The Email Itself

The Subject Line
Call out the abandoned item or category specifically in the email subject line. A personalised email subject line that includes the abandoned category or abandoned product increases open rates by 10%. Nice. And there are a few other tactics you should keep in mind for the abandoned cart email subject lines:
– Users like to know why they’re being emailed. So make it obvious that this is an abandoned cart email in the subject line. E.g. “You left items in your basket”.
– Make sure your brand is identifiable before the email is opened (either by sender name or in the subject line).
– Try to personalise the subject line as much as possible, either by using the recipient’s first name or even by the name of the product itself – “We’re still holding the [item] for you, [name]”. (Ed. Note: This can come across a little creepy sometimes, so beware!)
– Get a little quirky. This option separates your abandoned cart emails from the rest of the marketing emails potentially in their inbox. -“Let us magically transport you back to your shopping cart”
– Try to appeal to their sense of excitement about the product – “Hey Hannah, you forgot how much you wanted this [item]”
– Create a sense of urgency – “Hurry, your cart expires in 24 hours!”
The Reminder Itself
Arguably the most important part of the abandoned cart email best practices, how you remind them about the item can make or break a potential sale. Be as specific as possible as your recipient might have visited a whole heap of websites and added things to basket on all of them, I mean we all do like to shop around.
Show the abandoned item clearly in the message. Including an image of the product that they added to their basket is also a must, as people often respond better to images than text on its own. Plus visual representations of products tends to be a lot more appealing to people. Give as much detail as possible, including price, colour and the size that they selected. Just remind them of the things that made them tick in the first place.
Copy
You’ll probably have spent ages trying to nail the right copy for your abandoned cart email, but no matter what you do, there are three key things to communicate, and when communicating them you must remain helpful, not pushy:
– the recipient has left an item in their basket
– that they liked this item enough to put it in their basket
– they should return to their basket now (a good way of prompting this is by implying that their basket will expire soon or that having items in your basket doesn’t guarantee that they’ll stay in stock)
The Call to Action
Make sure that your CTA is prominent, super-clickable and that the copy is laser-focused.
Popular options for calls to action include:
– Take me back to my basket
– Claim my item
– Complete my order
– Continue shopping
But why not have your own unique spin on it, or use something different? Also, make sure the link goes directly back to their cart. Otherwise you’re just being silly.
Tempt With New Items
Incase the original item is no longer desirable to them, consider recommending additional products to encourage a purchase. Tempt them back with related items by providing them with images of other popular or related items in your store is a great way of getting them back and shopping. Delve into your data to see which items are popular basket top up items with this product and make sure they’re displayed in your email (with pictures). Also adding recommendations for additional purchases to increase conversion by 10% and click-through rate by 50%.
Extra Persuasion
Include rating and review information for the abandoned purchase, if possible. Social validation has been proven time and time again to have a significant impact on online purchasing decisions. Many stores show reviews on their product pages to help persuade the customer into purchasing, so why not place the most favourable review you have on your product into the email? A little extra push to seal the deal.