Webinar recap: Three ways to take email to the next level

September 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last week’s webinar on optimized email presented a range of strategies, but one clear theme emerged: merchants must do more to move beyond the “bast and blatch” mentality and boost relevance of messaging — and doing so needn’t involve complex, resource-intensive processes.

The webinar detailed how email continues to be an ROI winner for merchants, garnering a whopping $40.56 per dollar spent, according to the Direct Marketing Association. But that number has dropped 22% since 2006, and is forecast to drop even more in the coming year — suggesting that merchants must do more if they want to reverse the trend.

The webinar revealed that there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit still to be plucked. As our preview post mentioned, fewer than one in five retailers even cull bounced email addresses from their lists — suggesting that for many merchants, even very basic improvements may reap stronger performance. Winning strategies needn’t require a technology overhaul or increased staff resources to execute sophisticated personalized messages. Just three of the simple ways the webinar suggested stepping up email finesse:

Let shoppers self-segment on signup. According to industry researcher Forrester, just 6% of merchants use the email signup page to allow shoppers to self-select topics or categories of interest — and yet this method is among the simplest for boosting relevance of messaging. Rather than needing to cull behavioral data from analytics, merchants can simply ask up front for some guidance. The key is to strike a balance, labeling clearly that it’s optional for shoppers to indicate their gender, geography, favorite product categories (such as cycling or camping for an outdoor outfitter) or interest in sale items; otherwise, would-be subscribers who don’t want to share such information might be put off.

Old Navy makes tailoring email content easy by presenting subscribers a streamlined set of options on the thank you page immediately after signup. Subscribers can select what categories of apparel interest them based on gender and age, and can opt to supply their birthdays to receive a special discount. They can also navigate away from the page without taking further action.

Email segmentation example from Old Navy

Treat loyalty club members like VIPs — and let everyone else know what they’re missing. Subscribers who are members of the brand’s loyalty or free shipping club should receive targeted messages that take into account their special status. These tailored promotions are proven to earn results, with a 40% higher open rate, a 22% higher click-through rate, and 11% higher revenue per email than non-targeted email content, according to Experian.

Furthermore, messaging about the loyalty club to non-members using a “show, don’t tell” approach — displaying the potential savings and benefits to the general list — is also a winning technique, garnering a 25% lift in revenue per email than non-loyalty content, Experian found. Footwear retailer Nine West spotlights the opportunity to earn double points on shoes from a particular manufacturer, and also includes a free shipping offer and a discount to entice purchase.

Segmentation example from Nine West

Institute an abandoned cart recovery plan ASAP. As discussed in an earlier post, emails sent to shoppers who abandon their carts before completing purchases are effective and can be automated — and yet the percentage of merchants using this triggered-email program is shockingly low. Fewer than 1 in 5 of the largest merchants in the Internet Retailer 500 use abandoned cart emails, and fewer than 1 in 10 of medium-sized merchants in the Internet Retailer Second 500 do so, according to Listrak. With cart abandonment rates still hovering above 50%, recovering even a small percentage of these sales could make a huge difference to the bottom line — so it’s crucial for more merchants to institute a triggered email program as soon as possible.

For more strategies and examples, download the webinar replay. Meantime, what simple but effective email tactics have worked for you?

Filed under Email Marketing Tagged with Business Optimization, Cart abandonment, loyalty clubs

Target researchers to combat cart abandonment

August 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We all know that shipping costs are a huge contributor to cart abandonment.But many shoppers also abandon carts because they simply don’t intend to buy in the first place, according to recent data from online measurement firm ComScore.

As presented below in an infographic by local shopping services provider Milo, shipping costs take second place to research as the top reasons shoppers abandon carts, with 57% of consumers saying they place items in the cart even when they’re just just window shopping and 56% saying they use the cart to save items for later.

