Drag ‘em over the finish line, that’s what! Collectively, we’ve done a boat load of online retail: wine, software, food, apparel, you name it. Almost started a monthly dog treat club , but Bark Box came along! Anyhoo, our nemesis is always that damn abandoned shopping cart!

So this is #1 of maybe 4 or 5 posts about this tragedy! It’ll go something like – 1) post-abandon ideas 2) more of those 3) pre-abandon fixes 4) more of those. Looks to be honing in on 4.

OK, conservative estimates show that approximately 1 out of 3 online orders are abandoned during the checkout process. Others, like a study from Baymard Institute state that an average of 22 different studies show a 68% cart abandon rate! Whoa, that’s a big sieve, and it’s pouring $$$ out of it.

Take a quick example. You’re currently making $30,000/mo in online revenue. Your abandoned cart rate is 50%. That’s $15,000 in lost revenue. If you could convince 1/4 of those folks just to hit that ‘check out’ button, that’s an additional $45 grand a year. So let’s talk about how to plug it. And it’s really not that difficult.

There’s plenty you can do to reduce abandoned shopping carts before your eager shoppers flee, but as mentioned we’ll tackle that in some upcoming posts. We’re gonna focus on the #1 key action to take after you lost them. Drum roll…

SEND THEM AN EMAIL!

Hey, maybe their lunch arrived just before they hit ‘check out’. Or maybe your site was slow that day. Or a shiny object distracted them. Whatever the reason, there’s no shame in Asking For The Order. So do it! Key elements include:

• Pictures of the item they selected
• Reviews or testimonials from other shoppers
• Guarantee and refund policy information
• A strong call-to-action to get them back to your site

Here’s an abandoned shopping cart recovery email I received from Gilt after approximately 24 hours of placing this sharp pair of linen trousers in my cart:

Hey it coulda been even better if it included the elements we just mentioned. But y’know what? It worked. Team Dasheroo will be sporting Sand Linen Trousers to the next happy hour!

Next, think hard about the number of and timing of these abandoned shopping cart emails. We’ve tested immediate, say within 2 hours, to 12-24 hours then a couple reminders. Here’s an outline:

• 1st email – should go out within 24 hrs
• 2nd email – send within 2 days
• 3rd email – send within 1 week

Make sure to watch your unsubs and any negative feedback, as if you get too aggressive you can annoy some folks. And, test your timing and frequency.

Oh, here’s a few tools that specialize in hooking up with your shopping cart to automate the process of sending abandoned shopping cart emails:

• Rejoiner
• CartRescuer
• AbandonAid

So go get those lost sales, they’re just sitting there waiting for you to boost your ROI!