9 Proven Ways to Convert Your Abandoned Carts

If you are operating an e-commerce business, abandoned carts probably aren’t a new subject to you. An overwhelming 69.23 percent of e-commerce shoppers abandon their carts. Some abandoned carts are unavoidable—think the “just browsing” visitors. However, a large percentage of abandoned carts still have a high probability of converting into a customer. Below are nine tried-and-true ways to convert your abandoned carts:

1. Remind Customers of Their Abandoned Cart

Send an automated email reminding customers of the items they left in their cart. With Klaviyo, you can set up an abandoned cart flow to automatically send a series of campaigns (either SMS or email) when a consumer meets the criteria. This allows for the true “set it and forget it” mindset and helps send those reminders automatically. Be sure to include a clear call to action to return to the website or their personalized cart to complete their purchase.

2. Retargeting Through Google Ads

Remarketing, is an extremely effective way to reach people who have already visited your site and browsed your products. With Google Ads remarketing, you can provide potential customers with a relevant message across the Google Display Network and Google Search Network. This strategy uses cold, hard data to specifically target shoppers who abandoned their carts or anyone who has visited a specific page to which you’ve added the remarketing pixel. Once the pixel is added to a webpage, Google Ads will put a cookie in users’ web browsers, thus allowing you to show them ads after they leave your site. There are several ways to build a remarketing campaign in Google Ads—it all depends on your own goals and strategy—but here are the basics of setting one up in your Ads account:

• You’ll need to build an audience that you want to target and set up a remarketing list in Google Ads.
  
• Put the remarketing pixel code on your site.
  
• Set up your ad group and create the necessary text or image ads that you want to use in your campaign.
  
• Set the group or campaign to target that specific audience in the “Audience” tab in the interface.
  

I would suggest placing a higher bid for these ad groups because the audience is of higher value to you and is further down the funnel than the general audience you are targeting with your other campaigns. If you are new to Google Ads or remarketing, start small; don’t set up a ton of different remarketing lists. Start with one list and one variable, test it out, and then make determinations for how you want to further segment and build out other remarketing lists. However you set your strategy, at the end of the day, all that matters is that your audience is converting. Make sure you have conversion tracking set up, and continually monitor your campaign for success.

3. Provide Multiple Payment Options at Checkout

Offering a variety of payment options, such as credit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, or Apple Pay accommodates different customer preferences and makes the purchase process more seamless. Personally, I love when Apple Pay or PayPal are offered because that means I don’t have to get up from wherever I’m sitting and get my card. Additionally, offering Klarna or Afterpay to split up payments can increase cart sizes—and decrease the likelihood of shoppers abandoning their carts. According to Adobe, in 2022, revenue from buy now, pay later (BNPL) grew 27 percent year over year. BNPL adds another level of convenience and streamlines the process to those conversions.

4. Conduct Personal Email Outreach

It’s not news that people are inundated with email and often skip over the generic e-blasts many companies are still sending out. However, studies have shown that open rates improve when consumers see that an email is from a real individual. Even if this email is part of an automated flow, this tactic works for several reasons:

• Your potential buyers will feel special that you chose them to reach out to.
• Your buyers will trust you more knowing they are dealing with a company with real people behind it.
• You’re standing out from your competition.
• You have the option to include a direct link to the product shoppers had in their carts, thus making it extremely easy for them to complete their purchase.
• You are now directly connected with potential buyers and can resolve any issues they may have had with your site that hindered them from making a purchase.
  

5. Use Exit-Intent Pop-ups

An exit-intent pop-up is a type of pop-up that appears when a user is about to leave a website or abandon their shopping cart. These pop-ups track the user’s behavior in real time and are triggered  by mouse movements. Here are some ways exit-intent pop-ups can help convert those abandoned carts into completed purchases:

• Offer incentives: The previous point about offering incentives also applies to exit-intent pop-ups. Offering free shipping, discount codes for a dollar amount or percentage off, or a free gift to encourage users to complete their purchases can be effective.
  
• Provide support: These pop-ups can provide support and assistance to those who may run into issues during the checkout process, such as questions about the product(s) or technical difficulties.
  
• Create urgency: Displaying a countdown timer or message that indicates the product is almost sold out can create a sense of urgency as well as a sense of high demand and can motivate users to complete their purchase before the product is no longer available.
  
• Gather feedback: Feedback can be taken from exit-intent pop-ups for those abandoning their cart, which allows businesses to improve the user experience while identifying issues during the checkout process.