Research on abandoned shopping carts from ComScore in an infographic by Milo

Concerns about shipping expenses round out the top five reasons shoppers abandon carts, so clearly merchants should still fine-tune their shipping policies, spotlight delivery timelines and offer free shipping discounts during the upcoming holiday season. But the data suggests merchants should also cater to the research-oriented shopper who may not buy on an initial visit — but could be convinced to finalize the sale soon online or in a store. To do so, consider a two-pronged approach: assist research behaviors while at the same time highlighting incentives to buy immediately. Try these tactics:

Streamline the wish list. The fact that shoppers are using the cart, rather than the wish list, to save items for later suggests that wish list features are too much of a hassle to use. Merchants almost always require shoppers to register for an account before setting up a wish list — but technically, there’s no reason to do so; items could be saved to a wish list the same way items remain in the cart for a set amount of time between visits. Apparel merchant Abercrombie & Fitch allows shoppers to save items to a wish list with comments, to email the list to a friend and to share it socially — all without forced account creation.

Wish list example from Abercrombine & Fitch

Spotlight research-oriented cart features. If toying with wish list functionality isn’t feasible, then consider making explicit to shoppers the fact that their items will be saved in the cart using a “save for later” link. Similarly, consider offering a printer-friendly version of the cart contents so that shoppers can take the list with them to physical store locations. Manufacturer Dell allows shoppers who have stepped through the process of customizing a computer’s components to save the information, explicitly stating that unsaved carts will expire in 30 minutes, as well as to print the cart or email it for future reference.

Shopping cart example from Dell

Highlight urgency. If an item in the shopper’s cart is sought-after and going fast, flag it to give them incentive to buy now. Similarly, if items need to be ordered soon for delivery in time for a key date or because they require special handling, spotlight the message in the cart so shoppers are aware of the contingencies and can act immediately.

Incorporate free shipping messaging. Free shipping is the top incentive merchants can offer to spur purchase completion, so let shoppers know what it would take for them to get it. Use a banner at the top of the cart content to message current shipping promotions or, if your technology allows it, display exactly how much more shoppers need to add to their carts to qualify for the discount. Backcountry.com displays a free shipping offer, how much more the shopper needs to add to the cart to qualify — and even spotlights recently viewed items to spur an extra cart addition.

Cart example from Backcountry.com



What cart tactics have worked for you to spur purchasing — whether on the spot or on subsequent visits?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain Tagged with Cart abandonment

Winning sales from abandoned carts, 3: Email best practices

January 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In the past couple of posts, we’ve looked at how techniques on the eCommerce site and retargeting advertisements can recover sales from visitors who’ve abandoned their shopping carts — a potentially lucrative audience that includes 88% of U.S. consumers, according to industry researcher Forrester.

But the most commonly-known technique for reconnecting with cart abandoners is via email — with merchants sending follow-up reminders to shoppers to entice them back to the site and complete their purchases. Although well understood, this tactic still isn’t widely-used: a recent study by email services firm Listrak found that just 18.5% of merchants in the Internet Retailer 500 — that’s less than 1 in 5 — use email to reengage with cart abandoners. The number is even lower for merchants in Internet Retailer’s Second 500 ranking of smaller merchants, Listrak found — just 10.7%.

For merchants who do deploy cart-abandonment recovery campaigns, the payoff can be significant. Food purveyor SmileyCookie.com reported recapturing 29% of abandoned carts — nearly 1 in 3 — with a targeted series of three emails. And remarketing services company SeeWhy found that abandonment email campaigns recover more than 20% of sales on average, and generate a whopping $17.90 per email sent — much higher than typical non-targeted email promotions.

With results like that, merchants should make deploying cart recovery emails a top priority for 2012. To implement effective an effective program, consider these tactics:

Collect email addresses early, but avoid forced account creation.
In order to send cart abandoners a targeted email enticing them back to the site, merchants need to have captured their email addresses in the first place. Increasingly, merchants are attempting to collect addresses via forced account creation — but with 14% of shoppers reporting that a lack of guest checkout drove them to abandon carts in the first place, according to Forrester,  we don’t recommend resorting to such extremes. Instead, use subtler methods to capture this information:

  • Link abandoned carts to email subscribers. Use behavioral tracking technology to flag when a shopper who’s signed up for email updates, then goes on to abandon a shopping cart.
  • Ask for an email address in the very first step of checkout, and explain why. Collect an email address on the initial checkout screen, and clearly state it will be used to contact shoppers if there is a question about their order. Include links to privacy information to boost trust, as Walmart does on the first step of guest checkout.

