In the last Sales Tip we looked at how coupons are a good way to promote your business. Did you know you can also use them to entice lost customers to return and complete their transaction?
Abandoned Shopping Carts Frustrate e-Commerce Retailers
One of the most frustrating things for eCommerce retailers is customers who abandon their shopping carts without completing their purchase? You wonder why it happens, and if there’s anything you could do to stop it.
Sadly, shopping cart abandonment is unavoidable and you will never achieve 100% conversion – it’s just not a perfect world. If you think about it, it’s not very different to shoppers picking up an item off a store shelf and then putting it down and leaving the shop without buying. But just as bricks and mortar stores can do things to entice customers back, an e-commerce retailer can too. A good shopping cart will capture email addresses at the first step of the checkout process.
Not all Shopping Carts are Created Equal
A shopping cart that captures email addresses gives you the ability to follow up. You can offer customers something to entice them back.Big Commerce has some very good features to help tempt your customers back. The abandoned cart feature uses triggers to identify customers who abandon their carts. It captures the email address at the beginning, and with these details you have the information to follow up on abandoned sales. You can contact customers who were close to completing their transaction and offer them an incentive to come back.
Lure Customers Back with an Offer…
A coupon offer.
In the September Sales Tip I talked about how you can use coupons to generate repeat business. You can also use them to retrieve lost business. Offer customers who abandon their shopping cart a coupon if they come back and complete the transaction. Free shipping? A small gift? A discount deal? It’s up to you.
You can customise the entire process, from the timing of the emails to how long the offer is valid for. 24 to 48 hours is usually a good time frame for an offer – enough time for customers to act, and not too long that they will forget about your offer. You can even automate it so it’s really easy for you to manage. When a lost customer returns to use their coupon, you recover a sale – it’s a win/win. Customers get a discount and retrieved sales add up to more profit for you.
What’s more you can monitor these coupons and measure how effective they are. Find out what level of discount attracts the greatest return. What time frame for your offer is most effective – is it 24, 48 hours, or is it longer?
It’s the second bite at the cherry that could increase your sales using a simple automated process attached to your Shopping cart.
Thinking about an eCommerce store? Take A quick tour of Anyware’s online demo store. It will give you a quick overview of how your eCommerce website can look.
Until next time, be careful out there.
Mike
Anyware’s Caped Crusader of Sales