Abandoned Cart Email Series for E-commerce and D2C Brands

Abandoned cart emails are sent out to customers who almost made a purchase – they filled their cart with items from an online store but left without completing the purchase transaction.

Table of contents

• Why should you send Abandoned Cart emails?
• Strategy for crafting an Abandoned Cart email
• Giveaway: Ready-to-use Abandoned Cart email template
• Giveaway: Plug and Play Abandoned Cart email series
• How to use this Abandoned Cart email for your e-commerce & D2C brands
• Takeaways: Abandoned Cart email best practices
• Recover lost sales easily with the abandoned cart email series

Why should you send Abandoned Cart emails?

In 2017, Salecycle found that more than 75% of customers abandoned their online shopping carts! This means that 3 out of 4 people typically browse an online store, add items to their cart, and then leave without completing the checkout or purchase process. If you can recover these abandoned carts, it could be a huge revenue leap for your e-commerce business.

Sending abandoned cart emails to your customers directing them to complete purchases is the most effective way of recovering lost sales. You’ll be surprised how many of your prospects return to their carts when asked.

Strategy for crafting an Abandoned Cart email

To create the perfect abandoned cart email and increase your e-commerce sales, focus on these pointers –

What to Write

1. Draft a contextual and attention-grabbing subject line. Make a great first impression by grabbing your customer’s attention to remind them of what they’ve left behind.

Examples –

• We Missed You

• We Noticed You Left Something in Your Cart, Still Thinking About It?

• Your Cart is Waiting for You

• Clear & Concise Introduction

2. Don’t make the email too bulky. Use clear and concise language to remind them that their cart is waiting for them.

Examples –

• We’re holding onto your items in your cart, but don’t wait too long!

• Unable to decide? Maybe these reasons can help.

• Incentivize your Customers

3. Offer your customers an incentive. Discounts, offers, or promos on their next purchase, to lure them to complete the checkout process.

Examples –

• Got distracted? Not a problem, your cart’s waiting for you. Hurry to avail 10% off on your purchase.

• Reminder of Items

4. Remind your customers. Use names, images, descriptions of the items they put into their cart and provide price drop/price increase information to create urgency.

Examples –

• Got questions about the [brand name] vacuum cleaner?

• We noticed you have 4 [name of items] in your bag. They’ll look great on you!

• Call to Action

5. Direct your customers to take specific actions. Use creative and clear statements to ask them to return to their cart to complete the purchase.

Examples –

• Get back to your cart!

• Go show your cart some love.

• Stick around some more!

• Reviews / Testimonials / Social Proof

6. Use real-life testimonials or reviews (text, pictures, or videos) to give your customers assurance about the products they almost purchased. Examples –

• Lisa loved us, you will too.
• Hear What John’s dog had to say about our treats.

When to send

To send out cart abandonment emails, use automated drip campaigns to create email journeys. Most marketers believe that an email series works better than a single email to recover lost sales.

Here’s what your abandoned cart email series usually looks like –

• Email 1: Reminder within a few hours of the customer abandoning the cart.

• Email 2: Follow-up email sent between 24-48 hours of cart abandonment.

• Email 3: Incentive-based email to lure the customer to make the purchase.

Related guide: How to Create and Automate Email Journey

Giveaway: Ready-to-use Abandoned Cart email template

About this template:

Use this template to increase sales by recovering abandoned carts using engaging product displays and interactive elements. It will also help you engage with your customers by using forms inside emails.

How To Use This Abandoned Cart Email Template for your e-commerce brand?

• Customize the company name

• Add your own company logo and social media buttons

• Add your product images or use free stock images from Pexels, Unsplash, or Icons8

• Customize the email copy (and discounts) based on your product offering

• Replace the dummy cart items with your products

Giveaway: Ready-to-use Abandoned Cart Email 2 Template

Giveaway: Ready-to-use Abandoned Cart Email 3 Template

Giveaway: Plug and Play Abandoned Cart email series

About this email journey:

This 3-day email journey will help you increase your cart recovery by creating a FOMO and offering incentives to check out from the cart. It starts 4 hours after the cart is abandoned by a customer. 4 hours is an optimum delay period recommended by many marketers and e-commerce experts.

How to use this Journey:

This email journey is triggered as soon as a cart is abandoned by the customer. The following steps are:

Step 1: Add a 4-hour delay once the journey is started

Step 2: Trigger the first email to nudge the customer for cart recovery

Step 3: Add a 24-hours delay after the first email

Step 4: Trigger the second email campaign to follow up on the abandoned cart and create a sense of urgency for the customer to check out.

Step 5: Add a delay of 48

Step 6: After 2 days of sending the first email, prompt the customer with a special discount coupon on the cart

Step 7: Set up the trigger point using API endpoint trigger or other app integrations like Zapier and Integromat.

You can also integrate your Mailmodo account with your Shopify store to reap the maximum benefit of this automation. For this, connect your store/website with Zapier, Integromat, or using API to get started with the customer email journey.

How to use this Abandoned Cart email for your e-commerce & D2C brands

As a part of the lifecycle email template and email series, we will share guides, best practices, and ideas behind implementing this for your e-commerce store. These templates and series are designed to help you achieve the maximum benefits of email marketing with minimum effort.

4 steps to lifecycle marketing for your e-commerce brand:

1. To access these templates sign up with Mailmodo.
2. Customize the template quickly in under 120 seconds.
3. Add your sender email and domain
4. Start sending AMP emails to your consumers and build brand loyalty and higher sales.

In case you are a Shopify user you can use Shopify store integration with Mailmodo to build on this email series.

Takeaways: Abandoned Cart email best practices

• Personalization: Be specific in addressing your customers by personalizing your abandoned cart email. Personalization includes speaking to them directly by using their name and referring to items the specific customer left behind. Your emails should also have session regeneration links so your customer can easily return to their specific items.

• Relevant message copy: Remember, you’re trying to win a customer back through communication. Make your copy snappy and compelling enough for the customer to feel FOMO, and return to their cart to complete their purchase.

• Listing relevant cart details: Provide a detailed, but clear summary of your customer’s cart items, instead of generally talking about your entire e-commerce store. Display specific products.

• Responsiveness: Provide your customers with a consistent experience across devices.

Recover lost sales easily with the abandoned cart email series

It’s very common for shoppers to do window shopping -- add items to their cart and leave before committing to a purchase. While cart abandonment is part of the e-commerce life cycle, so is the possibility to recover it. Create an abandoned cart email series using these tips to improve your recovery rate.

Use Mailmodo to boost lost sales and increase your email ROI with abandoned cart emails today!