Recover More Abandoned Carts: Be Different and Go Back to Basics

Guest Author

In the last few years, despite an increase in the global GDP, the abandoned cart rate for ecommerce still rose by about 2%. With greater spending capabilities and more powerful tools, businesses should’ve found ways to better combat the crippling 80% cart abandonment rates.

We believe we’ve discovered part of why this is: There has been little to no innovation in abandoned cart recovery for years.

Everybody is using a version of the same approach using similar tools (that all copied each other’s best practice principles).

In a world constantly speeding up, we automate more with the hope of scaling our effort and time. Unfortunately, the result can be an impersonal approach that overwhelms your customers. (And doesn’t get you the recovery rate you want.)

It’s not all doom-and-gloom though. There are ways for you to stop being a sheep and stand out from the crowd. And CM Commerce ahs tools to help you with that.

Rocket fuel for your abandoned cart recovery tactics

The first step to reignite your abandoned cart recovery is to stand out from the crowd. When your competitors and the rest of the marketplace zigs, you need to zag.

For instance, include product reviews and social proof in your abandoned cart emails to be different from 99% of other retailers.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Consider these two recent testimonials from CM Commerce-powered businesses:

  • “From the range of features (I mean, how many apps give you email flows, reviews, and search functions among others) to the easy integration and the great notifications, CM Commerce not only makes business more efficient but so much more effective. It literally prints money! And a 33% abandoned cart recovery rate? That’s INSANE! But I’ll take it.” — Adam Milikins, Owner @ Roasted Fox
  • “I remember reading your reviews when we were still deciding whether to go with CM Commerce or not and thinking to myself ‘are these reviews for real or not?’ Well, I can definitely say that we’ve received world-class service from you and your team. Your tech is already making a big difference, especially with abandoned shopping carts. Our cart recovery is 17% when the average rate is 7%.” — Arvid Yap, Ops Director @ Colette & Lola

What would your business look like if you can also increase your abandoned cart recovery by 10%?

With only a little bit of innovation, out-of-box thinking, and zagging, we’ve helped early-adopters of these CM Commerce tools recover more revenue.

Sales 101: Back to basics

Technology often tricks us into believing that everything has changed. At the core though, while human beings evolve, we are still fundamentally the same, too.

Human psychology doesn’t change as quickly as technology, which means there are some basic, fundamental principles of selling that are still true and valuable today. In fact, we’ve found an efficient way for you to automatically include Sales 101 basics in your abandoned cart email campaigns.

Instead of a generic approach, our new tools act more like a traditional salesperson having a one-on-one conversation with a customer.

Here are two email blocks to put your abandoned cart recovery rate on a rocketship trajectory:

Featured Product Block

We went back to 1940 to give the unique selling proposition (USP) a new lease of life. With the new Featured Product Block, we enable you to craft up to three, primary benefits (all which support the USP) of your product. When a customer then abandons a cart with a featured product, you re-sell them on the benefits of the product as well as the primary reasons to buy that product.

This is how you should—and would—sell in real life and now you can sell like this in your CM Commerce-powered abandoned cart emails:

Abandoned cart email example, using CM Commerce. Headline says "You left something behind! Would you like to complete your purchase?"

It’s as simple as adding the benefits and USP text for your products (we recommend starting with your best sellers). We take care of the rest—see more here.

Recent Reviews Block

Regardless of how compelling your marketing copy is, some customers will remain skeptical and might just need a little nudge to persuade them. The best way to do that is through reviews or social proof that act as an independent advocate for your brand and products.

Using the new Recent Reviews Block means we can show recent 5-star reviews from your customers for the products left behind in their cart. Look at how spectacular this looks:

Abandoned cart email example using CM Commerce. The email shows a "What customers are saying about our products" section with 5-star reviews.

This is a two-pronged sales approach: Use clever marketing copy to re-sell your customers by highlighting your product USPs and get your happy customers to independently reinforce that with positive reviews.

Consider the old way we were trying to recover carts, compared to this new way:

Two abandoned cart emails using CM Commerce, one with the cart items and one with reviews automatically placed in the body of the email.

Wrap up

Abandoned cart emails are still a great way to recover lost revenue. But not if you continue to do the same old thing as your competitors day in and day out. On the other hand, both of these features are available today and can be activated within minutes.

What are you waiting for?

CM Commerce features:

  • Pre-made conversion campaigns to recover revenue from abandoned carts
  • Follow-up segmented and personalized emails for cross-selling
  • Product reviews that spotlight your happy customers and build trust (and sales)
  • Automated feedback to increase repeat revenue
  • Ready-to-go templates or custom receipts, coupons, and rewards with your branding

Try CM Commerce for free today.