16 Best Cart Abandonment Emails That Make the User Come Back and Close the Deal

An abandoned cart occurs when a potential customer adds items from your online store to their cart but ends up leaving it without completing the purchase. This can happen for several different reasons. Some of the most common reasons include a complicated checkout process, a requirement to create an account before a customer can checkout, unexpected shipping costs, and concerns about site security. 

If you run an e-commerce store, you're probably already familiar with the cart abandonment problem. Many online shoppers do not complete their purchases.

Understanding Abandoned Cart Emails

When a customer abandons their cart, you can send them an abandoned cart email. You can use this strategy to recover any potentially lost sales by convincing the customer to complete the purchase with a follow-up message. The abandoned cart reminder template allows you to create a workflow that automatically sends the following message to a customer who left your website without completing the purchase of the items they added to their cart.

You can customize this message to display the contents of the shopping cart abandoned email to remind them that they've made a purchase. This can be a useful tool to reduce the number of backorders your business receives and ultimately increase your sales by giving customers an extra incentive to buy the product they are interested in.

What Is an Abandoned Cart Email?

An abandoned cart email is an email sent to customers who are close to making a purchase to encourage them to finish what they started. This mailing type is one way to seize the initiative and turn abandoned customers into brand advocates.

When visiting an online store for the first time, many visitors wait to buy, even if something has been added to the order. On average, it takes about five touches before a user decides to make a purchase.

Why Are Abandoned Cart Emails Important?

If you run an e-commerce store and are concerned about the number of abandoned carts you see, there are several reasons to consider sending abandoned cart emails.

A visitor who left can be returned by e-mail marketing. If users receive completed letters with products left in the cart, the store will receive additional points for conversion. You can set up the abandoned cart trigger in any, even the simplest email service. In addition to conversion growth, cart abandonment emails can also provide other benefits. There are many reasons for the best abandoned carts email (see the statistics below), so it is important to create interesting emails to retain or return customers.

Here you can see how to calculate abandonment rate. 

Best Practices for Abandoned Cart Emails

You need to work with abandoned carts in three directions. The first is site optimization — you can make the site convenient and pay special attention to the payment process. The second is to return users if you have their contacts: write trigger letters and set up targeted advertising. And thirdly, you can set up special marketing tools that reduce the probability of abandoned carts: widgets and pop-ups.

Choosing the Right Timing

It can be a single reminder letter or a chain of 2-3 letters, each of which is sent if the user has yet to respond to the previous one. Shipping time is determined individually depending on the specifics of the product:

• If it is a product that is relatively easy to buy, for example, a book or a toy, then the first letter can be sent after 0.5-1 hour after detecting an abandoned cart, and the next — a day later.
• If it is a product that is difficult to decide on, or customers first need to save money, for example, a car or a large household appliance, letters sent in the first couple of days will only irritate. Here you should look at the length of the sales cycle. Analyze how long it takes for your customers to get to the final transaction from the moment they put the product in the cart. This will be the interval during which letters should be sent.

Personalizing Your Emails

For the user to return to the abandoned cart, it is important to work on the content and design of the letter. Personalize the letter: specify the name and city of the client if you know them. You don't need formal phrases. Write like a good friend — with care, respect, and a desire to help. In the letter's subject, indicate the name of the abandoned product so that the addressee immediately understands what it is about. For example, "The LG 500 TV is waiting for payment in the store."

Including a compelling CTA

A call-to-action (CTA) button is used in your cart abandoned emails to bring users back to the cart. The recipient interacts with this part of the email to take the desired action.

Call-to-action buttons can vary in style depending on your branding, but they all have the same goal of driving people back to their online shopping cart to complete their purchases. There are many options regarding the type of call to action you use. Standard options like "Buy Now" or "Return to Cart" can work well, or you can get more creative.

Improving Your Copywriting

It's a good idea to consider abandoned cart emails as a bonus marketing opportunity for your customers. If you make sure all of your company's marketing materials are compelling, don't forget that when writing your abandoned cart emails.

Your email should include an attention-grabbing headline, good images, and captivating text. Don't be afraid to use a bold headline and give the recipient the feeling they might want to return and check.

Crafting an Enticing Subject Line

The text in the letter should make the user want to return to the site and make a purchase. And the first thing we recommend is to use a bright theme. Can't decide on a topic — test several, then choose the one with the highest open rate.

Your abandoned cart subject line should be attractive enough for recipients to open the letter. For example, discount offers, humor, or questions can interest the customer enough to open the email. If you include a promotional message, your subject line could be "20% off all purchases."

Adding Social Proof

You can use customer feedback to strengthen your offer and engage customers who have abandoned their carts.

Briefly explain why ordering the product in your online store is beneficial. For additional motivation, you can add a promotional code for a discount with a limited validity period, for example, 12 hours or two days, to the letter about the abandoned cart. It is better to use this method not in the first but in the second or third letter.

In the letter, remind about the advantages of your store: convenient delivery conditions, warranty, the possibility of return — this will help convince the buyer to complete the order. Insert a relevant link in the letter that leads not just to the store's main page but directly to the abandoned cart, so the user does not have to take unnecessary actions. Don't forget the call to action.

