Is the payment method not suited to them?”
• “Does my website have security issues?”
• “Do visitors have trouble trusting our business?”
• “Are they getting better deals from competing businesses?”

These are a few of the questions you can ask on your end to improve your abandoned cart email strategy and reduce the friction between you and your potential buyers at the purchase stage.

And even if you do not have answers, you can obtain feedback from your customers, probably through surveys or polls, to determine why they do not eventually buy products from your site to recover abandoned carts. 

With this, you can send them an email, offering incentives such as discounted shipping fees, walk them through the checkout stage, or elucidate your site’s security safety. 

Remind them of the items in the cart

By the time your recipients get the email, they may have forgotten about the items they initially wanted to buy. 

If you do not remind them of what they had added to their carts in the email, they could get confused and eventually disregard your email. Situations like this can enable you to lose a potential sale. 

Reminding them about the product is as simple as adding a photo of the product in the email or actually formulating great sentences about it.

Here is an excellent abandoned cart email example with that. 

Provide more value to facilitate decision-making

Customers abandon carts for a reason.

It can be that your customers are skeptical about buying the product, unexpected shipping costs, or that they are still thinking about it and comparing alternatives options.

Whatever the case, your first and best abandoned cart email strategy is to let them know that you understand their skepticism and provide them with more reasons they need to complete the purchase they started. 

Here is an example of a cart abandonment email that does it really well. 

This is pretty much like handling their objections and giving them more reasons to be reassured in their decision to buy your product. 

You can consider incentives like offering free shipping, social proof, coupon codes, and more to bring back your lost customers.

But to be able to do this, you will need to conduct proper research through surveys or using heatmap tools to see exactly at what point your customers abandon their shopping carts.

The Where and Why for their cart abandonment will inform your abandoned cart email sequence.

Create a sense of urgency

As we mentioned earlier, the fear of missing out is heavy on individuals in reality. Most times, people often pay attention to what they will miss out rather than what they can have.

You can use this tactic to create a sense of urgency in your customers. Alert them on what they will miss out on.

Some tactics you can use include:

• Letting them know the item is about to be sold out
• Schedule limited time (a countdown) for their carts
• Setting an alert about the number of people that have purchased the product.

Alerting people on what they will  miss out on is a great way to have them check their abandoned carts again.

Include alternatives (up-sells and cross-sells)

Your customer may abandon their carts because they were not sure of what they wanted to buy. You can use similar products to sell the first product or simply get them to buy those.

If the original item isn’t what they desire, the alternatives can lead them on and convince them to buy.

Here are a few tips to do this.

• Offer accessories that align with the main products
• Reveal different patterns and colors of the item
• Do not offer replacements. Instead, show them similar products after viewing a particular product.

Add a clear call to action (CTA)

An abandoned cart email without a clear call to action is incomplete. Remember that your goal is to get your recipient to take a specific action (complete their purchase), so you should give them a nudge to act. 

Always ensure you include a clear call-to-action in your email. You may add this at the top or bottom of your email. The call-to-action may be “buy now,” “seal the deal,” or a  few more. 

5 tips to write abandoned cart emails that drive response

Here are a few tips and email copywriting best practices you can use to tweak your cart abandonment emails and their subject lines to set yourself up for the maximum success. 

1 – Make the subject line specific to the recipient and the context

Your customers are not abstract figures. They are humans and want to be treated as such. Personalizing the subject line enables them to feel known and important to you.

After all, about 26% of readers are more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines. 

Personalizing the subject lines increases the chance of engagement. You can do this by including relevant information on the recipient in the email. 

It could be their names, profession, or any relevant data.

An example is “Hey Linda, did you forget how much you wanted to buy this?” Or “Hi Jack, you forgot something!” Another way to do this is by mentioning the benefits. 

A message such as “Can you take good photos without your cameras?” results in a three-way association that reveals the purpose, the product, and how it meets the needs of the shoppers. 

2 – Keep the email simple

It is not all cart abandonment emails that require a clever way of writing them before you convince your audience.

Sometimes, the prospect has simply forgotten to complete the purchase and all you need to do to send the message in a clear, concise, and simple way. 

