According to Smart Insight, in 2017, almost 70% of shopping baskets are abandoned on e-commerce sites in general.
With this figure so high, the question now is why do two-thirds of customers abandon their shopping carts during the purchase process, and what can you do to lower this percentage as much as possible in order to recapture those sales?
In this“Prestashop Abandoned Cart Recovery Guide“, you’ll discover the main reasons for cart abandonment on a Prestashop site.
You’ll learn which techniques to deploy to relaunch them, and which modules to use to do so.
Reasons for shopping cart abandonment in e-commerce
There are many reasons why Internet users abandon their shopping baskets along the way.
In most cases, the problem lies with the site itself, not necessarily with the customer.
Here are the main causes of shopping cart abandonment:
Additional costs
Many potential customers discover at checkout that additional costs have been added.
These may relate, for example, to shipping or taxes.
These costs, which were not clearly indicated at the start of the process, encourage people to abandon the shopping cart in mid-purchase.
Curiosity or indecision
Often, Internet users just window-shop online, as they would in a physical store.
Their desire drives them to add items to the shopping cart, but they have no intention of paying.
On the other hand, it can also happen that the prospect is seized by doubt and becomes indecisive before finalizing the purchase.
In this case, a follow-up e-mail is the best solution.
A comparative attitude
Over the past few years, online consumers have developed a comparative attitude.
To do this, they simulate a purchase from all the competitors, and end up buying from the one with the best offer.
In this case, there’s little point in calling back, as the customer has already bought from a competitor.
A purchasing process that takes too long
The more clicks there are between adding to the shopping cart and the actual payment, the less likely people are to complete their purchase.
If, on top of this, the site asks the buyer to create an account in order to finalize the purchase, the customer will give up.
In fact, many consider this step to be a real turn-off.
The site’s slowness and lack of ergonomics
A site that’s too slow to load or too complicated to navigate tends to dissuade buyers from going all the way.
Indeed, if navigation isn’t intuitive and the site isn’t ergonomic, the user experience isn’t up to scratch, and many prefer not to go ahead with the purchase rather than waste time.
Prestashop abandoned cart recovery techniques
Whatever the reason for cart abandonment, your objective as an e-merchant is always to recover those lost sales as much as possible.
Here are some of the recovery techniques you can adopt.
Improve your e-commerce site
In many cases, the main problem lies with the e-commerce site itself.
Make the necessary checks and corrections to optimize your Prestashop site:
offer products at reasonable prices, but above all, with no hidden costs;
shorten the purchasing process as much as possible;
offer as many payment options as possible;
etc.
Despite all your efforts to optimize your online store, there will always be abandoned shopping baskets.
That’s where the following solutions come in.
1- Retargeting or marketing retargeting
Many e-tailers automatically turn to marketing/advertising retargeting when faced with abandoned shopping baskets.
As the name suggests, visitors who have abandoned their shopping baskets are subsequently re-solicited by online stores, wherever they go on the Internet.
As a result, 30% of these visitors naturally return to where they left off shopping.
The advantage of retargeted marketing is that ads are 76% more likely to be viewed than other types of online advertising.
The advantage of this method is that you don’t need the customer’s contact details.
Retargeting is made possible by tracking tools such as pixels, which are installed on the site beforehand.
These provide sellers with all data relating to the purchasing process.
They can also be used to target the right buyers at the right time to optimize conversion rates.
There are 2 types of retargeting advertising favored by e-tailers:
Advertising on Facebook
Facebook advertising is one of the most powerful retargeting strategies available today.
This social network’s targeting options are second to none, thanks to its vast amount of data and tracking capabilities.
For retargeting shopping cart abandonment ads, the essential piece of the equation is the Facebook pixel.
It tracks users and actions on a site, from clicks to page views to cart additions.
Display advertising
Retargeting advertising on the Google Display Network is equally powerful and effective.
It enables you to cover almost the entire Internet with different banners and a different message each time.
Remarketing placed on the search page will be different from advertising placed on an influential site.
You have control over everything: the display mode, banner size, banner personalization, and even the information to be displayed on each banner.
All this will help bring your prospects back to your site.
2- The e-mail follow-up campaign
E-mail follow-up campaigns are one of the best ways of recovering abandoned shopping baskets.
However, you need to have the prospect’s e-mail address, and therefore, he must have provided this information before abandoning his shopping cart.
An e-mail has the advantage of not being intrusive, and can be automated.
The timing of the e-mail, its presentation and its personalization are all elements to be considered to ensure the success of this campaign.
