How shopping cart abandoners become buyers

Abandoned shopping carts are a nuisance for many online stores – the interest was there, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make a purchase. The reasons can be plenty. Some people didn’t want to buy the product at all or have already bought it elsewhere, so further promotions are of little help. Many compare different offers and inform themselves, before a purchase takes place – this is where your abadoner campaigns can hit just right. The same applies if the potential buyer simply does not have the time to complete the purchase process.

Shopping cart abandonment can also be caused by a lack of user-friendliness in the purchasing process. Therefore, make the purchasing process of your online store as simple as possible. Make sure that the delivery time and any additional costs are transparent and offer various payment options. This minimizes the risk of shopping cart abandonment.

What else you can do against an incomplete purchase process, how the EMM supports you and which requirements have to be fulfilled, will be explained in the following.

The most important prerequisite for a successful shopping cart abandonment campaign is the user’s tracking permission. Otherwise, you violate data protection rules and that can be expensive. However, due to changes in the legal situation, it has become increasingly difficult to carry out such campaigns. Internet users understandably do not want to be “tracked” everywhere. Permission for website tracking, e.g. with cookies, is mandatory for visitors who are not logged in, and depending on the channel chosen, other consents are also required.

The retargeting classic, especially for non-registered website visitors, are banner ads that one encounters on various portals and websites. But here in particular, it is becoming increasingly problematic to still reach customers. On the one hand, the end of the third party cookie is approaching and on the other hand, the so-called banner blindness is spreading. Potential customers who do not identify themselves can otherwise only be addressed with a push message. But even in this case, the user’s permission is required to refer to the shopping cart content.

The situation is somewhat easier with registered users: here, the willingness to make their user data available is generally greater in order to receive targeted offers from their preferred brands. Another prerequisite for reaching shopping cart abandoners is an appropriate marketing automation solution such as the AGNITAS EMM, which can access the data in real time. This is the only way to place suitable offers in a timely manner.

If user consent is available, nothing stands in the way of automated campaigns for the recovery of shopping cart abandoners. The most common channel for this is e-mail. In addition to the automation options, it is fast, cost-effective and fully customizable. In addition, any amount of information can be transported without any problems.

On top of the shopping cart items, algorithms and AI can also be used to offer further products that are similar to or complement the original product. Vouchers can be used as an additional incentive to buy. The amount of the discounts can be controlled both by ongoing promotions and by the status stored in the customer account. With coupons one should however not be too generous, since there are often customers, who wait only for a discount, before they buy.

In addition to email, the print channel is also very suitable for follow-up campaigns. With Programmatic Printing, shopping cart abandoners are also addressed completely individually and personally. The print mailings are produced and sent out in individual quantities and, in the best case, are in the potential customer’s mailbox on the third day. Print mailings are particularly interesting for customers without email consent because they can hardly be reached in any other way. But print mailings also have a strong impact in multi-channel campaigns.

A seldom-used channel that also requires advertising consent and the corresponding cell phone number is SMS. With this channel, you are severely limited in terms of characters, but it is still sufficient for a push with a coupon. Since this channel is rarely used and by concentrating on the most important information, the effect is not insignificant.

Of course, even for registered users, these channels can be combined with the banner ads and push messages mentioned at the beginning. This allows various shopping cart abandonment campaigns to be created depending on the situation and the customer, and the one or other purchase is made after all.

With well-linked systems, a professional marketing automation solution, and appropriate consents, it is therefore no problem to reach shopping cart abandoners.