Using exit-intent pop-ups to capture customers’ attention and offer an incentive before they leave the site provides an opportunity to re-engage those users who may have otherwise completely abandoned their shopping cart. These pop-ups encourage them to complete their purchase, which can help businesses improve their conversion rates and increase their revenue.

6. Show Related Items to Users

Showing related items to users who have abandoned their shopping cart can help convert abandoned carts into completed purchases in a few ways:

• Provides alternative options: If you show them options related to products they’ve already added to their carts, users may discover similar products they’re interested in, which could give them that extra push to complete their purchase even if the original item wasn’t what they were really looking for.
• Increases product exposure: Showcasing related products increases their visibility, showing off what your business has to offer and helping users discover products they may not have otherwise known about.
• Helps customers complete their order: By displaying related items, you can help users complete their order without having to leave your store and search for similar products somewhere else.
  

Showing related items is a great way to encourage customers to make purchases they may not have otherwise made—which again, leads to increased sales and revenue for your business!

7. Excellent Customer Service

How often does a business’s customer service make or break your experience and determine whether or not you’ll return to that business? The same is true with e-commerce businesses. Providing excellent customer service can help complete those orders in a few ways:

• Address concerns: Typically, customers abandon their carts because they have some concerns or aren’t sure about the product(s). Sometimes their questions weren’t addressed during their shopping experience. You can reach these users and address any concerns or answer any questions, which also helps build trust and confidence in your brand.
  
• Personalize the experience: Providing great customer service really involves getting to know your customers and understanding their needs. By engaging with customers who left their carts, you can offer personalized assistance with recommendations based on their previous shopping behavior, and that can help them feel valued and more likely to complete their order.
  
• Follow up: Timing is key when it comes to converting abandoned carts. By following up with customers after they leave their cart and offering assistance, you can remind them of what they left behind and encourage them to complete their purchase.
  
• Offer incentives: Giving excellent customer service can also mean offering incentives, such as discounts or free shipping, to users who abandoned their carts. Doing so can help encourage them to complete their purchase and can create a positive user experience!

Going the extra mile for our customers is something that will always pay off to build trust! When it comes to abandoned carts, providing excellent customer service helps address concerns and personalize the user experience, which encourages them to complete their purchase. 

8. Provide an Incentive

Evaluate your current pricing strategy, analyze the breaking points where you will still be earning or coming close to your profit margin, and develop an incentive program. There are several incentives you can offer: a dollar or percentage amount off, buy X get X free, a rewards program for buying X amount of product, and so on. My personal favorite and one that works best is offering free shipping. According to a 2021 Consumers Trends Report as reported by Shopify, 80 percent of shoppers expect free shipping if they spend a certain amount of money—and 66 percent expect it regardless of how much they spend. If this isn’t something that’s offered on a regular basis, it’s a great incentive to provide to complete those purchases. The best part about free shipping is that you can strategically offer it so that you are not losing money, and in most cases, you’ll earn a higher profit. Increase your AOV by offering free shipping at a minimum order threshold. If your margin is greater for certain products, offer free shipping only on those products. Make free shipping a coupon code so you can track how effective your marketing strategy is at reaching your audience. 

The possibilities are endless when it comes to what incentive you decide is ultimately best for your business, but including some incentives are sure to boost conversions.

9. Optimize your checkout process

You can have the best-looking e-commerce site out there featuring the best product or service out of all your competition, but if you haven’t optimized your checkout process, your abandoned carts will probably never convert. Here are several ways to optimize your checkout: 

• Offer guest checkout: A quantitative study of reasons for abandonment by Baymard Institute found that the second-most common reason for cart abandonment was that the site wanted shoppers to create an account. There are many benefits to creating an account, but you shouldn’t make it mandatory.
  
• Don’t hide fees: Be up-front with your pricing and any extra fees that you are including. It’s deceptive to users and breaks trust when they think they are going to pay a certain price that ends up being higher.
• Reduce steps: Don’t make the process longer than it needs to be. Keep it to one page, and only require the necessary information that it will take to successfully complete the buying process.
• UX design: Keep the user experience in mind when you’re designing your site, and make sure the cart and checkout buttons are easy to find.

Remember, abandoned carts are an inevitable part of your e-commerce business, but there are so many things you can do to loop potential buyers back in and convert them into happy customers. You need to test and find out what works for you because there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Prioritize your potential buyers, analyze what platform they prefer, and start testing one or two different approaches at a time until you’ve found the perfect abandoned cart strategy for your business.

This blog was originally published in 2017 and has been updated since.