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Abandoned cart emails are one of the most valuable tools for an e-commerce business. Sent individually or as part of a series, these messages target customers who added items to their cart but failed to complete the transaction. The benefits of implementing these emails include:
More Revenue - Almost 70% of carts get abandoned for one reason or another, but typically it's not because the customer is no longer interested in the product. A simple reminder or a small discount is often all that's required to get the deal across the finish line. Most of our merchants recover between 10% and 20% of their abandoned carts, which means more revenue for your business.
Improved Relationships - Cart abandonment emails are highly relevant to the recipient. Nearly 50% of all cart abandonment emails are opened, and over 30% of those are clicked. This high level of engagement provides a perfect opportunity to tailor the customer's experience. Use the customer's browsing/purchase history, as well as other information from their contact profile, to encourage additional engagement and build trust in your brand.
Increased Productivity - Once configured, cart abandonment emails send on their own based on the selected settings. This automation allows you to focus on other tasks and be more effective and efficient overall.
Things to know
To send a fully realized abandoned cart email or email series, you will need:
- A Privy email subscription so the emails can be sent to customers.
- To be integrated with BigCommerce, Shopify, Shopify Plus, Weebly, or Wix so that your customers' abandoned cart information is available in Privy content.
- To disable any abandoned checkout emails already in use by your e-commerce platform or other email service providers so that some customers aren't emailed twice.
To turn off the default emails in BigCommerce:
- Log into your BigCommerce account and navigate to Marketing > Abandoned Cart Notifications via the sidebar menu.
- Locate the Active? column and click the checkmark next to the email(s) you need to deactivate.
To turn off the default emails in Shopify:
- Log into your Shopify account and go to Settings.
- Click on Checkout and scroll down to find the Abandoned Checkouts options.
- Deselect the checkbox next to Automatically send abandoned checkout emails.
- Click the Save button to save the changes.
To disable Weebly's default emails, log in to your Weebly account and click Disable from Store > Orders > Abandoned Carts. Going forward, Abandoned Cart emails will no longer be sent from Weebly. If there are emails queued up to be sent from Weebly, disabling the Abandoned Carts feature will cancel them.
To disable Wix's default emails, log in to your Wix account and go to the Automations tab. From here, ensure the Email visitors to recover abandoned cart option is disabled.
Abandoned cart best practices
Number of emails
While no answer fits every business, our merchants see the most success when creating a series of 2 to 3 emails. This approach engages customers at crucial moments and can increase your cart recovery rate by as much as 50%.
Order of emails
The recommended order of a cart abandonment series is:
The Cart Reminder - This email should serve as a gentle reminder that the customer left items in their cart. It should be sent 1 to 2 hours after the customer abandoned their cart and focus on customer service issues. For example, did the customer encounter issues checking out or do they have questions about the product(s) before proceeding with the purchase.
The Subtle Motivator - This email should remind the customer why they were browsing your site. It should be sent 24 to 48 hours after the customer has abandoned their cart and might include a low-value offer that will encourage them to return. The inclusion of featured or related products is particularly valuable in this email.
The Urgent Incentive - This email should encourage quick action from the customer. It should be sent 72 to 120 hours after the customer has abandoned their cart and include an offer at least as compelling as email #2 that will expire more quickly. The use of statements that drive urgency, such as "Your Coupon will expire soon," and the inclusion of customer reviews or testimonials is particularly valuable in this email.
Content of emails
Whether standalone or part of a series, all abandoned cart emails should include:
Engaging Subject: The subject line needs to be interesting enough to get the recipient to open the email. Including a promotional offer, some humor, or a question can help capture the customer's attention and get a click.
Personalization: The email should be tailored to the recipient. For example, include the items that were left in their cart and other personal information, such as their name.
Call-to-Action: The email should encourage customers to complete their purchase. For example, the CTA might be something like "Return to Cart" or "Resume Your Order."
Compelling Copy: The copy should be concise and persuasive. Pair short action-oriented copy with images and other rich media to keep the customer's attention on the desired action (e.g., A purchase).
Create, edit and send your emails
Abandoned cart emails are automatically created and activated, as long as you have Privy installed on your site, and your account information contains your business logo, website, business address, and industry.
Note: Abandonment cart emails won't be created or activated automatically for accounts opened before May 26, 2022. For accounts opened after this date, these emails are created but not activated by default if the logo, website, or business address is missing.
To manually create or edit an existing cart abandonment series:
- Navigate to the Automations dashboard.
- Click New automation > Abandoned Cart Email to create a new series. Select the Edit icon to enter the drag and drop editor.
1) Design the email
- Edit the content of your email using the drag and drop email editor. A basic example is provided automatically; however, this starting point can be changed by selecting Templates > Choose a Template from the editor's toolbar. Once a template is selected, click the Save button to have it applied to the email. If you are a Shopify or Shopify Plus user, please check out these special considerations before customizing your email's content.
- Make sure to select the Select button at the top-right of the editor after making any changes.
Note: The "Keep Shopping" button included in some templates defaults to the URL provided in the Business Information section of your Business Settings, but its value can be changed to another location (e.g., A customer's cart) by clicking on it and updating the setting in the sidebar.
