As many marketers know, cart abandonment is a real problem. According to industry reports, over 75% of carts were abandoned by customers in 2018. In an attempt to squash this phenomenon, marketers have turned to email to help recover abandoned sales. For the most part, it is working too. 46% of people who receive abandonment emails open them and 13% of them click within the email causing a spike in email ROI. In this article, we will outline the best way to set up your abandonment emails in order to increase your sales for your company.

What Are Abandonment Cart Emails?
Abandonment cart emails are messages that get sent out to your customers when they come to your online store, add items to your cart then don’t buy them. They are emails that are automatically triggered when your customer abandons checkout procedures. They are a part of a robust ecommerce email marketing strategy. In order to send these emails to your customers, you must obtain their emails first. You can do this by requiring your customers to sign up for an account before they can purchase—or add items to a cart—in your online store.
Why Customers Abandon Carts
According to industry research, the main reason customers abandon their online carts is because they were just browsing. Customers also state that other reasons for abandonment include shipping issues and that they were comparing items from different stores.
These reasons are not bad. They give you an opportunity to re-entice your customers to buy. With people that are just browsing, this means that they are not ready to buy, just yet. You can introduce cart abandonment emails to these customers, so they remain interested in the products they were browsing, and ultimately lead them to buy.
With shipping problems, you can adjust your shipping strategy to generate more sales as well. You can increase the price of your item and lower the cost of shipping proportionally. You can also add options for free shipping, such as a coupon code or free shipping after a certain amount.
Cart Abandonment Trends
Over 75% of customers abandon carts without making a purchase when looking through eCommerce websites. Industry trends showcase that abandonments are increasing on a yearly basis as well. This means that if your own personal cart abandonment rates are high, do not fret. You are not alone. We will outline below 6 steps to improve your cart abandonment email strategy to help improve these stats and get your audience to purchase from your company.
Get the Timing Right to increase Email ROI
Ensuring your abandoned cart emails are sent at the right time is crucial. Your first email must be sent within an hour of abandonment to create the most email ROI. If you wait too long, your customer will lose interest in your product and lose the urge to shop in the first place. You must entice them to purchase while your product is still top of mind. This will build the most email ROI and lead to the most successful ecommerce email marketing strategy.
Use High Converting Subject Lines
Your email subject lines should be clear and concise to increase the chance of your customer opening it. You must create email subject lines that are sleek and attention-grabbing, yet not too fancy and complicated. On a practical level, you can include discounts and offers such as free shipping in your abandonment emails. These types of enticements can work in your favor in the long run at converting potential customers into paying customers.
Include Abandonment Product within Email
Your abandonment emails should include details about the product, size, color, pattern, etc. within the email. This is a great way to remind your customers about the product they were interested in purchasing, without making them think too hard about it. It is important to include an image of the product your customers were interested in, since humans are visual creatures. This move can increase conversion rates as more customers are enticed to purchase your products.
Include Large CTA Buttons
As marketers, we know it is important to guide users down a journey. If we do not take control of what a customer does, neither will they. Your abandonment emails must be set up in a way to guide users to finish buying the products they were interested in. It is important to use large, bold and clear CTA buttons to guide them to the next step of the purchasing journey. This will create the most email ROI for those campaigns.