“Conversion” is the “holy grail” of eCommerce business. It’s what defines the principle of the online selling model. However, there’s an ultimate roadblock to reaching this “holy grail”, and it’s called “abandoned cart”. 

If you’re an eCommerce business owner, you’d know the plight of dealing with a high abandoned cart rate. 

What is an abandoned cart? 

Abandoned cart or shopping cart abandonment is a term that relates to consumer purchasing behavior or action. It occurs when a customer or visitor leaves the online store or checkout page without making a purchase. 

The holiday season shopping frenzy is quintessential. And getting hit by a higher rate of cart abandonment is like witnessing a Christmas tree strewn with empty gift boxes or a stocking absent of any goodies. 

What can you do to prevent an abandoned cart and get your customers to make the required purchases on your online store? 

The one thing you can do to lower the abandoned cart rate is to work with out-of-the-box abandoned cart email campaign strategies. 

The one thing that is awesome about online selling is that you can retrieve customers and persuade them to make the said purchases on your store – which is not in the case of brick-and-mortar stores—where you cannot run after a customer to get the conversion, once he/she decided not to buy a product. 

Okay, let’s understand the concept and use of an abandoned cart email. 

Abandoned cart emails can be considered as the spine of e-commerce. They are emails sent as a follow-up message to customers who have browsed through your products, added them to the shopping cart online but left your store without buying them. 

It’s not pestering, as many might think—rather, abandoned cart email is an art of persuasion. 

So, here are a few fool-proof abandoned cart email campaign strategies, tricks, and tactics that you can follow to achieve higher conversions during the holiday season and beyond!

Add reviews in cart abandonment emails 

Reviews and ratings impact consumer purchasing behavior. They are a part of marketing psychology that involves cognitive sciences and neuroscience insights. The reviews and ratings influence customers’ perceptions and feelings—thereby, driving them to take the desired buying action. 

According to a recent study, 97% of online shoppers refer to reviews to make online purchases. 

Therefore, make sure to include reviews, ratings, feedback via social media channels, and others in your abandoned cart emails. 

Start a “Limited-period” or “time-restrained” email campaign 

Play with the “Urgency Effect” marketing strategy – to drive your customers who’ve abandoned their purchases at the last minute and left from the checkout process. 

The “urgency effect”—according to a scientific study proves that human beings when obligated by bouts of urgency can be compelled to undertake tasks. They do so because they find the process of undertaking an urgent task more appealing than the ones that do not pertain to any time limitation. 

Design emails that convey the sole message of urgency—for example, “we’ve kept your product in stock with a 40% discount for the next 24 hours, checkout immediately before it ends!” 

The tone and style of such messages will influence your users to make immediate purchases within the set time-limit. 

Email messages that say “items soon to sell-out” 

Such a reminder or email will also work on consumer psychology based on the “urgency effect” that I’ve talked about earlier. When you email your users that the items that they left or abandoned at the checkout are soon gonna sell out but you’re holding on to them for them only—adding an ‘in-stock’ number, will convert an indecisive shopper to a potential customer for sure. And it will become specifically useful during the Holiday Season!