Today’s ecommerce business contains multitudes: people with internet access cruising docilely to close deals, technocrats steering their way to purchase spiffy and sassy products, plebeians snapping selfies with their modish products and the vibrant populace sharing these snaps on social media platforms.
The most important criterion for us to understand in this dynamic world is that it is our responsibility to cover each and every customer segment. If you feel that you have covered each and every modicum of customer base, you could still be experiencing moments of lost fortune in the form of lost sales.
How? Define your own methods of exploration. Here is the cat out of the bag- Lost sales are typically in the form of shopping cart abandonments. Without any further ado, I would like to assert that this piece of information is a classic vignette on “How to triple your sales with shopping cart abandonment notifications?”
Understanding the definition of Shopping cart abandonment
Whenever shoppers go through the list of various products available on the website and view the items juxtaposed, they tend to add a few items to their respective shopping carts. However, they do not buy all the items that they have added to their carts. More often than not, they abandon the shopping cart due to diverse reasons. They either checkout or terminate the social shopping marketplace window.
Ecommerce industry experts and pundits say that around 60-70% of the people abandon their purchase. This article is all about winning back the abandoned shopping carts through a series of growth hacking schemes and strategies. Lovely as the growth hacking strategies are, I believe in their effective implementation. But before that, let me point out a few possibilities that lead to shopping cart abandonment. Here is a quick run-down of the same:
Intricate shopping process:
When your social shopping marketplace or ecommerce marketplace resembles an unorganized assortment of multifarious categories and subcategories, shoppers are sure to lose their interest. The reason is as simple as this- If shoppers are being redirected to a new page each and every time they choose a category or a product of a particular category, impatience gets the better of their patience.
As you all know, a multi-vendor marketplace is a hub of diverse sellers. More often than not, these sellers collect personal details of their customers by asking them to fill lengthy forms. The complete view of a lengthy form demoralizes the shopping spirit of the active shoppers. Similarly, providers of multiple payment gateways also solicit a lot of details.
This is a very big turn-off for the customers. Whenever residents of one country shop in other countries, foreign banks impose a lot of restrictions. Irked by the intricacy manifest in the shopping process, online shoppers leave the website with predictable scorn.
Technical glitches:
Despite running your website on one of the best global servers, technical issues may creep in. Owing to huge traffic, your website may take a lot of time to load. This invariably leads to shoppers flocking to your competitors’ social shopping marketplace. Payment gateway portals are known to crash frequently.
This leaves shoppers with no choice for making payments. Social login buttons such as “Login with Facebook”, “Login with Twitter” etc. may become dysfunctional due to error-prone JavaScript code. Vexed with the technical glitches, shoppers leave your online marketplace.
Comparative Shopping:
Due to the abundance of B2C ecommerce marketplaces, customers will surely ferret out the prices of various products that they desire to buy on various marketplaces. If your product is exorbitantly priced or if it isn’t reasonably priced, shoppers leave your social shopping marketplace with no second thought. A better pricing strategy is a key strategy to prevent the shopping cart abandonment.
Shipping costs:
As I rightly asserted in one of my previous write-ups, if you charge profits on shipping costs, abandonment of shopping carts is the eventual outcome. Research shows that as much as 67.5% of customers withdraw shopping due to the absence of ‘free shipping’ feature. If the actual cost of shipping is beyond the perceived levels, shopping cart abandonment shouldn’t be an astonishing consequence.
Tip: A Deloitte study revealed that 69% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a retailer with free shipping. A higher price + free shipping = not a big deal 
Product unavailability:
Sometimes, online shoppers visit ecommerce marketplaces to do bundle shopping. This can be explained with an example. Consider a scenario in which a shopper visited your digital marketplace to buy “You can Win” e-book authored by Shiv Khera and “Wings of Fire” e-book authored by former Indian president A.P.J Abdul Kalam. If either of the books is unavailable, the shopper restrains himself from buying the available one. So, it is a “Buy all” or “Buy none” situation. Whenever a product goes out of stock, there is not much productive work a shopper can do but for expecting swift replenishment of stocks.
Concerns about payment security:
Most of the B2C ecommerce marketplaces are secure. Nevertheless, they always run the risk of being victims of cyber-attacks such as Man-In-the-middle attack, session hijacking, etc. So, it is suggested to have a HTTPS (‘S’ in ‘HTTPS’ stands for security) authentication.
Too many banner ads- A great distraction:
If your ads aren’t properly placed, they can become the scourge of online shoppers. Too many ads result in too many shopping cart abandonments.
Additional charges:
This is indeed a deterrent. Customers do not like paying extra. As a best practice, leverage experimenting with a cost estimator. Once the customers get an idea of the estimated cost, the idea of abandoning a shopping cart may be ditched.
While the above list elucidates the most common reasons, here are a few trivial reasons for shopping cart abandonment:
- Pre-conceived resolutions of not buying
- Casual social shopping marketplace surfing
- Foreign currency and its ever changing dynamics
- Payment issues with respective banks
- Payment declined
- Impromptu website walkabouts
How do you find out the reason for shopping cart abandonment?
