There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like a company is giving you the bait and switch. In user experience design, we call this poor priming and expectation-setting, and it is a violation of one of the six Heuristics for Digital Experience Optimization.

Heuristics, by definition, are mental shortcuts used to solve problems quickly and effectively. They allow people to speed up analysis and make informed, efficient decisions. Knowing our brains are wired to take shortcuts and make quick decisions, you can imagine how heuristics play a crucial role in how customers navigate and perceive digital experiences.

Digital experiences that violate user heuristics are bad for users and bad for business. So, let’s take a look at how to address the priming and expectation-setting heuristic in a way that improves the user experience.

What is the priming and expectation-setting heuristic?

Priming and expectation setting is a heuristic that sets users up for success by clarifying how the interface will perform, indicating what actions users should take, and managing user expectations.

Digital experiences that adhere to this heuristic may apply a tactic like explicitly mentioning free shipping early in the journey to reduce cart abandonment rates or sharing estimated delivery dates to manage customer expectations.

Priming and expectation setting is one of the six Heuristics of Digital Experience Optimization developed by our team at The Good. The full list includes:

1. Priming & Expectation Setting
2. Trust & Authority
3. Ease
4. Benefits & Unique Selling Points
5. Directional Guidance
6. Incentives

These heuristics theme common optimization issues and opportunities. Analyzing your digital experience with heuristics in mind keeps the user at the center of analyses and guides your strategy toward building journeys that feel familiar, do what they say, and function intuitively.

Identify violations of this heuristic with user research patterns

Before you can start to address any heuristic to improve the digital experience, you have to understand if, where, and when users are getting stuck.

To understand if your digital experience is violating the priming and expectation-setting heuristic, a great place to start is user research. Set goals, pick the right method for your needs, and start talking to your users (or observing their behavior).

As you analyze the research, look for patterns including:

• Rage clicks: User clicks on an element multiple times without getting the desired or expected result. Usually, this signifies unclear system status, meaning your user doesn’t provide enough cues, semantics, or timely feedback to keep users informed.
• Low directness: Users can be seen scrolling through the site looking for specific content, struggling to find items of interest, and possibly hesitating on the site, suggesting uncertainty. This can be a sign of unmet expectations, meaning your system’s interactions, navigation, or language don’t match users’ mental models of real-world or site conventions.
• Price sensitivity: Users express concern about product or shipping prices, potentially leading them to abandon. This often indicates poor priming because of unclear or missing elements in the interface that typically guide user behavior and inform them of what to expect.

The good news is once you identify the patterns, you can address them with tactics to improve priming and expectation setting. Doing so is an ethical way to improve customer sentiment and increase conversions.

Real-life examples of using priming and expectation-setting to improve the user experience

Most companies have a chance to improve priming and expectation setting across their digital journey. Here are a few real-world examples that can inspire your efforts to adhere more closely to the heuristic. You might see some pretty compelling rewards for your improvements.

Offline download delivery priming

We worked with the largest digital repair manual database, eManualOnline, to find opportunities to improve their on-site experience. Following similar recommendations as outlined above to identify violations of optimization heuristics, we conducted user testing. It revealed that users were confused about how eManualOnline delivers their manuals, as some are digital downloads and others are physical editions.

Because of the mixed delivery method messages throughout the site, customers felt a lack of trust when confronted with the website.

We decided to test out highlighting delivery methods to clarify any confusion and increase transactions. We A/B tested 2 variants: a control and a variant that made delivery methods clearer at various touchpoints.

The variant with clear delivery method language showed a 14% lift over the control. Clarifying access methods for offline downloads resulted in stronger purchase intent. This is a clear example of priming and expectation setting at work.

Permission priming in user onboarding

When onboarding a user to a new digital experience (app or desktop service), priming and expectation setting can strongly impact churn metrics.

Here’s a good example from Scan & Translate. It reminds users that in order to use the scan features and gain value from the app, they need to grant camera permissions to the system.