A/B Testing Your Emails

You can A/B test and optimize what affects different metrics. For example, email subject only affects the open rate, while text, personalization, and call-to-action affect response and click-through rates. So, you can optimize the subject and CTA at the same time, but not the CTA and the text.

Creating Effective Abandoned Cart Emails

With the abandoned basket trigger, there are the following requirements for the body of the letter:

1. Brevity and clarity.
2. All products from the basket: pictures, links, prices.
3. Friendly tone, showing concern in the text.

We write the topic of the letter to be catchy and understandable. Example:

1.  "Oops! You forgot something with us."
2.  "Your basket is boring without you."
3.  "It seems that you forgot your product with us."
   Even before opening the letter, it should be clear to the recipient who it is from.

Crafting a Winning Sequence

The first email in your sequence should be a gentle nudge, reminding the customer they left some items in their cart. Also, try not to offer a discount in this email, as you may lose some revenue from people who might convert without it. When designing this first email, ensure it includes an image of the items left in the cart, the product name with a short description (one or two sentences), a call-to-action button, and a way to contact support if they need help.

In the second email, you use whatever you need to get the customer to convert. Offering free shipping or a shipping discount can have great results. The third letter should be a much better offer than the one you made in the second letter, and it should be something the business can afford. A 10% discount can achieve great conversion rates for most businesses, but some can reach 15%. 

Using Free Abandoned Cart Email Templates

You can use the templates of any email marketing service to create letters about abandoned carts. The algorithm of a letter to a client who has left is quite simple. Below is a description of the main structure:

1. Topic.
2. Introduction text.
3. Goods left in the basket.
4. Offer or discount.
5. Cart button, call to action (CTA).
6. Reviews or social proof.
7. Closing the text.

As you can see, the scheme is useful and simple, but if you send one email about an abandoned purchase, be ready for low conversion. Thinking through a series of automated emails to close the deal is more efficient.

Designing Custom Abandoned Cart Emails

The most common variant of this type of mailing is a short, informative email with photos of the products the user left in the cart and text like "It seems you forgot something in the cart." The text with which the brand addresses the subscriber should be friendly and aimed at caring. Pressure on the buyer will only negatively affect loyalty.

Instead of "Complete Checkout," it's better to write "We have saved your items in your shopping cart." The difference is immediately visible, although the meaning of this message is the same — to convince the user to return and pay for the goods.

The effect of urgency in such letters works well if it is justified. For example, the last size the user needs is left, or the action of the promotion ends. This encourages a person to place an order faster.

Examining the Best Abandoned Cart Email Examples

Let's consider some good options for letters about the abandoned basket:

• Branded clothing company ASOS

Pros:

1. The message is sent 5 minutes after the user has left the abandoned cart.

2. A bright, voluminous logo.

3. A photo of the forgotten product with a link.

4. A minimum of distracting details.

Cons:

1. There is no appeal by name.

2. No feedback data.

3. The price is not specified.

•  Google

This is a great example of an abandoned cart email because it has every element: great copywriting, a clear CTA, personalization, showing the buyer's cart, and urgency. With text such as "Going, going, (almost) gone" and "Our popular items are selling out fast," customers feel their involvement in the process. They also feel the need to purchase to make sure to take advantage of something important. Again, Google pays special attention to making customers feel like they don't want to miss anything.

Strong Abandoned Cart Email Examples

Casper

Casper will make potential customers laugh with the playfully humorous headline “Come back to bed.” This instantly sets the email apart from all the others we've seen so far and from the rest sent out by the brand's competitors. It also uses a minimalist design, strong social proof, and attractive call-to-action buttons.

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Rudy's

This company has developed a very interesting trick with abandoned cart letters. Their letter is quite funny: "Don't delay this as a software update." They also attach the products customers have chosen and offer free shipping.

Whiskey Loot

The Whiskey Loot’s email includes cool, personalized text encouraging customers to complete their purchases. It lists reasons to buy whiskey, answers frequently asked questions, and uses a minimalist design to draw attention to the CTA. In such a letter, the buyer has all the information they may need to make the purchase.

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Nomad

This company designed these emails to drive the reader to action, i.e., to complete the purchase. The phrase "What happened?" immediately attracts attention. In addition, the color scheme of the email perfectly matches the product in question. The design of the letter is minimalistic and perfectly suited for such a mailing.

Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club created a series of emails in a humorous format that subtly encourages customers to return to their carts and purchase the product they left behind. The letter indicates why customers should buy these razors and what other interesting things they will get by becoming their customer.

Abandoned Cart Email Strategy Tips

You must collect the buyer's email address to send abandoned cart emails successfully. You can do this either by optimizing the checkout process or by using pop-ups displayed when the customer is about to leave your site. The more emails you can collect, the more carts and revenue you can successfully recover.

Considering Timing and Frequency

When you have an automated process for handling abandoned cart emails, you can spend more time focusing on other marketing tasks for your business. By setting up abandoned cart notifications, you can use them to retain existing customers instead of spending a lot of money and time trying to attract new customers.