Email collection example from Walmart

Send a reminder immediately, then follow up.
Fully 54% of cart abandoners who intend to buy will do so in the first 24 hours after leaving the site, SeeWhy found. Another 10% will act within 48 hours; within a week, 82% of those who intend to buy will have pulled the trigger. With the gains after the first 24 hours being incremental, it’s crucial to trigger follow-up emails promptly — sending the first within an hour or two of cart abandonment and the second within a day.

In the case study cited above, SmileyCookie.com sent its first email within 30 minutes of abandonment; the second 23 hours later; and the final message four days later. The first email garnered the highest open and click-through rates.

Message content: don’t default to a discount …
When sending shoppers abandonment email offers, the temptation is strong to offer a discount, such as free shipping, to help close the sale. But such immediate payoffs can “train” shoppers to abandon carts in anticipation of a discount. Instead, experiment with the following messaging:

  • Stress service and convenience. With 11% of cart abandoners reporting they found the checkout process confusing and 10% saying they didn’t have enough information to complete their purchases, offering customer service assistance is a smart strategy to win sales.
    • Phrasing such as “can we help you complete your order?” puts the emphasis on service.
    • Include email, phone and live chat options as available.
    • Spotlight available alternative payment methods such as Paypal, which can save time in checkout.

Sears sends abandoners a service-oriented message that displays how shoppers can “buy your way” (via phone or using a personal online shopper), “pay your way” (using alternative payments), and “deliver your way” (with site-to-store and home delivery options) — thereby addressing a series of potential checkout stumbling blocks.

Abandonment follow-up email from Sears

  • Give shoppers product alternatives. Many cart abandoners are “window shopping” by adding items to the cart, without necessarily being enamored enough of the chosen product to commit: Forrester found that 24% of abandoners added items to the cart just to be able to consider them later, and 41% weren’t ready to purchase. So give these ambivalent shoppers a sampling of alternative products that might better suit their needs, as Urban Outfitters does in the message below, showing not only the abandoned item but others “you may also like.”

Abandonment follow-up email from Urban Outfitters

… but do clearly reiterate standard promotions.
If you normally offer free shipping above a threshold, or free site-to-store delivery, do spotlight these policies in your abandonment messaging; cart abandoners may have missed such offers while shopping the eCommerce site, and a prominent reminder of potential savings can trigger them to return and commit to buy.

In the examples above, Sears highlights the availability of free site-to-store delivery, while Urban Outfitters reminds cart abandoners that shipping is free with a purchase of $150 or more. Neither merchant is creating a new discount to lure abandoners back — merely restating sitewide policies the recipients may have forgotten since leaving the site.

For more examples of abandonment emails, view Listrak’s Abandonment Look Book. What messaging and timing strategies have worked for your brand to recapture abandoned carts?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Email Marketing Tagged with Cart abandonment

Winning sales from abandoned carts, 2: Retargeting

January 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As discussed in the prior blog post, there’s huge sales potential in the pool of shoppers — 88% of all U.S. online consumers — who report having abandoned an online shopping cart without completing a purchase. While most merchants have been reluctant to pursue cart abandoners so far, the ongoing need to target marketing for maximum results means that 2012 may see renewed focus on this audience segment — and the good news is that the latest marketing tools make it easier than ever to reconnect with shoppers and serve them irresistible offers.

One of the most powerful such tools is retargeting, also called remarketing. Broadly, retargeting refers to techniques for reminding shoppers about products they’ve already viewed on your site. The term can be applied to email campaigns, but more commonly retargeting refers to Web site display advertisements that deliver messages attuned to sites shoppers have recently visited.