Preparing, or priming, a user before you ask permission to access their OS makes it more likely that they’ll comply with your request. This is vitally important because your product might not be able to provide value to the user without access.

Expectation-setting without compromising brand language

Residential furnishings brand, Knoll, has a range of uniquely crafted and handmade products. The care and detail that goes into each piece means longer lead times on shipping and delivery.

When we took on a project to improve their digital experience, we tested out adjusting their copy to better reflect the craftsmanship of their work.

Changing the wording from “Lead time: 8 weeks” messaging to “Made for you. Ships in 8 weeks” led to our biggest test win of the year in terms of revenue.

It created synergy between the brand’s needs (priming purchasers that shipment won’t happen for a while) and the customer’s needs (understanding why shipment won’t happen for a while). It also had the benefit of turning a challenge (long lead times) into a compelling conversion booster (custom-made).

Priming in form design

Priming is one of the first principles of form design. It keeps users on the path to form completion by clearly setting expectations and ensuring they don’t drop off due to surprises.

Priming in form design takes many forms but often is provided through progress bars. Adding this element tells the user what they can expect from the process during or before completion of the form, setting the expectation so that users come prepared to fully fill out the form.

See this example from Etsy. The company features a progress bar with clear labels to prime users about what to expect during the mobile checkout process.

To set expectations with a form, you can also be clear about the end result or value users receive upon completing the form. This can generate excitement for the product, motivating form completion.

The “Try Demo” button from ServiceNow, shown below, primes users to know what they can expect after they fill out the form. Users will get to demo the product and can also expect everything in the bulleted list to the left.

Using heuristics to theme your roadmap of opportunities

To transform the priming and expectation-setting heuristic into an actionable improvement opportunity for your digital property, consider building a strategic roadmap.

Leverage user research to identify common patterns indicating violation of the six Heuristics for Digital Experience Optimization. Prioritize those opportunities based on their potential for impacting KPIs. Then, develop a plan to test improvements with a theme-based roadmap.

Taking the time to really understand where users are getting stuck in your digital experience will set you up to make more efficient and impactful decisions.

Our team can support you on your journey through a custom Digital Experience Optimization Program. You’ll have access to an entire team of researchers, strategists, designers, and developers that will help remove violations of the priming and expectation-setting heuristic (and more).

The post How To Leverage The Priming & Expectation Setting Heuristic To Drive Conversions appeared first on The Good.

To enhance user experience, you must continuously test to keep what works and improve (or throw away) what doesn’t.

You can achieve big results through small iterative tests, such as a 24.43% increase in conversion rates.

Today, we’ll examine a specific area for testing, the Product Detail Page (PDP), to improve the user experience by adding estimated delivery dates.

One way to serve the user & increase conversions: Estimated Delivery Dates

Estimated Delivery Dates (EDD) predict when a product will arrive at the customer’s specified address, and showcasing them on your PDPs can turn customer frustration into satisfaction.

In fact, three-fourths or 75.1% of shoppers indicated that putting an EDD on the product page or in the cart positively influences their decision to buy an item.

Baymard Institute’s checkout usability study showed that what users care about isn’t “shipping speed” but rather the specific date of delivery, like “when will I receive my order?”

But unfortunately, their research found that 40% of major US ecommerce checkouts show shipping speeds instead of delivery dates. Showing only general shipping speeds exposes a more business-centric than a customer-centric dynamic because it emphasizes the company’s efficiency and operations over the customer’s specific needs.

While some customers may find general shipping speeds useful, it doesn’t account for:

• The customer’s urgent need
• Their specific location
• Their availability to receive the product

By providing specific delivery dates, the company shows it values the customer’s time and understands their specific requirements, putting a premium on customer satisfaction.