Offering Discounts or Promotions

Remember that many shoppers may abandon their cart when they find out the final price is higher than expected. So it's no surprise that cost is the number one reason many shoppers abandon the cart. Offering a discount is an easy way to win back potential customers who the price may have put off.

Since abandoned carts lead to a huge loss of e-commerce sales, understanding how to use abandoned cart emails to encourage your customers to come back and complete their purchase is an important part of increasing your online store's revenue.

Reserving Items in the Cart

There are many reasons users do not complete their orders. For example, at a particular stage, the client may not be satisfied with a high delivery cost, a complicated registration form, or a lack of adaptive layout.

Half of the "unsubscribers" use the cart as a wishlist. They go to the site, look at products, and compare prices but continue to doubt and are in no hurry to complete the purchase. However, the product interested them enough to add it to the cart. Therefore, it is worth trying to return such customers.

Testing Different Abandoned Cart Texts

Testing custom triggers before using them in a journey to be published is the safest way to ensure your expectations match your customers' reality. The test submission feature allows you to be sure of the quality and behavior of your custom triggers before you send them to your audience.

Recovering Lost Sales with Abandoned Cart Emails

There are many different ways to optimize your online store to increase conversions. However, no matter what strategies you use, you can always expect that some customers will still not make a purchase; this is something that no e-commerce store can completely avoid.

Abandoned cart emails give you a strategy to recover lost sales and increase conversions effectively.

Understanding the Benefits of Abandoned Cart Emails

These emails are an extremely effective strategy that can boost customer retention as it helps remind customers of what they left behind and convince them to return to complete their purchases. 

But cart abandonment emails are not easy to create because lost prospects have already abandoned their cart without making a purchase. So these emails must be catchy, engaging, and compelling enough to lose customers or force site visitors to click and convert.

Learning How to Send Abandoned Cart Emails

Working with abandoned carts is an integral part of marketers' routine in e-commerce. This is a must-pay attention because retaining those who have at least somehow interacted with your site and products is always cheaper than attracting customers from scratch. The main stages of working with abandoned baskets are:

• Tracking analytics and responding to the increase in the rate of abandoned baskets
• Audit of the user journey for the entire sales funnel and identification of the reasons why buyers abandon the order process
• Compiling a list of problems that reduce the conversion rate on the site
• A/B testing of hypotheses regarding the increase in conversion on the site
• Implementation of necessary usability solutions

Tips for Maximizing Sales Recovery

One of the common reasons for underselling is when technical reasons prevent a user from making a purchase. It can be a long site loading, an inconvenient order form, inconvenient delivery methods, etc. But still, if the user puts the product in the cart and does not make a purchase, it can be said that the user is interested in the product but did not complete the purchase for some reason.

The abandoned basket campaign is considered effective if users read the letter and at least follow the links. If your indicators are lower, follow the recommendations listed above and test. 

Abandoned Cart Email FAQ

Do Abandoned Cart Emails Work?

Yes, abandoned cart emails work. For this, you need to choose the correct sequence and strategies.

Knowing that abandoned cart emails work is only one part of the equation. Others know why people abandon their carts, how these emails work, and how to make your email as effective as possible to ensure that as many abandoned carts as possible are returned.

What Should I Write in an Abandoned Cart Email?

First of all, you need to think more effectively about the series of automatic emails to close the deal. They can be sent as follows:

Letter 1: Сart reminder (sent a few hours after the customer left the cart)

Letter 2: Follow-up (sent a few days later)

Letter 3: Promotional discount (sent a few days after the second letter)

Can I Send Abandoned Cart Emails?

Definitely. This is a winning option not to lose a buyer. Abandoned cart emails are a great way to recover sales you may have lost. Properly setting up these emails can help you recover up to a third of lost sales. Automate this process to make your marketing team's job easier.

How Many Emails Should I Send for Abandoned Cart Orders?

The sending of these emails is triggered when a customer abandons their shopping cart. Depending on the business, sending the first email can be initiated after a few hours. Creating a series of "abandoned baskets" is the best course of action, and studies show that three is the optimal number of letters. One letter risks getting lost in the client's inbox, so three letters allow you to create a better strategy, while four letters can be perceived as spam and annoying.

Final Thoughts on Abandoned Cart Email

Preventing abandoned carts is easier and cheaper than returning customers to the site. To minimize the number of unpaid orders, measures are taken to optimize the online store, improve usability, increase trust and strengthen reputation, and provide customers with all the necessary information in a convenient form.

Abandoned carts communicate with the user with a call to action — purchasing products. Therefore, not to miss out on profit and at the same time increase conversions on the site, we recommend using such a trigger mailing in your business. But in the case of launching such a campaign, it is necessary to consider the field of business activity. It will affect the launch and sending time of the "abandoned basket" chain. 

For example, if you are engaged in food delivery, the first letter of the chain can be sent within half an hour since the product is not too expensive. If the product is expensive, it is better to take a time out and start a chain of letters at least a day after the forgotten basket. This way, the consumer will have time for reflection and advice with loved ones about the purchase.