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It’s all-go for the Abandoned Cart emails—5 handy tips to get you started.

Sell more and build your brand

Rocketspark’s integration with Mailchimp ecommerce unlocks powerful email marketing and automation to help you sell more and build your brand.

Cart abandonment is a rising challenge for all retail marketers and in a collation of results across a variety of studies by Baymard showed that in recent times over 75% of online carts are abandoned.

Mailchimp reports that an average of 69% of ecommerce carts are abandoned and have also seen that with an abandoned cart email series you can see an average of 34 times more orders per recipient than with bulk email alone. Wow!

Why do shoppers abandon their carts?

There are a variety of reasons that shoppers will abandon their carts and Baymard reported that the top 3 reasons for cart abandonment were:

  • Extra costs such as shipping, taxes and fees
  • The site wanted an account to be created
  • The checkout process was too long

We expect that a lot of customers will be browsing initially as they move from site to site checking out all the options.  With abandoned cart emails you have the opportunity to get shoppers back to their carts and overcome some of the barriers.

Recover abandoned carts email automation

WIth Rocketspark and Mailchimp Ecommerce you can set up a recover abandoned carts email automation for any potential customers who put at least one item in their cart and make it to the checkout, enter their email, but then do not complete payment. These messages can either be sent as a single email, or a series of emails (keep reading below re Mailchimp’s opt-in requirements for series emails).

The email series can be highly effective as stated above but to guide you towards compliance with email marketing laws, Mailchimp will only allow you to send a series of abandoned cart emails if the customer has already opted in.  You might choose to use Mailchimp’s email sign up form popup on your website to engage people earlier in their journey.  

Timing of abandoned cart emails

Timing is important with abandoned cart emails. A reminder that you have items in your cart is often just the nudge needed for you to complete the checkout. Send out the first email (if using a series) within the first couple hours after the cart was abandoned. If that didn’t do the trick, try a second email after 24hrs with an incentive, free shipping or a discount code with a time limit for instance.  

What makes a successful Abandoned Carts email?

We’ve researched best practice on what makes a great abandoned cart email and there were some consistent themes observed in the recommendations.  

  1. Write a good subject line—keep it short and sweet, personalised if you can.
  2. Make it easy to buy the products. List each item alongside a picture.
  3. Take the opportunity to recommend other items they’ll probably like to buy, too.
  4. Include a clear call-to-action at the top and bottom of your email.
  5. Keep it short.

Include Product Recommendations in your campaign

Mailchimp has a great feature for providing automated product recommendations tailored to each customer based on their purchase history with you.

As with all digital marketing activities we recommend that you test different scenarios of content and timings to see what works best in your business.  Mailchimp and Rocketspark both have good integration with Google Analytics which is a great way to measure your results and see the effectiveness of your campaigns.  

Legal aspects of abandoned cart emails

We’re not legal eagles or beagles at Rocketspark so we’re not in a position to provide formal legal advice but it’s important to understand that there are legal implications to consider when sending abandoned cart emails and you’ll want to understand the legal implications of sending abandoned cart emails in your country.

Some might say that an abandoned cart email is ok under inferred consent when someone provides their email to you as they progress through the purchase process but to be cautious they’d make the abandoned cart email to be very simple and transactional in nature by stating what the products are and the price.  

Mailchimp’s abandoned cart functionality automatically only allows you to send a series of abandoned cart emails if the customer has opted in to receive marketing emails from you.  If the customer has not yet opted in Mailchimp will only allow the sending of a single abandoned cart email.

Need some help with your email marketing?

We have a network of highly experienced Rocketspark Partners that can help with design, email marketing and more. 

Email us at support@rocketspark.com and we'll send you some recommendations.