Adding EDDs to PDPs is beneficial to ecommerce companies for a few other reasons:

• Minimizing customer anxieties: Providing customers with an estimated delivery date helps them plan their purchases and reduces the uncertainty and anxiety they may feel about when they will receive their order.
• Reducing customer support inquiries: Offering an estimated delivery date can reduce the number of customer support inquiries about order status and delivery, freeing up resources to focus on other areas.
• Improving customer planning: Customers can make better purchasing decisions with an estimated delivery date, especially if they need the product for a specific event or deadline.
• Enhancing customer satisfaction: By providing accurate and reliable delivery information, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of repeat business.

Notice how every benefit mentions the word “customer.” Adding EDDs to PDPs puts the customer’s needs at the center (something that can improve your bottom line in the long run).

An example of Estimated Delivery Dates on Rush Order Tees’ website. Notice the “Delivery Options” box in the bottom right corner.

There are two ways to display EDDs, and these methods aren’t made equal. For example, our analysis revealed that offering vague delivery times like 2-3 days offered little benefit to the user, but specific dates like “Tuesday, March 17th” were more helpful in providing an accurate and reliable delivery expectation, thereby improving the overall customer experience and satisfaction.

The North Face’s checkout page only offers a vague shipping time of 3-5 days. We’ve found this does little to improve customer satisfaction and purchase rates.

The North Face’s checkout page is not only nonspecific but also reveals the delivery information after the customer clicks “checkout.” We recommend displaying EDD information on PDPs earlier in the shopping journey to encourage transactions as soon as possible.

Tips for displaying delivery date on your ecommerce website

Time is money, and your customers want to know when their purchases will arrive on their doorstep. Displaying delivery dates on your ecommerce website doesn’t have to be a guessing game–with these tips, you can give your customers the clarity they crave and deserve.

Specific dates can reduce your abandoned cart rate

As we mentioned, get as specific as possible with shipping dates on both PDPs and checkout pages.

You can do this in a few ways. First, you can list the date the item will arrive instead of giving a nonspecific range. “Standard Shipping 3-5 Business Days” becomes “Standard Shipping: Arrives by February 24.”

Or add a zip code search option where users can type in their location, and your website provides estimated delivery dates. For example, Nike does this on its website by prompting users to enter their zip code for delivery estimates.

Nike’s shipping options modal prompts users to enter zip codes for personalized delivery estimates.

Displaying early in the journey improves the user experience

Set delivery expectations as soon as possible in the customer journey to reel your customers in.

We’ve found exposing EDDs early in the shopping journey, like on PDPs or even category pages, helps set clear expectations for the delivery process.

For example, if a customer wants their product by June 1st and sees your website offers shipping by May 31st, they’ll be more inclined to purchase the item from you than to shop around for another competitor.

This also has the added benefit of reducing cart abandonment because they’re less likely to leave an item behind if they know when they can expect to receive them.

Providing EDDs builds trust by demonstrating that your company has a reliable delivery process in place.

Tweak delivery date placements

The way you present the EDDs can influence customer buying decisions. A clean and visually appealing EDD presentation simplifies the delivery process and mitigates confusion.

For example, Shirt Max offers a zip code field as a sidebar on its website, providing users with delivery estimates based on when they place their order.

An example of Shirt Max’s PDP.

Play around with the location, like putting it in a sidebar or conspicuously adding it underneath the “Add to Cart” button.

Nike places their EDDs underneath the Add to Bag button.

Other companies add it next to the product overview section, like on Custom Ink’s PDP.

There’s no right or wrong answer but only what works best for your customers. Optimizing where you place your delivery box and its style will require iterative testing.

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Make your delivery dates dynamic based on zip code

You can also tweak how you want to present the EDD information. Some companies use more business-centric language in their EDD approach, while others offer a more user-centric approach by adding zip code-specific estimates.

Urban Outfitters saves the user’s current location to provide Estimated Delivery Dates and allows users to edit their location using a popup that provides shipping method information.

