I recently read an interesting “Times Wire” column about a start-up company that focuses specifically on shopping cart abandonment. The company, SeeWhy, is releasing a new service that will alert subscribers when a visitor on their Web site abandons a shopping cart, and then immediately follow up with an email designed to encourage the person to go back and complete the transaction.
The writer, Randall Stross, questions whether this tactic could alienate site visitors by making them feel like they can’t even visit a Web site without being hounded to make a purchase. And indeed, to avoid seeming like they’re watching site visitors too closely, many permission marketers wait a day or more before sending an email or otherwise nudging visitors about items left in their carts. But SeeWhy says waiting is a mistake. The company says there is a way to ask nicely, and contends that immediate remarketing produces a follow-up sale three times as often as sending a reminder a day later.
But you don’t have to take anyone’s word for it. To find the best timing for your list, my recommendation as always is to test. In this case, you could maintain a control group, or random sample of your list that is excluded from the change you are testing. This enables you to compare the behavior of the test group vs. the control group to determine the precise effect of your change. The control group would get your usual cart abandonment follow-up, against which you would test your new follow-up tactic. To find out whether remarketing immediately would be profitable over the long-term, or whether it ultimately damages your customer relationships, you can compare the response of your test group vs. the control group over a period of months to get your answer.
Hi Bill
Thanks for raising this – you are absolutely right that the only way to know what works best is to do a test. Clearly different websites have different characteristics, so experiences vary, and testing is the best way to nail it.
Some people suggest that waiting three days following an abandoned shopping cart is best practice, since it gives the customer a chance to return to the site of their own accord.
But studies (e.g. Forrester, Marketing Experiments) have often shown that an immediate follow up gets the best results. This is particularly true where the customer may be comparison shopping for a time sensitive purchase, such as an airline ticket, travel insurance, or booking an express parcel shipment.
It also applies to other areas like online applications in financial services where the length of the process can causes an abandonment, and the timely reminder is can be perceived as a great benefit by the customer. The key is to experiment in your environment, and see what works best. Ultimately following up on all types of abandonment, shopping carts, registrations and online application forms will drive up website conversion figures.
We’ve found that when the abandonment follow up email is done well, then customers do not find it intrusive as long as it is service oriented, not sales. So we advise our customers to concentrate on Tone and Timing. I went into this in a bit more detail in my blog (http://websiteconversion.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-make-customers-love-great.html) which sets out 6 best practices for email follow up that customers will love.
Hey Bill – I am sure if the abandonment email included a discount code then the visitor would not mind.
In B2B the timing is even more critical as the relationship is one in which the visitor returns to the site multiple times each month. Not only is the immediate timing crucial but how often after you send the same email about abandonment. Do you send one every day? obviously not. We have found in B2B that the conservative approach is to wait 60 days before re-reminding about the abandoned cart.
Bill
In B2B the timing is even more critical as the relationship is one in which the visitor returns to the site multiple times each month. Not only is the immediate timing crucial but how often after you send the same email about abandonment. Do you send one every day? obviously not. We have found in B2B that the conservative approach is to wait 60 days before re-reminding about the abandoned cart.
Bill
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