With abandoned shopping cart rates so high, eCommerce sites often struggle to bring those wayward shoppers back into the fold.
There are a lot of email techniques for recovering abandoned carts, but what if you don’t have email addresses or the email tactics aren’t working? Other options do exist, but as with email, there are always some drawbacks. Let’s consider three other methods for recovering abandoned carts.
Advertising
This particular method requires some investment, registration with AdWords or Adroll, and some patience. Advertising remarketing targets those customers who have visited your eCommerce site selected a product and then abandoned their shopping cart. Cookies are used to mark those who visit your site. When they visit other sites that participate in the same advertising network you use, they’ll see your ads.
The ads can even be targeted according to how long someone spent on your site and how far into the buying process they got. That means anyone who visits will see ads on later sites, but those who nearly purchased may see a stronger reminder to finish the purchase.
The upside of this marketing choice is that the process is fully automated through Google or Adroll. You have complete control over when the ads appear, how often they appear, and how long they appear. The downside is, of course, that remarketing ads are expensive. Though cheaper than PPC, they can still add up quickly to quite a chunk of change. Another potential minus is that consumers may not be happy to see your ads on pages where they don’t belong. Relevance is key when marketing, and if your campaign isn’t relative to what they’re searching for at that moment, you could irritate them beyond repair.
Exit Lightboxes
A quick reminder to exiting shoppers that they still have items in their carts could be all you need to close the sale. A lightbox with the product not yet purchased and a message that reads “Did you forget something?” could prompt buyers to head right back to the shopping cart to check out. You can also program the popup to collect email addresses before shoppers exit. One in five of the top 1000 eCommerce retailers use this particular method, as the email address collection potential also makes email nurturing easier, too.
You can also save that shopping cart and present a banner the next time a customer revisits your site. Let them know you’ll provide that service for them, and they may feel more secure about returning to shop later.
The upside of this method is that you don’t have to pay for the ads. Once the coding is in place for a lightbox or banner, you can sit back and reap the rewards of your completed sales. The downside, however, is that popups annoy shoppers at times, especially if they had no intention of returning to their purchase. Some browsers also block popups, which could make your method useless.
Social Media Engagement
Some ecommerce marketing software offers a social media tool for nurturing abandoned carts. With this software, you can see the mentions of your products after someone has placed them in a cart. Placing a widget in the shopping cart that allows buyers to announce their purchases is another great way to retain those customers. They can get the feedback they need from friends and followers to go through with the purchase.
The upside, again, is that once the software for monitoring is purchased, the method is free. Simply keep an eye on mentions and offer your assistance in making decisions. The customer service you provide goes a long way toward building stronger relationships. Your shoppers’ mentions on social media may also bring more potential customers to your site. The downside is, once more, the potential for irrelevance. Interrupting someone’s social time on Twitter or Facebook could turn them off.
What other non-email ways can abandoned carts be nurtured? Have other methods worked well for you? We’d love to hear in the comments!