Urban Outfitters tailors its shipping estimator to the customer’s location and to the desired shipping method.

Rush Order Tees’ PDPs use customer-centric delivery times in its PDP description area.

Notice how Rush Order Tees offers a specific date on its PDP, an example of a customer-centric approach.

Zip code-specific estimates add a personalized touch that will positively influence customer buying decisions.

Best-in-class examples of ecommerce brands displaying estimated delivery dates on their PDP

Many ecommerce brands incorporate EDDs into their PDPs, creating a transparent and customer-centric shopping experience.

These examples demonstrate the many ways you can display Estimated Delivery Dates.

Michaels: Delivery Estimator

Michaels, a well-known home decorating store, offers products from furniture to decor to art supplies.

Why is this effective?

Offering multiple shipping options (Store Pickup, Ship to Me, and Same Day) on the PDP gives customers the power and flexibility to choose the best option.

1. Store Pickup allows customers to save on shipping costs and pick up their purchase as soon as they need from the nearest store.
2. Ship to Me gives customers the convenience of having their purchase delivered to their doorstep on a set day.
3. Same Day Delivery provides a quick solution for customers who need their purchase urgently.

Michaels also displays the shipping options as soon in the checkout as possible and places them strategically above the Add to Cart button.

The EDD’s visibility can act as an urgency motivator for customers: encouraging them to complete their purchase and act quickly, as they can see their item will arrive within a specific time frame.

Instead of Michaels saying, “Arrives in 3-5 business days” (a more business-centric approach), they give a date range, so customers know exactly when the product(s) will arrive.

Urban Outfitters: Shipping Method Options

Urban Outfitters is a lifestyle retailer that offers a unique mix of fashion and home goods, catering to a youthful, creative customer base.

Why is this effective?

Like Michaels, its PDP features the EDD right underneath the Add to Bag button, placing it directly in the line of sight to checkout. Customers will see when the item will arrive, but Urban Outfitters does something more interesting.

When customers click “More Shipping Options,” a popup appears for them to type in their zip code, and the algorithm will generate estimated arrival dates depending on the shipping method.

This clever shipping estimator personalizes the checkout experience by accurately estimating when customers will receive an item depending on their location. As a result, customers who need an item quicker can select the shipping method that best meets their needs.

Providing this level of detail, customers can better plan and manage their expectations, leading to a more positive shopping experience and a higher likelihood of making a purchase.

Nordstrom: Zip Code Prompter

Nordstrom is an American luxury department store chain offering fashion clothing, footwear, beauty products, home décor, and more.

Why is this effective?

Just like Urban Outfitters, its shipping estimator is prominently displayed right below the Add to Cart button. Nordstrom prompts users to enter their zip code so it can provide accurate inventory and delivery estimations.

Whether a customer wants to find out if a product is in store for pickup or to estimate their delivery dates, offering this delivery estimator through a zip code prompter reduces shipping anxieties because customers aren’t left wondering when their product will arrive.

Optimizing your site for conversions and user experience

Improving the user experience should be an ecommerce website’s North Star. One specific area to focus on is the Product Detail Page (PDP) by adding estimated delivery dates (EDD) to enhance customer satisfaction and increase conversions.

By adding Estimated Delivery Dates to your PDPs, you will:

• Minimize customer anxieties
• Reducing customer support inquiries
• Improve customer planning
• Enhance customer satisfaction

All of which center around your customer, the heart of your business. The delivery date should be as specific as possible, displayed early in the customer journey, and presented in a clean and visually appealing manner, whether in a sidebar, under the “Add to Cart” button, or next to the product overview section. By putting the customer’s needs at the center, businesses can build trust and improve their bottom line in the long run.

The post How Estimated Delivery Dates (EDDs) Enhance User Experience and Drive Transactions for Ecommerce Brands appeared first on The Good.

