The number of things consumers put in their carts but never wind up purchasing is staggering. In March 2020, 88% of online shopping orders were abandoned. Many categories have cart abandoned rates topping 90%. These are e-commerce shoppers that went to your website and clicked to purchase but then failed to convert. The numbers are scary when you think about the incredible number of sales you may be missing out on.
To make things worse, since COVID-19 hit the scene, e-commerce sellers are seeing even higher abandonment levels.
Why Do Abandoned Carts Happen?
Sometimes it’s as simple as people doing online window shopping. They might be saving items as they continue browsing to comparison shop. In other cases, they get frustrated if they have to jump through hoops to complete a sale, such as creating an account or dealing with too many forms.
According to e-commerce platform Shopify, Here are the top reasons people don’t complete their online purchases:
- Being forced to create an account before completing a sale
- Cumbersome or complicated checkout processes
- Unexpected shipping costs or long shipping time
- Security concerns
Why Email Alone Isn’t Enough to Capture Those Abandoned Cart Sales
The most common abandoned cart strategy is to send follow-up emails. There’s great value in doing so, especially if you can use automation to customize and handle the process.
However, it shouldn’t be the only strategy you employ. More than half of all abandoned cart emails are never opened. Of those that are opened, the click-through rate is about 13%. Of those, about a third will convert if the right offer is made. Follow-up emails can convert sales, but you’re still missing out on a significant number of potential conversions.
Another cart abandonment strategy is to use digital banner ads to re-engage consumers. By targeting potential customers that left things in their shopping baskets, digital ads can grab their attention as they continue to browse online. This can extend your marketing budget by targeting specific IP addresses and linking the ads right to their shopping cart.
Using Direct Mail in Your Abandoned Cart Strategy
There’s another cart abandonment strategy that’s often overlooked, yet amazingly effective: direct mail.
Direct mail gets far better response rates than email (and it’s a little less annoying as well). While emails can quickly be deleted without reading them (or stuck in a spam filter), direct mail does get seen by consumers. By comparison, direct mail response rates are nearly 5% for prospects but skyrocket 9% for house lists or targeted offers. That’s vastly superior to just using email outreach alone — five to nine times greater than email or social media, in fact. Studies show that millennials tend to respond to direct mail at even higher rates.
If customers aren’t responding to your follow-up emails, direct mail is a great way to get their attention. You can also use other digital marketing strategies to follow up again on the direct mail campaign and keep your brand top-of-mind.
How Does Abandoned Cart Direct Mail Work?
When figuring out how to convert abandoned carts, using direct mail on top of email offers can significantly increase conversion rates.
In multiple tests, postcards seem to provide the best conversion rates. The key, however, is to provide significant incentives for consumers to act. While your email offers may remind them of what they “almost” purchased, or offer a small discount, an effective direct mail pitch will need to go further. For example, you might want to offer a limited-time discount code to sign up for your service or apply toward a future purchase.
If you’re in the fast-casual dining industry, the opportunity to complete their online order they abandoned has passed. However, offering them a discount, free appetizer or dessert on their next order may do the trick.
If possible, connect your abandoned cart emails and direct mail efforts to your customer relationship marketing (CRM) system. Marketing automation tools can help personalize your attempts to capture attention and make them more effective.
Converting Abandoned Carts
If you’re dealing with cart abandonment issues, United Mail can help you capture these lost sales. We can work with you to design a multi-tiered approach to recapturing customers who jumped ship with email campaigns, direct mail follow-ups and more.
Contact United Mail today to explore the best ways to manage your abandoned cart strategy to grow your business.