Adroll and Google — whose display ad offering spawned the term “remarketing” — are only two players in an increasngly crowded field of vendors offering behavioral retargeting services. Most of these services rely on a cookie that tracks shopper activity on the merchant’s site; merchants define which actions shoppers can take that put them in the target pool for later advertising on other sites. For example, shoppers who visit an outdoor outfitter’s winter sports category may later see retargeting ads featuring the merchant’s top-selling skis.

Retargeting tops the list of advertising techniques in terms of boosting awareness, according to a recent study conducted by online measurement firm comScore and marketing service provider ValueClick Media. The study tracked how much search activity was generated for a brand using a number of targeted display advertising techniques, and found that remarketing produced a lift of over 1000%.

Statistics on retargeting from comScore

Retargeting can be used for all kinds of campaigns — but it’s particularly apt for capturing cart abandoners. Not only do retargeting ads remind shoppers of products, but merchants have an opportunity to use the ad creative space for additional persuasive content.

But retargeting cart abandoners isn’t quite as simple as simply displaying the product they left behind. Researchers at MIT found that less specific information can sometimes be more effective, depending on how close to purchase the shopper really was.

This finding goes hand in hand with research on abandonment behavior, which has found that many shoppers use the cart for research and abandon because they simply aren’t ready to commit. For example, industry researcher Forrester found that 41% of cart abandoners weren’t ready to buy, 27% intended to research prices on other sites, and 24% merely added items to the cart for reference later.

The upshot? Merchants need to strike a balance with their retargeting campaigns to cart abandoners, strengthening the overall brand message without overly limiting the product selection on display. To craft an effective retargeting message, consider these techniques:

“Customers like you liked these items.” Consider showing cart abandoners the product they considered — along with other items shoppers who viewed the same product ended up buying. This technique broadens the range of products on display without resorting to a generic ad. Zappo’s employs this technique for its remarketing campaigns. In the ad below, the featured shoes are products other shoppers who viewed the abandoned cart item went on to buy. The three offerings are at different price points, giving the ad viewer further options according to their budget.

Retargeting example from Zappos

Spotlight service for shoppers who tripped up in checkout.  The potential for specificity in retargeting means you can serve ads only to shoppers who initiated checkout but didn’t complete orders. For those would-be buyers, consider a branding campaign that puts an emphasis on customer service and price and product guarantees, and prominently features customer service contact information.

Discounts: proceed with caution. While retargeting ads can seem random enough to shoppers to make “gaming the system” unlikely, don’t automatically offer a discount just because someone added an item to the cart. Instead, use discounts wisely by focusing ad delivery to repeat visitors or cart abandoners whose potential order size is above a particular threshold. But while you should target the ad specifically, the offer itself can be broad, such as the 15% order discount offered by MarketLive merchant Design Toscano. Such offers motivates cart abandoners to return to the site, even if they decide they don’t want the specific items they originally left behind.

Retargeting example from Design Toscano

Are you using display ad retargeting to recapture abandoned cart orders? How effective has retargeting been for your business?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations Tagged with Cart abandonment

Winning sales from abandoned carts: on-site techniques

January 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

For all the progress online merchants have made in recent years winning new customers and growing revenue, one metric refuses to budge: cart abandonment.

According to industry researcher Forrester, in 2010 fully 88% of shoppers reported abandoning a shopping cart without completing the transaction — the same percentage as in 2005. And quarterly MarketLive Performance Index data for the past two years shows that progress on cart abandonment is mixed, with merchants seeing improvements of less than 5% year-over-year, depending on the quarter, and never dipping below 50%. In the first quarter, year-over-year abandonment has actually risen — suggesting that seasonal deal-hunting will make the next few months particularly challenging for merchants combating abandoned carts.

MarketLive Index data on cart abandonment

These shoppers are potentially low-hanging fruit: after all, they’ve already found their way to your site, and they’re interested enough in products to place them in the cart in the first place. In some cases, they’ve even started the checkout process before stalling out or leaving the site.

