Ecommerce businesses often deal with abandoned carts. You need to know how to recover sales to ensure a stable revenue. One of the most successful ways to do it is sending out abandoned cart emails. However, if you want this campaign to perform well and bring profit to your business, you need to know the main cart abandonment email benchmarks and rates.
With our brief guide, you’ll learn about email standards that will help you better understand what to anticipate regarding cart abandonment and effective conversions.
What is an Abandoned Cart Email?
When a visitor to your ecommerce website browses and adds an item or products to their cart, but exits the website without making a purchase, this is referred to as an abandoned cart.
An abandoned cart email is a message that aims to recover some of this potentially lost profit by reminding subscribers about items in their carts or providing enticing offers. In most cases, this campaign is set as an automation if you use email marketing software.
Sending abandoned cart emails makes sense because you have already invested financial resources and time to draw customers to your business. They were on the verge of purchasing your product, after all.
You maximize the return on your previous marketing investments by retargeting the customer. Since they are already further along in the sales funnel than a new customer, you should also find it easier to convert them. Even though you won’t turn every one of these abandoned carts into a sale, you probably will turn quite a few.
You determine the likely success of your emails by using the industry statistics provided by the cart abandonment benchmarks.
What is a Cart Abandonment Rate?
Verify that your industry’s average cart abandonment rate is met before devising a cart abandonment email plan.
If your rate is higher than the industry average, there might be an issue with your checkout procedure, the speed at which pages load, your rates, or another issue.
According to Statista, online shopping cart abandonment rate in 2024 is around 70%.
The following are average cart abandonment rates by industry:
- Fashion: 68.3%
- Finance: 83.6%
- Gaming: 64.2%
- Nonprofit: 83.1%
- Retail: 72.8%
- Travel: 81.7%
Abandoned Cart Email Benchmarks
Email campaign quality, target audience, and industry can all affect abandoned cart email benchmarks. Nonetheless, you can get a sense of what to aim for by using some generic standards. Let’s take a look at acknowledged benchmarks for abandoned cart emails relevant in 2024. We’ll outline the rates for campaigns and flows based on industries and customer base size.
Cart Abandonment Email Open Rates
Average rate: 40–50%
Abandoned cart flow open rate:
- Average: 50.5%
- Top: 65.3% (Source: “The abandoned cart benchmarks report” by Klaviyo)
A 40% to 50% open rate says that your subject lines and sender reputation are working, and it also shows that your recipients are highly engaged and interested in your messages. Reaching this abandoned cart email benchmark can greatly improve the overall performance of your strategy for recovering abandoned carts, since greater open rates usually translate into higher click-through and conversion rates.
Abandoned Cart Email Conversion Rates
Average rate: 5–10%
Conversions for abandoned cart email automation:
- Average: 3.33%
- Top: 7.69% (Source: Klaviyo)
A conversion rate between 5% and 10% shows that a significant percentage of users who click on your emails about abandoned carts really complete their purchases. This shows how well your email content, incentives, and user experience work together to convert potential buyers.
Cart Abandonment Email Click-Through Rate
Average rate: 10–20%
Abandoned cart email automation CTR:
- Average: 6.25%
- Top: 13.33% (Source: Klaviyo)
When your email’s content and call-to-action have a click-through rate (CTR) of 10% to 20%, it is clear that recipients are compelled to act. This number is important because it shows you how well your email’s layout and content drive visitors back to their abandoned carts, which increases the chance that lost transactions will be made.
Abandoned Cart Recovery Rate
Average rate: 10–20%
Abandoned cart email recovery benchmark:
- Average: 6.25%
- Top: 13.33% (Source: Klaviyo)
If your abandoned cart email strategy is successful in getting customers to come back and finish their purchases, you should see a recovery rate of 10% to 15%. This measure is essential for assessing how well your email campaign is working overall to lower cart abandonment and boost sales.
Revenue per Recipient Abandoned Cart Email
Average rate: from $5 to $10 for every email (depends on cart size and placed orders)
RPR for abandoned cart flow:
- Average: $3.65
- Top: $28.89 (Source: Klaviyo)
You can expect an average revenue of $5.81 per recipient of an abandoned cart email.
However, the results you can expect vary greatly based on the average size of the cart and the number of orders you receive per month.
Less than $50
For average orders of less than $50, consider the following averages based on the number of orders per month:
- For less than 100 orders per month: 3.05% recovery rate, $144 in sales recovered;
- For 100 to 499 orders per month: 2.97%, $310;
- For 500 to 999 orders per month: 3.36%, $945;
- For 1,000+ orders per month: 2.95%, $9,154.