Just because a shopper fills their shopping cart and initiates checkout doesn’t mean they will complete the purchase. In fact, 70% of checkouts are ultimately abandoned. There’s plenty of opportunity to lose a sale if you don’t optimize this part of the customer experience.

What does a great checkout page look like? In this article, we review our favorite checkout page designs. We explain why we like them and how they could be improved.

What Makes a Good Checkout Design?

Your checkout page represents a critical moment where your shoppers become customers, so it deserves your thought and attention.

The best ecommerce checkout designs are simple, clear, and intuitive. They give shoppers all the information they need to get through checkout quickly, easily, and securely. The process should be clear of distractions, disruptions, or points of friction.

Your checkout page should inhabit all of the qualities of good visual design. The aesthetics of the page should support efficiency, accessibility, and a good user experience. It should use principles like hierarchy, scale, and contrast to make the page easier to use.

Furthermore, the best checkout designs are optimized for conversion. You should measure the page’s performance, experiment with new ideas, and implement new optimizations regularly.

To learn more about improving your page, check out our guide on optimizing your checkout page. We also recommend reviewing our guide on mobile checkout design and our primer on form design principles.

The 10 Best Checkout Page Examples

The following are some of our favorite checkout page examples. Use these as inspiration to design and optimize your store’s checkout page.

1. Infinite CBD

What we like:

Infinite CBD uses a common two-column checkout design that’s clean, simple to follow, and looks good on mobile devices. The contents of the cart are available, but not in the way. The minimal checkout form asks for just the right amount of information to keep the checkout process simple.

There aren’t any non-checkout elements to disrupt the transaction. It also uses good visual design to separate the shopping cart and payment details fields from the primary form. The call-to-action is obvious, but slightly gray until the form fields have content. The checkout progress indicator at the top is a great tool to keep customers oriented.

What could be better:

We’d like to see more payment options, like Google Pay or PayPal, as well as a way to save progress in case customers want to come back. The page could also use some trust symbols and badges to inspire confidence and a minimal header without so many distracting links.

2. Allbirds

What we like:

Allbirds is built on Shopify, which means it uses Shopify’s checkout flow. Naturally, Shopify knows what they’re doing when it comes to checkout optimization. This checkout design is stripped-down, minimal, and clean. There’s no header, footer, or menu full of links to distract the customer.

We like the alternative payment options at the top of the page that lets customers skip to checkout without dealing with the form. They smartly grayed out the coupon field until a value is inputted so it doesn’t confuse customers from clicking the “Continue to Shipping” call-to-action.

What could be better:

This is the first page of a multi-page checkout design. For such a minimal checkout design, the multi-page checkout process could probably be consolidated into one. However, it’s good that all three pages use the same layout so there’s no confusion.

The breadcrumbs that indicate progress should be more obvious. It’s not apparent right away that this page is not a one-page checkout.

Finally, there’s very little branding because it’s a Shopify site. This isn’t a huge problem, but you don’t want your site to feel like every other store. Some light branding would be good for the user experience.

3. Samsung

What we like:

Samsung has a unique checkout design. Unlike many pages that make all of your fields visible, Samsung only shows you what they need at the time.

For instance, you won’t see any billing address fields until you select a payment method. If you select an express checkout option, you won’t see any fields at all. This makes the page remarkably simple because there’s only one choice to make at a time.

This checkout design assumes you want to checkout as a guest and offers an option to sign in. Guest checkout capabilities are a great way to expedite the process.

Cart contents, taxes, shipping, and delivery data are clear and transparent. The “Chat with an expert” link opens a live chat window. This is a great way to resolve last-minute objections or friction.

What could be better:

While the header has been minimized properly, the footer is packed full of links that could distract customers from completing the transaction.

When the page loads, the four colorful buttons make it seem like Samsung only offers four payment methods. The “Pay with a card” option deserves similar attention. At the very least, it should be grouped with the other payment options so it doesn’t seem unrelated.

