One of the number one issues ecommerce brands face is abandoned carts. No matter what industry you’re in, there are always a high number of people that will add products to their cart and leave without finalizing the purchase. The positive side to this is that there is an abandoned cart strategy that retargets these customers and brings them back to complete their purchases. One of the best ways to tackle abandoned cart recovery is with timed abandoned cart reminders on Facebook Messenger.
The average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69.57%, which leads to ecommerce brands losing an average of $18 billion in sales! That’s a lot of missed revenue. But before you start asking yourself about what to do with abandoned shopping carts, let us show you how you can start using Facebook Messenger marketing to target those who leave without finishing their purchase, remind them about the products they’re interested in, and get them to complete the purchase.
The truth about abandoned carts
It’s true that there are a lot of businesses that see potential customers abandoning their carts, so don’t feel upset if this is happening to you—it happens to the best of us. There are several factors that can lead to cart abandonment, including these reasons:
- The Baymard Institute found that 55% of consumers abandon their carts because of extra costs.
- 79% of customers are more likely to shop online if there is free shipping.
- Baymard Institute also found that 34% of people will abandon their cart if they’re forced to make an account to complete their purchase.
- 35% of potential buyers will abandon a cart if it does not have a security badge.
- A slow website can increase abandonment by 75%.
- A report by Barilliance found that Mobile accounted for the highest rate of cart abandonment at 85.65%.
It’s clear that there are a ton of factors that can lead to consumers abandoning their carts, but keep in mind that about 40% of consumers abandon their carts because they’re just browsing in the first place. This means there are potential buyers that are interested in your products, and they didn’t leave your site due to reasons around high costs or slow response time. These are the customers that you can easily bring back to your store with the right Facebook remarketing methods.
Do you have a high abandoned cart rate? We can help! Chat with us to see how our tools can recover over 7% of your abandoned carts.
The Facebook Messenger retargeting opportunity
As experts in the Facebook Messenger marketing space, we’ve seen businesses that use Messenger and SMS to tackle abandoned carts get insane results, such as 7% - 10% of abandoned cart recovery and thousands in revenue increases. Knowing that majority of abandoned carts are through mobile devices, Facebook Messenger is the perfect channel to use when trying to bring these customers back.
The average email open rate is between 15%-25% with click-through-rates as low as 2.5%. On the other hand, Facebook Messenger sees open rates between 80-95% with click-through-rates between 15%-60%. Knowing this, your business could see results like the fitness apparel brand, DOYOUEVEN, which recovered 7% of their abandoned carts on Messenger, resulting in $50,000 in additional revenue in just 30 days!
Sending abandoned cart messages on Facebook Messenger is super easy, too. The first step is to capture your website visitors to get them to subscribe to your Messenger marketing channels. Include a welcome and exit-intent pop-up that offers a coupon or discount code. This pop-up on Naturalicious’s website is a great example.
Other ways to increase your subscriber list are to include an opt-in checkbox on every product page, an opt-in button on the check-out page that asks if your customers interested in receiving updates through Facebook Messenger, and a Messenger chat widget on all pages of your website so customers can easily engage with you, like how Skinny Mixes displays it.
Capturing more Messenger subscribers will ensure you have a large list of people that you can send remarketing messages toward, including your abandoned cart flows.
12 best practices for abandoned cart reminders
Before you start building your abandoned cart messages, you’ll want to ensure you’re optimizing them for the best results. To get high open rates and click-through-rates, here are our best practices and cart abandonment templates for messages that actually convert your customers.
1. Make the message fun, customized, and relevant to your brand
Getting customers to click on your message will be difficult if it’s not engaging. If you want your customers to be excited about shopping at your store and buying your products, you have to sound excited to tell them about it. Naturalicious does a good job of making their abandoned cart messages sound fun, and they’re on-brand with how they interact with their customers through their other channels too. Remember, having a consistent brand voice is a key factor in being memorable to your customers.
2. Follow up with more than one message
The first message you send will do a good job at converting your customers, but what about the ones that you miss? Don’t worry—that’s why you send a second abandoned cart message to follow up from the first! Your first message will send to customers shortly after they abandon the cart. A secondary message should send one day later. This will give you a better opportunity to reach all those potential customers and increase your revenue with another reminder to refresh their memory.
3. Sound as human as possible
You’re reaching out to potential customers on Facebook Messenger, which is a channel where they mostly interact with friends and family. If you don’t talk to your customers casually, the message won’t be well-received. R-AGE Nation Apparel does this well with their abandoned cart follow-up message that states “Enjoy the rest of your day, homie!” with a bunch of heart emojis. This gives their abandoned cart flow a human element where it feels like the customer is just chatting with a friend.
Want us to help you personalize your Facebook Messenger strategy? Chat with us to see how you can increase your monthly revenue by over $100,000!
