E-com Companies In ME Can Now Tackle Abandoned Carts

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Abandoned Cart? Not a problem anymore!

Every type of business/industry has evolved. 2015 happens to be the most advanced as compared to 2000 when e-commerce really took off! We have come a long way from 2000 and everything pertaining to e-commerce, just like any other business/industry, is at its peak! The only outlook which has got all of us so far is – how can we be better than before? Think about it!

E-commerce has overcome many challenges of its own but some still persist. One of the most prominent is to tackle the “Abandoned Cart”.

Following are some staggering stats to give you a perspective :
– “The average online conversion rate for retailers is only 3%*” And on top of it
– “retailers lose $18 billion annually due to Shopping Cart Abandonment”
– However, “return site visitors account for only 12% of traffic*”. Huge gap = Huge opportunity!

E-commerce companies, around the globe, acknowledge that there is a huge gap for which they put in serious efforts to develop strategies that could bring back the visitor/customer who abandoned the cart and convert them into a sale. It is sad but true that not only small and medium sized but even the large sized e-commerce companies have failed miserably. Based on the research conducted by Baymard Institute, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 68.53 per cent.

#1 Product Abandoned in the Cart
In order to instantly grab the customer’s attention, it’s necessary to include product image, details and a buy-link in the abandoned cart email. This stimulates the customer to rethink and urges him/her to purchase the product. However, several e-commerce companies did not include any detail about the product or its image.

#2 Call To Action
Abandoned cart emails should always create a sense of urgency that drives the customer to take a desired action i.e. to get them back on the website (be it product page/abandoned cart). Missing out on call-to-action is a huge mistake. Some e-commerce companies fail to drive urgency.

#3 Relevant Product Recommendations
Think from the customers’ perspective. Why do they abandon products? They do so because they were uncertain about either the colour or style or price. None of the companies sent across relevant recommendations. Sending relevant recommendations, based on the history, will help customers to contrast and compare and then urge them to circle out a product of their choice.

#4 Responsive Design
All abandoned cart emails were responsive. Glad to see that!

#5 Short & Sweet
Always, always, keep the email precise. Too much text or too many options will overwhelm and confuse your customer. Design of the email needs to have limited text with product (image) that was abandoned along with three or four recommendations. That’s it! E-commerce companies usually go overboard with series of irrelevant recommendations and text and this puts off the customer.

#6 No Discount
Never provide a discount in the abandoned cart email because it sets wrong expectations. Also, once the customers detect the pattern of receiving discounts then it’s obvious they will tend to abandon the product often to leverage discount repeatedly. Rather, deliver value by including relevant recommendations that will entice customers to make a purchase. We were glad to learn that none of the e-commerce companies we researched in Middle East adopted this wrong way to lure customers.

Conclusion
Customers do not get on e-commerce portals randomly so do not treat your customers randomly. Abandoned cart emails are a very effective way to rescue sales but only if it’s done the right way. Every customer who abandons the product/cart should be made to feel special with well thought out, well structured, and most importantly, with personalized approach.

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