For many years, retailers of all sizes have been attempting to tackle the “problem” of online shoppers abandoning before they buy. It can happen when a shopper departs after looking around a retailer’s website or further along in the process when they have moved a few items to their basket.
One way retailers have dealt with the problem was to spend money chasing their customers all over the web with retargeting ads. While these ads have a purpose, we believe there is a more personalised way to approach the issue – one that can turn abandonment into the start of a long-term relationship.
At Bronto Software we have seen numerous retailers use abandonment communication strategies to understand their customers better, target them more effectively and provide the hyper-personalisation that entices consumers to stay loyal to a specific brand.
Last year was a watershed year for basket abandonment e-mails. Most of our customers found their recovery e-mails (as we call them) to be their most lucrative communications. They stopped spending money trying to avoid cart abandonment, instead treating an abandoned cart as the start of a selling cycle.
As an example, kitchenware brand Joseph Joseph added an abandoned basket campaign that has a 60.5 per cent open rate, and click-through and conversion rates of 24 per cent. The company’s digital marketing manager noted the e-mails did not include a discount and that it was one of the company’s most successful campaigns.
The next step for retailers is augmenting basket recovery efforts with browser abandonment approaches. By focusing on the point that the customer abandons browsing, they shift the focus earlier in the purchasing cycle. The philosophy is similar to basket recovery – treat an abandoned shopping session as the first step in a sales opportunity. After a customer finishes browsing without purchasing or even adding to the basket, the retailer will send a reminder e-mail. This may include an incentive.
To be effective, browser recovery must consider many more variables than just the pages a customer views; it needs automatically to recognise each consumer and understand their deeper intentions. That means drawing on data from multiple shopping sessions, purchase history, ratings, location and other personal attributes.
As an example, if a customer typically buys around £150-worth of products, a retailer can now send e-mails after that person abandons the shopping process, highlighting relevant product offers that hit the customer’s “sweet spot” of £150. To encourage a larger expenditure, the e-mail might include an incentive for purchases above £150.
What comes next? With an understanding of who the customer is, the next steps of hyper-personalisation include newer geo-targeting options and product recommendations.
Treat an abandoned shopping session as the first step in a sales opportunity
Geo-targeting recognises where a consumer is physically located and reacts accordingly. It could be as simple as publishing local store hours in an e-mail or as complicated as sending a real-time SMS coupon as the customer nears the store.
The final step in personalisation is to recommend the right product at the right time. Product recommendations do not happen in a vacuum. Stores need more than the conventional “people who bought product X like…” A good recommendations engine takes all the available data into account – shopping preferences, purchase history, the date, physical location and more.
We have seen many times that sending targeted personalised e-mails after abandonment works well. Sales increase along with customer engagement and brand loyalty. Retailers of all sizes are using the technology to get ahead of their rivals and secure the spending of online customers long into the future.
To find out more about how to turn abandonment into effective and repeatable sales, visit www.bronto.com
