According to the latest estimates, e-commerce stores are dealing with an average cart abandonment rate of 69.99%. That means nearly 70% are adding items to their digital shopping carts — and not hitting the “buy” button.
Many online stores are tackling this problem with a comprehensive abandoned cart strategy. However, merchants that don’t have an abandoned cart strategy are losing at least one sale for every ten abandoned carts.
E-commerce brands can capture more revenue using an abandoned cart email campaign. Abandoned cart emails encourage customers to complete a transaction from a previous browsing session on your online store. These campaigns, however, rely on catchy, innovative subject lines to stand out in your customers’ inboxes.
Tap into a potential goldmine of new sales by taking a thoughtful, data-backed approach to your next abandoned cart email marketing campaign.
An abandoned cart email is an email (usually part of a series) that gently reminds a customer that they left items in their online cart, encouraging them to return and finish checking out. An abandoned cart email or email campaign allows businesses to recapture potential lost sales from customers who were initially hesitant to complete their purchase.
How do abandoned cart emails work? Some e-commerce retailers write and send each abandoned cart email separately. But, as your business grows, this quickly becomes unsustainable. There are apps that can automate these email campaigns for you.
Usually, there are three reminders that can entice a customer to finish checking out. The first in the series is a reminder email, letting the customer know they still have items waiting for them in their digital shopping cart. Here’s an example from 23andMe:
The second follow-up email creates a sense of urgency. This email might give a deadline or let the customer know a product they were considering is selling out fast. Here’s an example of a second reminder email from Google:
And, finally, some brands send a third email with a discount or coupon to entice the customer to come back. For example, this iPhone case brand, Peel, uses free shipping to encourage the customer to complete their purchase.
Ultimately, abandoned cart emails require two pieces of information to be effective: what the customer wanted to buy initially, and why the customer hesitated to complete the transaction. When you can remove obstacles to completing the purchase of something they’ve already shown interest in buying, you can increase sales.
Understanding the first piece of information — what the customer wanted to buy — is easy. Whatever they left in their cart is what they wanted from your brand. The trickier task is understanding why they abandoned their cart in the first place.
There are dozens of reasons why someone may have abandoned a full shopping cart, and not all of them are under your control. Perhaps someone was distracted by an interesting YouTube video, or something was going on offline that required their attention.
There are some elements that are under your control, however. “Some common reasons for walking away include high shipping costs, having to register for an account, or concerns about the site’s security,” wrote MailChimp.
Digging into the data further, the number one reason why customers abandoned shopping carts was that they were just browsing with no real intent to complete the purchase. These casual shoppers can often be incentivized to return to the checkout process with a series of cart abandonment emails and a small discount.
Other reasons why shoppers leave the checkout process may have to do with the functionality of your site and the steps required of someone to complete their purchase. Removing the number of users who were simply browsing, the chart below shows why most shoppers don’t complete their purchases.
This data can help you form realistic expectations of what can be achieved with an abandoned cart email series. Abandoned cart emails can be used to offer discounts that address the “extra costs” reason for stalling at checkout. Coupled with the more than 50% of customers who abandon their cart because they were just browsing, this represents a huge opportunity to recapture missed sales. Abandoned cart emails target these segments to move more customers through the sales funnel by creating familiarity, building trust, and removing perceived barriers to completing the sale. Free shipping, for instance, is a relatively simple and affordable way to increase the rate of completed sales.
It’s not enough to send an abandoned cart email. An email is only worth sending if it results in a click through and completed purchase. Before that happens, your email needs to be opened and read. And, to be read, the email has to capture the customer’s attention.
Subject lines are the best way to make sure a potential customer sees and engages with your abandoned cart emails. When you consider that the average individual receives more than 100 emails every day, your subject line must be eye-catching and attention-grabbing. According to one study, 47% of people open an email based solely on the subject line.
So, how can you write a subject line that stands out in a crowded inbox and encourages a customer to return to their cart?
We’ve included a few examples of great subject lines in this guide to help you find inspiration. However, as you approach the task of writing a unique email subject line for your business, there are a few best practices to keep in mind. To make sure your next cart recovery email gets opened, use short, catchy, personalized subject lines that entice the audience to read more.
Subject lines should be short and sweet. Keep in mind that your reader may be checking their inbox on a mobile device. Especially if your target customers are under the age of 30, it’s likely they’ll use their smartphone to access their email. MailChimp recommends the ideal length for customers on any platform is no more than 9 words and 60 characters.