From $50 to $100
For average orders of $50 to $100, the following applies, based on orders per month:
Less than 100 orders: 3.54% recovery rate, $238 in sales recovered
- 100 to 499 orders: 2.97%, $885;
- 500 to 999 orders: 3.36%, $2,160;
- More than 1,000 orders: 3.78%, $45,720.
From $100 to $500
For average orders of $100 to $500, the following is true:
- Less than 100 orders: 4.06% recovery rate, $545 in sales recovered;
- 100 to 499 orders: 4.74%, $2,806;
- 500 to 999 orders: 4.69%, $7,861;
- More than 1,000 orders: 4.97%, $37,957.
Over $500
For average orders of more than $500, consider these cart abandonment email benchmarks:
- Less than 100 orders: 3.93% recovery rate, $405 in sales recovered;
- 100 to 499 orders: 5.1%, $1,059;
- 500 to 999 orders: 4.44%, $48,650;
- More than 1,000 orders: 5.44%, $93,539.
You can use these abandoned cart email benchmarks for recovery to predict your results. Just look at the relevant figures for your typical order size and number of monthly orders. Then, remember that the figures are averages, so your results may be higher or lower.
Unsubscribe Rate for Cart Abandonment Emails
Average rate: less than 0.5%
Abandoned cart email automation CTR:
- Average: 0.60%
- Top: 0% (Source: Klaviyo)
Cart Abandonment Benchmarks Based on Email Number
If you want to reach the desired abandoned cart email rates, this campaign shouldn’t be just one email but consist of a series. Based on statistics and our own experience, we recommend sending up to three cart recovery emails for maximum performance. Here are some valuable insights to prove this practice.
- If you look at the average open rate of cart abandonment emails based on the number of emails in a series, you will notice a 62.94 percent open rate for single emails.
- Two-email and three-email series have average open rates of 48.65 percent and 46.11 percent, respectively.
- The average click rate also decreases, at 14.53 percent, 11.83 percent, and 10.69 percent for one-, two-, and three-email series, respectively.
- The same trend is true of the average revenue per recipient with $10.75, $8.28, and $5.52, respectively.
- The most important of these abandoned cart email benchmarks is for overall revenue. Those figures become $3.88 million, $16.4 million, and $24.85 million.
Conclusion: You should use three emails for the best overall revenue.
Best Abandoned Cart Recovery Email Practices
With the previous rates and statistics in mind, explore some of the most effective practices to maximize your ability to reach or exceed abandoned cart email benchmarks.
- Always Get Permission
Before sending a cart abandonment email, get permission from the recipient. This can be as simple as having them check a box while providing their email address. But it is essential to protect you from legal issues.
- Feature the Abandoned Product
Your abandoned cart email should always feature the product in question prominently. Include a picture of it as well as a description and a direct link.
- Choose the Correct Time
The best timing for an abandoned cart email is one hour after the customer leaves the website.
- Address the Reason for Abandonment
There are various reasons that customers may abandon their carts, including doubts about the product or pricing and technical issues.
If you know their reason, address it in the email. If the price was a concern, offer a discount. If your checkout process was long, upgrade it and mention that update in the email.
- Create Trust
Lack of trust is a common potential reason for abandoned carts. Create trust in the product with social proof and reviews in the email.
- Consider a Coupon
You may also want to add a coupon or other discount to your email. Even a small discount of 10 percent can make a difference
FAQ
What is a good abandoned cart recovery rate for ecommerce?
Generally speaking, a respectable abandoned cart recovery rate falls between 10% and 15%. Reaching this percentage shows that your email campaign for abandoned carts is convincing people to come back to your website and finish their purchases. An industry-specific benchmark may differ, as may the particular strategies employed (e.g., incentives, personalization, and timing), but a recovery rate falling within this range is generally deemed successful.
What other abandoned cart email benchmarks do I need to consider?
You should also consider such metrics as bounce rate (shows what proportion of emails were unsuccessfully delivered) and response time (increases recovery chances). The ideal bounce rate is less than 2%.
Conclusion
By familiarizing yourself with the abandoned cart email benchmarks, you can assess whether your email campaign is yielding the desired results or needs to be adjusted. You can pinpoint areas for development and enhance your approach to more effectively recover lost sales and optimize revenue by comparing your performance to these standards. If you need help in maintaining the efficacy and alignment of your email marketing with your business objectives, contact Flowium for professional services.