Merchants have been slow to pursue these almost-customers. Fewer than 20% of Internet Retailer’s Top 1,000 merchants pursue cart abandoners with email campaigns, email service provider Listrak found, while Forrester found that just 7% of merchants use remarketing, also known as retargeting — a genre of display advertsing that targets shoppers as they browse elsewhere with reminders about the products they viewed on your site.

But with the continued focus on effective use of tight marketing budgets, 2012 may be the year when abandoned carts get serious attention. And the good news is that merchants have a number of tools they can use to win back cart abandoners — not just email.

For starts, there’s plenty merchants can do while shoppers are still on-site to help them  return to the path to purchase. Consider the following tactics:

Use dynamic messaging to promote free shipping qualification thresholds. Shipping costs remain the number one barrier to order completion, Forrester found, with 44% of consumers saying they abandoned their carts because shipping costs were too high and another 27% saying shipping costs were revealed too late in the checkout process.

Not only should shipping costs be accessible in the cart — and even on the product page — but merchants should take a further step and message shipping promotions prominently as shoppers add items. Amazon.com calculates how much more shoppers need to add to qualify for free shipping and messages the amount in the cart.

Dynamic free shipping message on Amazon

Even if you can’t dynamically promote the amount needed to qualify for free shipping, position shipping messages so shoppers can’t miss them, regardless of how they deviate from the path to purchase. Just a few places to flag shipping promotions

  • On product pages
  • In the drop-down display of the global shopping cart, as Macy’s does with its banner featuring a promotional code

Free shipping promotion in the global cart from Macys

  • In global banners at the top of the center content area
  • In the shopping cart
  • At the beginning of checkout

Assuage privacy fears. Forrester found that 12% of shoppers abandoned carts because sites asked for too much information, while 14% balked at setting up an account with a password in order to be able to purchase. As discussed previously, we don’t recommend forced account creation in most cases; but merchants should go further to ensure shoppers don’t abandon purchases because of privacy concerns.

  • Examine analytics for checkout pages to determine where shoppers drop out. Identify the roadblocks and then alter those checkout steps to improve the flow.
  • Message privacy and security prominently throughout. Include certification badges from third-party providers and links to the site’s privacy policy, along with reassuring customer service information such as product guarantees.
  • Offer alternative payments. Services such as PayPal or Bill Me Later are widespread, with nearly 60% of merchants in Internet Retailer’s Top 500 offering at least one type of alternative payment. These services are not only quick, but enable shoppers to skip entering credit card information on individual merchant sites — thereby boosting confidence that their data will remain secure.

Trigger proactive live chat to re-engage stalled shoppers. Fully 57% of consumers said they’re likely to abandon their purchases if they don’t find quick answers to product questions, and 44% said the ability to get live help while browsing a site is crucial, according to Forrester. Merchants can address these needs at crucial points on the path to purchase using proactive chat sessions, where a chat window opens and invites potential customers to ask questions. Dell triggers a proactive chat window if shoppers perusing laptop options become inactive on a page during the configuration process.

Proactive chat example from Dell

 

The trick is to exercise discretion. Forrester found that despite the desire for instant answers and live help, 71% of consumers also said they prefer to initiate live chat help on their own. Start conservatively by triggering proactive chat if shoppers

  • stall for a specified length of time on a product page or the shopping cart page
  • begin checkout but then either stall or backtrack to another part of the site
  • browse customer service pages for a specified length of time

For more chat best practices, see the post “Three Key Live Chat Strategies.”

Consider dynamic personalization to serve targeted offers. Services that empower merchants to target shoppers using past purchase history in combination with site behavior can be powerful allies in the fight against abandonment. Some services can even tailor site offers based on shoppers’ current browsing session — enabling merchants to target top loyal customers who hesitate during checkout with a free shipping offer in real time, or to offer a price guarantee to first-time buyers who’ve stalled on a particular product page.

In coming posts, we’ll examine strategies for combating cart abandonment once shoppers have left the site — but meantime, what tactics are you using to win cart abandoners?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain Tagged with Cart abandonment, checkout, live chat

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