The Company
Gaylord Brothers is a leading online provider of library supplies, furniture and archival resources.
The Challenge
Gaylord selected Silverpop Engage as its email solution provider a few years ago. The move enabled it to transition from using in-house software with zero visibility into deliverability to a hosted solution with innovative features and strong reporting capabilities. Gaylord has taken full advantage of Silverpop Engage’s functionality by implementing an email program focused on relevant, one-to-one messaging , delivering a combination of targeted promotions and a newsletter series. As a result, email revenue has increased 40 percent.
Always looking for ways to optimize its email program, Gaylord decided to implement a cart abandonment series to help drive even more revenue. “We saw that a significant percentage of our customers were abandoning their shopping carts mid-purchase, and we recognized that a cart abandonment series would allow the opportunity to recapture those lost sales,” says Bethany Tuzzolino, Web marketing manager, Gaylord Brothers.
The Solution
Knowing that 90 percent of ecommerce leads go cold after an hour, Gaylord needed to be able to send triggered, real-time email follow-ups. It selected Silverpop partner SeeWhy to help implement a cart abandonment series because of its tight integration with Silverpop Transact. Using SeeWhy with Silverpop’s Transact solution allows triggered emails to be sent immediately after a cart is abandoned.
Gaylord implemented a three-step shopping cart recovery program to entice abandoners to return to make a purchase. Gaylord’s first personalized cart abandonment email, which includes specific items that have been left unpurchased, arrives within one minute of abandonment with the subject line, “Need help with your Gaylord.com order?” If the customer doesn’t return to the cart, second and third emails are triggered at 24-hour and 7-day intervals, respectively.
Each email is written in a service-oriented tone with a picture of a customer service rep and directions on the different ways to place an order. At this time, no discount is offered in Gaylord’s cart abandonment emails.
The Results
Gaylord has been able to achieve significant ROI from its cart abandonment series using Silverpop Transact and SeeWhy. “We are seeing a fantastic response from the abandoned cart emails,” says Tuzzolino. “Approximately 50 percent of those that get the email come back to our website to place an order.”
Download the PDF to learn how Gaylord achieved significant ROI through its cart abandonment series.