Just execute a simple plan of action. Send your customers a small questionnaire and request them to mention the reason for abandoning the shopping cart. This small questionnaire will aid you in identifying your shoppers’ pain points.
Now that the realization has dawned up and now that you have familiarized yourself with the most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment, it is time to understand the growth hacks that help you triple your sales and win back the abandoned shopping carts. Here is a quick run-down of the proven and promising growth hacks:
Bright and large dynamic thumbnails: In the notification electronic mail, embed bright and large dynamic thumbnails. Provide a multi-dimensional and multi-angular view of the product that the shopper has left in his/her shopping cart. Do away with any lengthy text and let your dynamic thumbnails do the talking.
Secure payment gateways and purchase routes: If your shoppers are concerned about secure payment gateways and purchase routes, place a security badge. Ensure that the placement of the security badge is apt and trendy. You can add an intriguing header such as “Safe and secure shopping” and complement it with sub headers such as “in perfect accordance with TLS and SSL protocol specifications.”
For your information, TLS is a transport layer security protocol that guarantees privacy amongst various communication applications. SSL is Secured Socket Layer protocol that prevents eavesdropping. TLS is the immediate successor of SSL. To all the concerned buyers, send an e-mail that addresses their security concerns.
Authentication stamp: It is important to have an authentication stamp that displays the authentication policies and security related nuances. In an e-mail recovery notification, include an image juxtaposed with an authentication stamp and do not forget to include a perfect call to action button that redirects them to the products web page.
Optional user registration: As I pointed out in the possibilities section, detailed and lengthy user registration forms can leave your target audiences in a fit of pique. So, make user registration optional. As an alternative action, you may provide social media integration buttons such as “Login with Facebook”, “Login with Twitter profile” etc.
Whenever you send a weekly subscription newsletter, embed strong call to action buttons that let your users to sign in with their social media profiles.
Shipping costs: The next time you send an e-mail notification, emphasize your stand on “Free shipping.” When one of our loyal clients implemented this growth hack, he witnessed a 6% increase in winning the abandoned shopping cart shoppers. If you can provide free shipping irrespective of the customers’ geographical location, shoppers will flock to your website more frequently than ever.
Ad- retargeting: Let me explain the significance of the term -‘retargeting’. Retargeting is all about targeting customers repeatedly by keeping track of their interests and their behavioral patterns. Whenever a buyer visits a B2C ecommerce marketplace, his/her behavior is recorded. Whenever the buyer visits other associated websites, ensure that your website ads are displayed on those associated websites as well.
This way, social shoppers and online buyers are constantly reminded about the products they liked on your website. Ad-targeting is thus about creating a feeling of compulsion so that shoppers eventually click the ads and buy the products from your website.
Limit the browsing options: Whenever a shopper searches for an item such as a watch, display the visuals and items that are more or less watches or related to watches. Do not display irrelevant items such as books, mobiles, cameras etc.
If you display irrelevant products, customers may forget the very purpose for which they had visited your social shopping site. By limiting the browsing options, you are allowing customers to focus on tasks at hand.
Email templates: While drafting e-mail content, ensure that your email templates are captivating. Use quality content that persuades users to buy. Here is a sample of the content that can convince your social shoppers:
Hi Evans,
Looks like you have developed a deep interest and passion for smart phones. Your shopping cart has a smart phone and your shopping cart is waiting for your call. Give us an opportunity to deliver this cart to your doorstep. Well, we are running deep discounts on smart phones. Feel free to click any link in this mail. I am sure these links shall redirect you to your desired products page. Avail the discounts and continue your shopping spree. Have a good day and we wish you a happy shopping spree!
Best Regards,
Team XXXX.
While this is only a sample, you may customize the content and complement it with various images. This growth hack definitely works.
- Product availability: If your shoppers have abandoned their shopping carts due to product unavailability, ensure that you send an email as soon as the product arrives. Offer them attractive discounts. If they buy the product from your social shopping marketplace or online marketplace, reward them for their loyalty. Send them a ‘thank-you’ mail post the purchase of the product.
- Scarcity and urgency triggers: Here is an amazing email content that triggers the curiosity of your shoppers
Hi Evans,
You are a fortunate shopper! Items that you have added to your shopping cart are running out of stock and most shoppers are in their pursuit. Fetch your items before it is too late. You have left behind the following:
- XXX pair of shoes
- YYYY pair of sandals
- ZZZZ Cricket kit
We are closing the stocks by tomorrow 6 PM. To complete the deal, feel free to click here. We are here to help you. Do not disappoint yourself by not utilizing this opportunity. Stay smart and stay informed. Hurry Up! Why miss an enriching shopping experience!
Best Regards,
Team XXX.
When one of our loyal clients implemented this growth hack, he witnessed amazing 21.3% higher sales.
Some important growth hacking pointers:
- Use the best global server ( highly recommend for marketplace websites )
- Have an excellent customer support team to address the concerns of your shoppers
- Say yes to free shopping
- Do not stuff your online marketplace with too many banner ads.
- Ensure that your product is reasonably priced.
- Do your best to obviate any technical glitches.
- Use cost estimator
Build your huge empire of loyal customers by following the aforementioned growth hacks. Happy growth hacking!
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