When should you send your reminder e-mails?
You need to wait 1 hour after cart abandonment to send the first follow-up e-mail.
If you wait more than 24 hours for the first reminder, you’ll lose half the potential sales you could have made.
The 2nd reminder e-mail should be sent between 24 and 36 hours after the shopping cart abandonment.
Finally, a third e-mail is often necessary, sent 72 hours after cart abandonment.
With this 3-e-mail process, you can recover many abandoned sales.
How important is the title?
The headline is very important in e-mail marketing, as it’s what convinces readers to open the e-mail and read it or not.
To gain clicks, statistics show that using an exclamation mark in the headline can increase the chance of an e-mail being opened.
Also recommended:
use the recipient’s name to personalize the e-mail;
ask a question to arouse interest;
to include an emoji.
Remember to adapt the title and content of the e-mail to your audience each time, because a title that works with an audience of corporate executives doesn’t necessarily work with an audience of young university students.
Should your follow-up e-mails be segmented?
A well-segmented e-mail campaign achieves a 14% higher open rate than a non-segmented campaign.
What’s more, it also earns 63% more clicks than a non-segmented campaign.
You can increase the conversion rate of e-mails by targeting your audience according to their actions.
You can segment your follow-up campaign according to the following criteria:
Loyal customers (specific e-mails to be sent to people who have already purchased on the site) ;
Visitor who has left the page after several visits or a prolonged visit of several pages without putting anything in the basket;
The point at which the shopping cart is abandoned in the purchasing process (before final payment, after the delivery date has been displayed, etc.);
The type of product abandoned by the customer ;
Sample reminder e-mail
Here’s a simple example of a reminder e-mail.
It’s up to you to adapt the content to suit your customers. Title: Reminder: Nomdelapersonne, you forgot to buy the product name! E-mail content: We’ve saved all the items you put in your shopping cart.
Note: shipping and returns are always free of charge, of course.
So there’s no risk in buying!
If you’re still unsure or have any questions, call us on +33 x xx xx xx xx or write to us at …@nomdusite.com.
We’re available 24/7.
Here’s your article: Image of the article inquestionCall to Actionbutton: “Complete purchase” Text at the bottom of the e-mail: Or discover new products on nomdusite.com The e-mail must reassure the prospect, and to do so, it must contain elements of reassurance if there are any: free delivery, free returns, free packaging, satisfied or reimbursed, etc. The reader must be convinced by your message.
The reader must be convinced by your e-mail that it’s in his interest to repeat the purchase he abandoned.
3- Prestashop modules for relaunching abandoned shopping carts
Abandoned shopping baskets can be re-launched viaemail campaigns.
In addition, Prestashop sites have numerous modules to enable them to relaunch customers with abandoned baskets.
The best-known and most widely used modules are :
The Abandoned Cart Reminder module was created by PrestaShop itself and is available for a fee.
This tool helps you set up a sequence of automatic reminder e-mails, and even includes the option of setting discounts.
In addition, you can segment customers according to their purchase history on your site.
With Knowband, you can recover an abandoned PrestaShop shopping cart with dunning e-mails, with or without a discount.
These will contain a direct link to the payment button, and you can choose from several e-mail templates.
The Best For Abandoned Cart Reminder/Alerts module ensures a 25% conversion rate.
It allows you to send e-mails with a personalized design and automatic reminder e-mails.
It also tracks clicks and views.
It also features a direct payment link in every e-mail.
The Smart Cart Reminder module is another alternative for relaunching abandoned carts.
The module offers personalized reminder e-mails based on data collected on the customer, the contents of the cart and the current season (remarketing based on a specific holiday).
In addition to allowing you to send up to 10 cart abandonment reminder emails, the Customizable Cart Reminder module also allows you to have a unique design per sequence.
What’s more, you can integrate it directly into Google Analytics to track the performance of the entire campaign.
To conclude on Prestashop abandoned cart recovery
In conclusion, it’s always possible to recover sales from customers who have abandoned their shopping baskets.
However, before initiating these follow-up actions, you need to check that your e-commerce site is perfectly ergonomic and that it makes customers want to buy.
After all, there’s no point in reviving customers if the online store doesn’t inspire confidence.
Finally, you should know that a well-targeted and well-prepared relaunch campaign on Prestashop can recover many sales.
If you need help with your e-commerce, contact me. As a Prestashop developer with over 12 years’ experience, I’d be delighted to help you with your e-commerce project.