4. Bed Bath & Beyond

What we like:

As a retailer of more than 50 years, it’s no surprise that Bed Bath & Beyond has an effective checkout process. The message at the top about earning rewards is a great way to make customers feel like they’re getting a little extra. It also encourages opening an account.

The visual design is excellent. Dividing each section with background colors creates separation, which makes it easy to follow. Instead of slogging through a long form, it feels like less work. The progress indicator is simple and reassuring and there are no distractions in the header and footer.

“Email for order tracking” and “Phone for delivery contact” is superb copywriting. Now those details feel like they’re part of the transaction and not for marketing purposes.

“Get text alerts for your order on your mobile” is a great little feature to keep your customers engaged and build an SMS-based relationship. We also like that the “Details” link by the shipping cost opens a popup with valuable shipping information. This prevents the customer from leaving the checkout to learn about shipping.

What could be better:

There’s no way to contact support or get answers to any last-minute questions. This is unfortunate because Bed Bath & Beyond probably has enough customer support resources to do this well.

We don’t like that you have to visit the second page to input your payment information. This could probably be squeezed into the first page to create a one-page checkout experience.

Bed Bath & Beyond should definitely have some trust symbols or badges from reputable security services, the Better Business Bureau, or similar.

5. Bellroy

What we like:

Bellroy’s three-column checkout page deviates from the typical checkout style, but it’s still an intuitive checkout process. There’s a lot to like about this page.

• Express payment at the top gives customers a chance to skip the rest of the page.
• The three numbered columns create an easy-to-follow flow.
• Choosing shipping options first means there are no surprises when it’s time to pay.
• The checkout form is about as minimal as it gets.
• The call to action is clear, bold, and interactive.
• There are lots of powerful conversion-pushing elements, such as “secure checkout,” “3-year warranty,” “global delivery,” “30-day returns,” and “award-winning service.”
• The FAQ at the bottom of the page is a brilliant way to overcome objections.

What could be better:

There is a lot of information on the page, so it would be great if the form dynamically updated to hide anything irrelevant as you went through the process. For example, once a shipping option is selected, hide the rest of the information in that column so the customer isn’t distracted.

6. Xero Shoes

What we like:

Xero Shoes’ checkout page includes a few powerful elements. The “5,000 miles sole warranty” is a nice touch. We tend to consider the quality of our shoes more than other apparel, so it’s smart to reassure customers that the products will last.

We also like the bit of social proof in the bottom right corner. “53,000+ reviews” is quite the endorsement! They also choose a good testimonial that’s appropriate for all kinds of customers.

What could be better:

This is the first page of a three-page checkout flow that could probably be consolidated into one. There’s no mention of shipping fees or taxes here, but those fees are added on page two. Surprise fees are the top reason people abandon checkout, so that information should appear earlier.

7. B&H Photo Video

What we like:

Like many stores with robust product lines, B&H’s site is quite busy. They like to push upsells of similar products, bundles, accessories, and warranties, but they are smart to strip all of that away for their checkout experience. As you can see, it’s quite simple.

Normally, the lack of tax and shipping information would be a detriment. However, B&H uses some clever copy to indicate that more information is needed before these fees can be calculated. This way the customer knows that fees may appear later in the checkout flow.

We also like the use of a secondary call-to-action style for the “Select gift options” button. Customers know it’s clickable, but not the primary method forward.

Furthermore, the large “Secure checkout” heading, live chat link, links to information pages, and customer support phone number are great ways to make customers feel more secure.

What could be better:

We’d like to see more detail about the cart checkout items at this stage in the checkout to remind the customer why they’re buying in the first place. There should also be some optional payment methods available.

8. Peloton

What we like:

Peloton’s checkout design is another example of a clean, minimalist page that only uses design to facilitate usage. We like that the checkout form in the left column has a reasonable flow: email address, shipping options, and payment.

