High site traffic? Check.
Raving customer reviews? Check.
Costly cart abandonment rates? Ah, yes, the curse of all eCommerce businesses.
It’s not you, it’s your follow-up. Do you reach out to customers after they abandon their carts?
Seasoned eCommerce brands and online retailers know that they can recapture a sizable chunk of sales by simply following up with customers via reminder emails — thus compelling them to return for their abandoned items.
After all, the open rate of shopping cart abandonment emails is a good 45%, 21% of email recipients click through to their shopping cart, and 50% of those complete their purchase, reflecting a $5.64 revenue per follow-up email sent.
It shows abandoned cart emails work. And to help you craft your abandoned cart email strategy, we’ll show you ten email examples below. We’ll also cover how you can create your own abandoned cart recovery emails and what you should avoid.
Here are some samples of abandoned cart email templates to inspire online stores and eCommerce marketers.
Subject line: Your cart is sobering up!
Whiskey Loot sends out a follow-up email within a day if you leave their products cart-side. The subject line is cheeky and they maintain that voice throughout the copy. Other things this email does well:
Subject line: Did you forget something?
This email from Casper is simple yet elegant, on-brand, and includes a strong testimonial below the main CTA reinforcing the product value. Even if you decide not to return to cart now, you’ll eventually find your way to check out after you read more glowing reviews.
Subject line: The artworks you looked at are being discovered.
The subject line from this Saatchi Art email wants you to feel the power of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) — and that’s a powerful emotion to sell on.
Subject line: Where did you go?
From the email headline to the CTA, Dollar Shave Club guarantees customers they’ll fall in love with their product. But just in case customers aren’t 100% happy, Dollar Shave Club will provide refunds, making this a risk-free purchase. For customers — that’s a lot to gain and basically nothing to lose.
Subject line: Quick Heads Up!
Headspace is a therapy and meditation application and they prioritize being helpful versus coming across too salesy. What we love (besides the imagery) is that they offer customers an email address for personalized support and a big, colorful CTA back to checkout.
The way to a customer’s heart is through their funny bone. We love the tone the shopping app Dote sets in this email and that they personalize it with the items you had in cart — reminding you exactly what you’re missing out on if you don’t buy.
We also admire Dote’s clear email design — including layout, font sizing and text, and pop-up CTA button. It focuses on its function and there’s no lengthy text to read through, just a clear call-to-action.
Subject line: These look good in your bag!
“But they would look even better on you.” Whew! We all love a good compliment and Madewell delivers.
“Don’t get cold feet” is a strategic play on words given Allbirds sells shoes, but we especially love the sense of urgency — making you feel like you have a limited-time opportunity. If you’re an Allbirds customer, you’re probably familiar with their waitlist.
It’s long. And Allbirds isn’t shy about their product’s popularity in this email, emphasizing the time to buy is now.
You’d be hard-pressed to find email copy as smooth as this one. It has these critical elements:
And don’t scroll past their “bull-sheet free” sleep pun.
This down-to-earth, personable email from UGMonk comes directly from the owner of the company. You don’t feel more connected to a brand than that.
The most genius part here is if customers have questions, they’ll feel like they’ll get dedicated support versus becoming another ticket to a customer service team.
As you craft your own abandoned cart email strategy, here’s what to include:
This example from society6 has a personalized CTA with an incentive. While you’ll need to A/B test your CTA to see what works best for your brand, here are a few ideas to try:
Free shipping tends to convert customers best, followed by discounts and coupon codes.
For example, Kuru has a banner with “Free Shipping”, “Free Exchanges”, and “Free Returns” — which helped them increase their conversion rate by 21.5%.
Shipping, exchange, and return policy transparency helps alleviate concerns worried buyers — especially first-time customers — may have in case anything goes wrong with their purchase.
Social proof — like a customer review — offers people validation they’re making a good purchase.
One follow-up typically won’t drive the conversions you want. You’ll need to set up a drip automated email campaign consisting of three follow-ups spaced out accordingly. Here’s how that abandoned cart email sequence should look like:
Having follow-up emails is an important reactive strategy, but it’s also just as important to be proactive. 60% of casual browsers abandon their cart because the extra checkout costs were too steep.
Instead of leaving customers feeling surprised at the finish line, see if you can offer free shipping by building in shipping costs in your product pricing or with a minimum spend. Also avoid the mistake of asking for too much data.
Customers want speed to purchase, as well as transaction security and payment options. Focus on those instead of asking them to set up an account or asking for a ton of personal information.
While it’s nice to capture their addresses for future email marketing, having them set up an account could cost you a sale. The best way to do this is to enable a guest checkout process.
Lastly, here are other don’ts to remember for your abandoned online shopping cart email campaign:
Whether it’s email, social, or chat, we can help you advance your marketing strategy. In fact, brands who work with Chatdesk boost their conversion rates by 10% or more. Schedule a demo to supercharge your customer support and boost sales revenue.