The mere notion that you remind them about a product they have forgotten is enough to encourage them to open the email and complete the purchase.

Simple messages such as “You still have some items in your cart,” and “Complete the orders” can get the job done.

3 – Offer incentives

Some individuals often abandon their carts due to high shipping fees or the cost of goods. If this is your situation, why don’t you offer some vouchers or discounts to catch their interests and win them back?

It can attract your customers and eventually persuade them to buy from you. 

However, ensure you exercise some caution when actualizing this strategy. Since it costs money in the long run, ensure you are getting enough sales to cater for the discounts.

4 – Get the timing right

Perfect timing is one the key determining factors for your success.

If you wait too long, you might lose the prospects to competitors or they may simply have moved on. If you send it too soon, you may piss them off for bugging them. 

Anway, your best bet is to send your abandoned cart emails within a few hours after a customer abandons their cart.

The first abandoned cart email should be sent within 24 hours at the very least. Any abandoned cart emails sent after the 24-hour window lose their effectiveness.

5 – Nail the call-to-action

The call-to-action is an essential element in your campaigns. Make it effective for your audience to use.

Linking your call-to-action wrongly can make you lose potential sales. Keep it short and easy to read for your customers.

5 abandoned cart email examples.

Abandoned cart emails come in various templates. Here are five abandoned cart email examples that can help you recover lost sales . 

1 – Nomad

Source: Really Good Emails

Short and simple, Nomad’s abandoned cart email consists of three elements. The first is an introductory text, “What happened?” and a closing call-to-action, “Checkout.”

 These customers prompt customers to go back to what they had left in the cart and then encourage them to complete the purchase process. 

They aren’t distracted by unnecessary details but remain focused on the main priority which is to buy the products they offer for sale.

2 – Alex Mill

Source: Really Good Emails

In this template, Alex Mill did a great job when crafting their abandoned cart email. 

• The use of simple text is helpful and serves as a reminder for the audience. For instance, the “Good News. We saved your pick” is helpful and reminds the prospect about what they had forgotten in the cart — the Patrick Denim Jacket.
• The email lists the item in the customer’s cart and provides a picture of it.
• They offer incentives that can draw the customer to the site. The “And you get them for 15% off” is a clickbait to eventually convert the customer.
• There is a call to action backed up by the incentive. The “check out with 15% off” can prompt the customer to eventually buy the product.

Above all, the email copy performs its function. Its design which is sleek and clean makes it easy for the readers while they scale through it. 

3 – Public Rec

Source: Really Good Email

In this template, Public Rec utilizes engaging texts, incentives, and call-to-actions to motivate their customers in completing the purchase.

The “Take another look” is a subtle reminder for the customer to view the product.

Thereafter, the incentives which are “enjoy free shipping” and “free returns on all orders,” make the email copy irresistible.

The call to action is clear and to the point, “complete your order.”

4 – BluDot

Source: Really Good Email

Bludot’s abandoned email is a great template due to the items listed and the use of images.

The “taking another look” introductory text is welcoming and captures the attention of the audience.

After this is the call-to-actions “complete my order” and “checkout now” that gently compels the customer to complete the purchase. 

5 – Adidas

Source: Really Good Email

Adidas’ abandoned cart email is visually appealing and re-engages the audience.

The introductory text, “Is your WiFi Okay?” catches the attention of the audience and urges them to take a look at the email. The engaging text is catchy and compelling to bring back any customer.

The “Shop now” and “Customize” are options that encourage the audience on the purchasing journey. 

5 abandoned cart email templates

Here are some templates you can use for inspiration when creating your abandoned cart email strategy to recover lost sales. 

Template 1

Template 2

Template 3

Template 4

Template 5

Key Takeaways

• The primary aim of composing an abandoned cart email is to encourage customers to complete the purchase process they may have left behind in the carts.
• The subject lines in your abandoned cart emails are very essential. Ensure that you keep it simple, personalize, and catch the reader’s attention within a few seconds of reading it.
• Your abandoned cart emails shouldn’t sound abstract. Incorporate various features such as listing the items your customers may have forgotten, creating a sense of urgency, including alternatives, and a clear call to action.