Using upsells at this point in the process is complicated. In most cases, this is not the place to ask customers to make more purchase-related decisions. In the case of Peloton, however, an upsell makes more sense since they’re selling a warranty for an expensive item.

We also like the minimal header and footer, the live chat link, the presence of the shopping cart contents, and the estimated delivery address field. The “30-day home trial” reminder is a great way to make customers feel more comfortable about their purchases.

Finally, the financing payment option is very smart. Plenty of customers would prefer to pay over time for products this expensive.

What could be better:

This checkout page design would do well to include some social proof. Peloton products are expensive and many of them require significant commitments. It would be helpful to read some comments or reviews from past customers about their positive experiences. It would also be good to see an endorsement from an expert, such as a doctor, physical therapist, or personal trainer.

9. ASOS

What we like:

This is a well-designed checkout flow. We like that everything is on the same page, but ASOS uses an accordion-style checkout to make the second and third steps (delivery address and payment information) inactive until the user completes the first step. This is a fantastic way to create a simple flow and avoid overwhelming customers.

The “Click and collect” tab is an excellent addition. It gives customers the option to get their orders faster and avoid shipping complications or delays.

In the payment details section, ASOS offers multiple ways to pay, including financing. All of the options are hidden behind tabs so the customer is only presented with those requirements when they select an option. This keeps the page clean and simple.

Furthermore, ASOS uses a stripped-down header and footer to limit distractions. They also keep the shopping cart contents present so the thing the customer wants is always within sight.

What could be better:

We’d like to see a trust symbol or badge that indicates a secure purchase. The page could also use some information about the shipping methods and returns policy.

10. Happy Socks

What we like:

Happy Socks has a unique checkout flow. Instead of using a standalone page, the entire checkout process happens in a slideout sidebar. The style fits nicely with Happy Sock’s branding.

We like the two notifications at the top of the sidebar. One notification warns that they can’t deliver to P.O. boxes, which helps avoid future friction if someone enters a P.O. box number. The other notification shows how far the customer is from free shipping. This is a great way to improve the average order value.

We also like that the shipping fee is apparent from the beginning. This ensures there are no surprises later. The payment screen offers multiple payment methods. Overall, the checkout flow is fast and easy to follow.

What could be better:

Our major concern about Happy Sock’s checkout design is only that it may be too different from most online stores. Customers generally don’t expect to complete the entire checkout process in a sidebar, so they may find this confusing. You don’t have to do things the same way as every other online store, but fighting customer expectations is hard. Hopefully, Happy Socks has performed some research as to whether their customers find this confusing.

Experiment, Test, and Optimize Your Checkout Design

We’ve shown you some of the best checkout page examples on the web, but that doesn’t mean you should reproduce them for your site.

Build a checkout page that satisfies the unique means of your business and your customers. Make changes and test the results. Create a cycle of iteration that slowly improves your checkout design’s performance over time.

Furthermore, look beyond your conversion rate to your real goal: revenue. Some changes (like adding upsell offers) might decrease your conversion rate but boost your overall revenue. These kinds of smart tweaks are worth experimenting with.

If you’re struggling with your checkout process design, we can identify what’s stopping conversions, where customers get confused, and how to improve.

Hundreds of millions in revenue generated with our strategic optimization programs.

But don’t take our word for it. Hear about the amazing results from 15+ years in business, straight from the source.

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The post 10 Of The Best Checkout Page Design Examples to Inspire Your Own appeared first on The Good.

One day someone is avidly using your app or buying your bestsellers and the next day, they’ve disappeared into the ether.

Where did they go? And, more importantly, how can you get them back?

SaaS and ecommerce winbacks are crucial for business because they bring back existing customers (a.k.a. people who have already invested in your brand). Customers who already have experience with your product are likely to spend more in the future, contribute to consistent revenue, and recommend you to their friends and family. Basically, they’re the Holy Grail.