4. Include a discount to increase your chances of converting
In the world of ecommerce, there’s nothing better than getting a free discount or coupon code. Every shopper loves getting a freebie, which is why it’s a great strategy to include one in your abandoned cart messages. Bev does a great job with this by making the message clear that they’re offering customers 15% off their entire purchase if they click the link in the message to complete their order and add the code.
Bev includes the discount in their first follow-up message, but not every business will add a discount code right away. You can choose to send an abandoned cart reminder without a discount, but it’s best practice to at least include a discount in the second follow-up message.
5. Push urgency by adding an expiration date or sold out message
Your abandoned cart messages could be ignored if customers decide they’ll come back later to make the purchase, leading them to forget about finishing the purchase completely. This is why adding a sense of urgency helps drive customers to decide they need to make the purchase right away. There are two main ways to push urgency: the first is to add an expiration date on the coupon or discount you offer, the second is to tell customers the product is about to be sold out. Republic of Durable Goods uses the expiration date to drive urgency with their abandoned cart message.
6. Use a “user first name” code to make it personalized
Personalized messages are more impactful, and it can be as simple as just addressing someone by their name. This is part of the reason why DOYOUEVEN’s abandoned cart follow-ups perform so well. By introducing the customer by their name, they’ve already set the stage for a positive customer experience. DOYOUEVEN also tells the customer that the product will look good on them, and they include emojis for a fun tone. This entire message does a good job at making the customer feel like it’s been personalized uniquely to them.
7. Include social proof to increase your product credibility
Social proof is an extremely powerful tool when used properly. It’s great to get customers to leave reviews for your store, but businesses sometimes forget that these reviews can be used in unique ways. Tame the Beast decided to include their product reviews directly in their abandoned cart message flows, which increases the credibility of that product to help drive the sale. For example, once they send the message, the customer can click the reviews button to see what other buyers have said about the product.
Even after the first review is sent, customers can continue to ask to see more reviews. Tame the Beast will also offer a direct link to see all the reviews written about that product, in case customers want to see more proof before purchasing. This type of social proof is a strong way to level-up an abandoned cart message.
8. Encourage customers with copy that sells an idea, not just the product
Think about who your customers are and what problems they’re hoping to solve. This is how businesses can write extremely powerful messages that sell customers an idea rather than just a product. By writing “you are two steps away from...smelling like you deserve a promotion,” Tame the Beast is selling the idea that if customers purchase their anti-aging face serum, they’ll have a better chance of getting promoted at work. This copy makes it more compelling for customers to recover their abandoned carts.
9. Keep the message short, sweet, and direct
There’s no rule that says an abandoned cart message has to be super long. In fact, this could actually deter customers from reading through it and clicking on a link. This is why Skinny Mixes’s message does a good job of getting to the point while still being engaging with a personalized feel by including the customer’s name.
10. Be strategic about how you time your messages
There’s a strategy behind when abandoned cart reminders are sent to customers. It wouldn’t make sense to send one five minutes after a customer left their cart. You want to give customers a bit of time to think about the products they’re leaving behind first. It’s best practice to send the first message 30 minutes after a customer abandons their cart.
The second message should follow up one day later. This gives your customers enough time to consider the product before you start messaging them about what they’re missing out on. Live Love Gameday sends its second message one day later, it includes urgency by telling customers their desired product is almost sold out, and they offer a 20% discount to help drive the sale.
11. Personalize your auto-response buttons for better engagement
One of the reasons Facebook Messenger is one of the best channels for abandoned cart reminders is because of the ability for customers to engage in back-and-forth conversations with you. This is one thing that neither email nor SMS can offer. Spongelle set up AI smart responses so when customers type certain questions, their Messenger chatbot will automatically recognize what they’re trying to ask and respond immediately. This is important for abandoned cart messages because some customers may need these questions answered before they decide they’re going to make the purchase.
12. Engage with customers in a language they’re more comfortable with
Although the English language has become universal, it doesn’t mean every person is most comfortable speaking or writing it. This is why Polysleep sends their abandoned cart messages in both English and French. For those who may not know, Polysleep is a Canadian mattress company, and the two primary languages in Canada are English and French. By giving their customers the option to converse in either English or French, they’re making a more comfortable experience with potential buyers, increasing their brand loyalty and the chances of these customers going back to complete the sale.
Start recovering your abandoned carts right away
There are a ton of ways you can build your abandoned cart messages to engage with your audience and increase conversions. The best practices and templates we’ve shared are tried-and-tested methods we’ve seen customers use over and over again with amazing results. If you’re ready to get started to abandoned cart flows, reach out to us today to see how we can help you build these!
Aside from abandoned cart messages, other ways you can decrease your abandoned carts include the following optimizations:
- Eliminate costs for shipping
- Offer guest checkout
- Create a single page checkout for simplicity
- Display the cart total
- Show security and trust badges
Good luck with your shopping cart recovery campaigns!