Consider offering an incentive
Abandoned cart emails are a fantastic place to offer a coupon because the visitor has already expressed interest in your products or services. Incentives are particularly impactful in the second or third emails in an abandoned cart series as they can help drive urgency and help convert more "at-risk" prospects without cutting too far into your margins.
- To add a discount to your abandoned cart email, either:
- Click into a content block that contains text and input or insert the Coupon Code merge tag, which appears like this: {{ coupon_code }}. This tag will populate with the coupon code when the email is sent to customers. Make sure to include appropriate positioning text near the code so that it is easy for the recipient to understand what they are receiving.
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- Drag-and-drop the Coupon element from the sidebar into your email, ensure that you are also choosing a coupon in the settings. Also, make sure to include appropriate positioning text near the code so that it is easy for the recipient to understand what they are receiving.
- Make sure to select the Save button at the top-right after making any changes.
Learn more about personalizing your messaging with merge tags in this guide, and about inserting coupons into your content in this guide.
Configure the sender information
Next, click into the sender info section at the top of the email editor and configure the options.
- Confirm or select a reply-to address. Any replies to the email will go to this address.
- Edit the subject line. Keep it interesting, on-brand, and make it clear that something has been left behind. A subject line no longer than 7 words or around 40 characters is recommended.
- Provide preview text. The text appears after your subject line when viewing the email in the inbox and allows the addition of compelling copy that helps boost open rates and engagement. The text should be 35 to 55 characters and does support Merge Tags.
Please make sure to select the Save button at the top-right after making your changes.
Note: To update the default From Name and Address used for your emails, navigate to the Sender Options section of your account settings. Additionally, consider updating your sending domain so you can use custom addresses associated with your domain and improve your deliverability.
2) Preview and test the email
With an email customized, use the preview options at the bottom right of the page to see what your email will look like in desktop and mobile views. To preview the email in your actual inbox, select the Send Test Email button. The test can be sent to up to 5 individuals, those users must be added to your users list.
3) Configure the email settings
With your design previewed and tested, return to the top of the email editor and click the Back to Series button to configure the email's trigger and coupon settings. Click the toggle button next to the settings you'd like to change. The following trigger settings are available:
- Set the minimum cart value. Enter the minimum amount of cart value that a shopper should have to receive an abandoned cart email. The default is $1, which means anyone who has any value in their cart should receive the email.
- Set maximum cart value. Use the optional maximum cart value if you plan on making tiered offers to customers with different cart values. For example, you could offer different discounts (or no discount) to shoppers with $49 or less in their carts, but offer a 10% discount to shoppers with $50 or more in their carts.
- Segment by product. If the account is integrated with a Shopify or Shopify Plus store, the email can be configured so that it only sends if the customer's cart contained specific items. Learn more about product IDs and product segmentation here.
- Set the timing of the email. Choose the length of time since someone visited your site before the abandoned cart email is sent. The default is one hour, but you can extend this up to seven days (168 hours).
After editing the trigger settings, please select the Save settings button.
Changing the number of emails in a series
By default there are 3 emails in the Abandoned Cart Series. You can add more emails to the series by click the plus symbol where you would like to add the new email. You can remove emails from the series by selecting the Delete button.
Confirm the coupon settings
Next, if you included a coupon code in your email, make sure you've selected a code from the dropdown in the Coupon section of your email settings. If you'd like to include a coupon, but none are available in the dropdown, learn how to create coupon codes in this guide.
Name the email
- Name the email by clicking the Edit () icon, providing a non-default name, and clicking the Update button. This name change will make it easier to locate the email for additional edits or a performance review post-send.
Activate the email
Abandoned cart emails are activated by default when automatically created by Privy. Manual activation is needed only if the email was manually created or if it wasn't automatically activated by Privy. To activate an abandoned cart email:
- Click the Save button in the email builder if you haven't already and then the Back to Series button.
- Click the Activate button on the resulting page.
Note: Accounts created before May 26, 2022, must manually activate all cart abandonment emails.
The abandoned cart email will start sending to qualifying visitors automatically.
If the email is part of a series, please make sure there's enough time to create, edit, and enable the other emails without issue. You can always return to the emails and activate them when all elements of the series are ready for customers.
Note: If the email is part of a series, please make sure there's enough time to create, edit, and enable the other emails without issue.
Shopify and Shopify Plus users
There are a few Shopify-specific factors and features to keep in mind when creating abandoned cart emails in Privy.
Eligible recipients
The emails can be sent to any contact who has either signed up via a Privy form OR any contact who has reached the checkout page and entered through the Shopify checkout flow.
Additional email components
Cart URL personalization is available. This feature enables you to create a link or button that directs someone back to their cart with their previously abandoned items preloaded in their cart.
To create a link to direct your subscriber back to their cart, select Cart URL from the Merge Tags drop-down menu within a text block in your email. The {{ cart.url }} variable will then appear, which will populate with the correct link when the email is sent to customers.
To use the cart URL with a button, add the {{ cart.url }} merge tag to the button's URL field.
A Cart Summary block is available. The block will appear in the email editor sidebar next to default blocks such as text, images, and buttons. When included in an email, it will display up to the first five products in the customer's cart along with the product's title and image. If clicked, these product listings will link back to the customer's pre-populated cart.
Review the email's performance
Now that your abandoned cart emails are sending to customers:
- Learn how to evaluate their success via reporting in this guide.
- Discover which customers will ultimately receive your emails and why in this guide.