Abandoned cart emails are an effective strategy to increase conversions and encourage customers to make repeat purchases from you. They serve as subtle reminders, reconnecting shoppers with things they showed interest in but did not purchase. When done correctly, these emails can recoup a considerable part of lost sales and create an indelible impression on your customers.
In this post, we’ll look at what makes these examples effective and how you may implement similar methods in your own email campaigns.
What is an Abandoned Cart Email?
You may have received an email to persuade you to complete your purchase if you have ever left your online shopping cart empty.
An abandoned cart email is an automated notification that appears when an online shopper adds an item to their basket but does not complete the transaction. By reminding customers about the items in their cart and encouraging them to finish their transaction, it re-engages customers.
To further encourage you to finish your purchase, abandoned cart emails typically include a unique incentive, such as a coupon code or exclusive promotion.
Why You Need Cart Abandonment Emails
It’s a very successful strategy for retaining customers that e-commerce businesses employ to boost sales.
Indeed, according to a Klaviyo analysis, companies that use cart recovery emails recover 3.33% of lost sales—the highest percentage of any email flow—and generate an average of $3.65 per recipient.
This number isn’t particularly impressive on its own. However, abandoned cart emails can boost income when you scale them by thousands of abandoned carts over a year.
- Recover Lost Sales
Remind customers to complete their purchase and increase conversions.
- Low-Cost Revenue Increase
Users have already demonstrated purpose, resulting in a high ROI with minimal cost.
- Strengthen Customer Relationships
Personalized emails demonstrate that you care and improve the experience.
- Gain Insights
Track behavior to enhance messaging and product strategy.
- Automate Retargeting
Set up automatic flows that run continually in the background.
- Personalize Offers
Include names, product photos, and personalized recommendations.
- Reduce Future Abandonments
Customers are more inclined to return and purchase.
Abandoned Cart Email Best Practices
Understand Why Your Clients Abandon Their Carts
To find the solution and the right approach to high cart abandonment rates, you need to look at the root of the problem. Consider the experience of your customers. What is the most likely cause for them to leave their cart when they are buying on your website?
According to Statista’s report “Top reasons for cart abandonment among online shoppers worldwide 2024”, the most common reasons why people don’t complete their purchases online are the following:
- Expensive shipping
- Comparison shopping
- Unexpected fees at checkout
- No intention for purchase or unnecessary purchase
- Slow delivery
- Limited payment options are available
- The discount code doesn’t work
- No return policy information
Of course, there are more reasons that can influence your prospects’ desire to complete purchases. Here are more things that you need to consider to prevent clients from turning away at the checkout:
- Complicated checkout
- Technical issues
- Payment security concerns
- Interruptions
- Lack of urgency
If you understand the reasoning of cart abandonment in your case, it’s much easier to address it and use the best practices in cart abandonment emails. The most popular strategy to get this information is to ask for feedback. Run a simple survey to know what part of your client’s experience made them leave the checkout process unfinished. In the abandoned cart email example below, you can see exactly how it can be done.
Example:
Subject Line: Oops… What did we do wrong?
1.Purple
Purple is a mattress company that has a near-perfect abandoned cart email set up.
Here are the best practices that we noticed and liked:
- Their abandoned cart email contains their brand’s logo, colors and is in their brand’s tone of voice
- They are passing multiple objections/restating benefits in the email. (0% interest financing, free delivery, free shipping, 100-night trial, etc.)
- They have included downsells in the email.
- The email has multiple CTAs (Calls-To-Action) in the opening line of the email copy and further in the body of the email as well.
In short, everything in their email makes perfect sense given that they are selling a more expensive item.
The reader has already shown interest, so they just need to restate the satisfaction guarantee (free delivery, free shipping, 100-night trial) and answer the biggest possible objection (money).
2. Adored Vintage
Adored Vintage is a women’s online vintage clothing boutique. Here are the specific things we like about their abandoned cart email:
- The tone of voice is friendly and conversational (you, we)
- You are offered an incentive to complete your checkout (10% off)
- Great email headline (Second Chance…) that is tied perfectly to the body of the email
- A CTA (Calls-To-Action) button that stands out.
- No more images than necessary.
Before we move on to the other abandoned cart email examples, we want to point out one thing. Having images in your email copy isn’t bad, but it increases the chance of your email landing in the promotions tab. Especially if the images are too big and there are too many of them.
For example, Purple’s email didn’t land in my promotions tab, although their abandoned cart email was full of images.
Always test your emails beforehand, so they don’t reach the promotions tab. This includes both your email copy and images.
3. Bebemoss
Bebemoss isn’t your ordinary kids’ shop. They are an online shop that employs more than 120 underprivileged mothers as a way to help them rebuild their lives.
And this brings us to what we like about their abandoned cart email:
- They are stating their mission right below the brand name.
- Their emails don’t overcomplicate things
- They have included scarcity in their abandoned cart email (limited quantities available)
- Clear CTA on a big button with a contrasting color to draw you in.
4.BLK & BOLD
BLK & Bold is a premium coffee roaster established in Des Moines. What sets BLK & Bold apart from their competitors is the fact that they invest 5% of their profits in bettering the lives of at-risk youth.
In terms of their abandoned cart emails, here is what we like:
- Great curiosity provoking email headline that stands out in the inbox (Don’t make us put it back on the shelf)
- They keep things simple
- They are mentioning their mission to help at-risk youth in the email.
5.Makeup For Melanin Girls
As you can probably guess, we are talking about an online cosmetics store.
Judging by the email you see, you may think that it is “too simplistic”. However, here is what we like about them and why we included them on our list.
- They don’t have too many images. Having too many images increases the chance of your email going to the promotions tab
- Their abandoned cart email’s headline is great (“Your shipment is on the way”)
- Their email subheadline points to the “checkout now” button (this is a very subtle copywriting tactic).
Conclusion: How To Write The Best Abandoned Cart Emails
So there you have it. These are our favorite 5 abandoned cart email examples. To make it more convenient, here are the biggest takeaways you can apply to your own abandoned cart emails:
- Write a compelling headline that makes the reader curious enough to click and open the email
- Transfer your brand’s tone of voice and mission statement into the email
- Keep things conversational (use “you” and “we”)
- Structure the email in a way that guides the reader down to the “Complete Purchase” button
- Include an incentive for the reader to finish their purchase (10% off coupon, discounts, etc. )
- Mention scarcity to propagate exclusivity and demand, eliminate objections, and state the benefits of your products
- Make your CTA (Calls-To-Action) button stand out in the email
- Include your CTA (Calls-To-Action) at least two times in your emails.
Now we hope you have a fair idea of what a winning abandoned cart email looks like. Implement according to your brand, engage your customers and boost your conversions.
Further Reading