Emojis are an eye-catching way to draw attention to your message in a sea of emails. However, experts warn that too many emojis can trigger a spam filter to block your email from reaching someone’s inbox. As a result, you should use emojis strategically. Use no more than one emoji per subject line. Make sure your emoji is compatible with different operating systems (e.g., can it be read on Android and iPhones?). And, finally, don’t use an emoji to replace words. Instead, write your main message and treat the emoji as a fun additive.
Personalized subject lines are extremely effective. One study found that personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%. And, it’s easy to personalize abandoned cart emails. Use built-in tools to personalize your subject lines with someone’s name or location, or to call out a specific item someone left in their cart.
Curiosity and fear of missing out (FOMO) are two powerful emotions that your email subject line can spark. Writing a subject line that piques someone’s curiosity can motivate them to open the email and read more. A subject line like, “Did you forget something?” is an easy way to encourage someone to open your email and figure out what they forgot. Keep in mind that if your subject line is too obscure, however, it could end up being sent to spam.
FOMO can also be triggered by a subject line that creates a sense of urgency. Keep in mind that urgency is different from pressure. Research from Klayvio found that emails with a time limit in their subject line received the lowest open rate of all — 27% below the average. Rather, create urgency in the timing of your email. Once someone has abandoned their cart, trigger a reminder within 24 hours with a simple subject line such as, “[Name], you left some items in your cart.” This type of message is all it takes to compel someone to take action.
Email marketing is proven to be more effective than reaching a customer on social media, and that’s often because emails offer more space to provide value. To that end, your subject line should reflect that opening your email message is going to be worth their while.
Klayvio’s data shows that emails that contain a percentage, dollar sign, or the phrase “free shipping” slightly under perform the average CTR for cart abandonment emails. But, these phrases still lead to a high CTR of 10.75%. Compare this CTR to the average click through rate across all marketing emails, which is 2.91%.
“[By] far, the best performance comes from keeping the subject line to a straightforward reference to the action of abandoning a cart,” wrote Klayvio analysts. “The best performing subject lines mentioned that the reader ‘left something behind.’ A variation on that theme also worth testing is ‘Oh no. Your cart is about to expire’.”
With these best practices in mind, here’s some inspiration to help you create your next abandoned cart email subject line. We’ve grouped them together into types of subject lines, but keep in mind that many of these subject line examples serve many purposes — they may be both personalized and contain an emoji, for instance.
As mentioned previously, emojis can pack a powerful punch. Use them selectively to draw attention to your message without accidentally sending your abandoned cart email straight to someone’s spam folder. Here are some examples of subject lines that use an emoji to capture your audience’s attention.
There are dozens of ways to personalize your subject lines. Consider how you can use someone’s name, a specific product name, or a brand name to trigger someone to open and click through your message. Here are a few examples.
If you’re running a promotion or seeing an item sell out, it can be highly effective to create a sense of urgency and FOMO in your email subject line. FOMO lines can be used for specific limited time discounts, seasonal inventory, or to tie into a theme — such as the healthfood brand’s play-on-words example below.
Sometimes, the most effective subject line is the one that’s most simple and straightforward. Consider these short-and-sweet abandonment subject lines that get the message across with few words.
Sometimes, the best way to get someone’s attention is to think way, way outside the box. Brands like Bonobos and Chubbies aren’t afraid to to add humor to their subject lines. Consider writing a unique subject line that feels authentic to your brand. Here are some great examples.
Finally, discount subject lines are extremely effective in encouraging users to return to the checkout process. Often, e-commerce retailers will put a discount code in the subject line of the final email in a cart abandonment series. It’s a good final attempt to get the customer to return to their purchase. Here are a few examples to help you get started.
While some shopping cart abandonment is inescapable, sending a reminder email is a proven strategy for recovering some of those missed sales. An effective abandoned cart reminder email (or series of emails delivered via automation) requires an eye-catching subject line that will encourage your audience to open and click through to complete their purchase.
Subject lines should be short, punchy, and personalized. Don’t be afraid to be creative in your message, create a sense of urgency, and use an emoji to make your email stand out among dozens of other brand messages.
Conversion Bear can help drive more value from every e-commerce transaction. With upsell and cross-sell tools, turn each recovered shopping cart into an opportunity to build customer loyalty, increase average order value, and increase revenue. Learn more about Conversion Bear’s Honeycomb app and start growing your e-commerce business today.