But with fierce competition and a ton of choice, it’s easy to lose a user’s attention to the next newest, shiniest thing. It doesn’t have to be forever, though. Winbacks remind customers why they chose you in the first place and give them a good reason to come back.

What’s a SaaS and ecommerce winback?

SaaS and ecommerce winbacks are email campaigns that aim to re-engage past customers who have become dormant. Maybe they haven’t logged on in a while or maybe it’s been a few months since they made their last purchase. Either way, winback emails are perfect for staying top-of-mind and reminding past customers that you exist.

10 winback email strategies (with real-life examples)

The key to a good winback campaign is to let your brand shine and show customers why they should choose you over the latest new thing. There are several ways you can do this, as highlighted in these real-life SaaS and ecommerce winback campaign examples and email templates.

1. Make your winback campaigns segment-specific

Every customer and every user is different. They have different needs, face different challenges, and chose your brand for different reasons. Because winback campaigns intend to re-engage, it helps to send your emails to specific segments.

Someone who has bought several pairs of men’s shoes from you in the past probably isn’t going to be won over by a discount on women’s dresses. As well as segmenting subscribers based on when they last interacted with your brand, drill down further to segment your audience based on information like what they bought, why they use your product or their job title.

Language learning app Busuu has targeted inactive subscribers based on the language they’re learning. Here, they lure a user back with a discount specifically on Japanese courses – an incentive that wouldn’t be particularly enticing if the user was learning Spanish or Arabic.

2. Offer an incentive

Talking of incentives, offering subscribers a BOGO deal or a freebie if they re-engage can help give on-the-fence users the nudge they need. Make sure the incentive is relevant to their needs (i.e. don’t offer incentives on women’s dresses to subscribers who have only ever bought men’s shoes) and something that will help keep them engaged.

Skillshare starts its winback emails with a classic “we’ve missed you!” before offering a discount to users that have left the Premium plan. As well as offering a discount on their first month back, Skillshare also reminds subscribers about the benefits they receive as a Premium member.

Note how the offer is a discount for the first month. While we normally don’t encourage discounting your product, a one time exclusive deal to encourage reengagement can work well for SaaS brands. During this time, Skillshare can send regular emails to help users get set up again and make the most of the tool, increasing their chances of sticking around long term.

3. Showcase your latest features

Got something new to shout about? Include it in your winback campaigns. As well as reminding subscribers why they chose you in the first place, show them why they should choose you again (especially if there’s been an influx of competition in your market).

It helps users to see that you’re consistently adding new features that tackle fresh challenges.

Asana’s winback emails promote new content, offer new insights, and push new features. This triple threat of an update gives users all the information they need to return to the app and continue using it.

4. Send a quiz or interactive content

There’s nothing like a quiz or a piece of interactive content to increase engagement levels. There’s a reason BuzzFeed’s quizzes are so popular. Who doesn’t want to find out which 2000s movie star they are or what kind of house matches their personality?

Quizzes also personalize your winback campaigns. They help you understand more about your customers – if they get to the end of the quiz and click a tracked link, you can use this information to send more relevant communications in the future. You can also send a feedback email that asks lapsed customers to share their opinion on your brand, products, and their experience with you.

Toilet roll subscription brand Who Gives a Crap sends former customers a humorous flowchart quiz where all answers point to “buy more loo roll”. The quirky copy reflects the brand’s personality and, while the quiz doesn’t necessarily add a ton of value, it engages subscribers and is a clever way to encourage them to return.

5. Tell subscribers exactly what will happen

Sometimes the easiest way to win back customers is to tell them exactly what’s going to happen if they don’t resubscribe or show their interest. Not only does it give users a chance to make an educated decision about whether they want to come back or leave your list forever, but it also offers complete transparency (which incidentally builds trust).

Childcare brand Other Goose doesn’t mince its words in its winback campaign. It simply states why subscribers are receiving the email, what will happen if they don’t take action, and a chance for them to restore access to their account. It adds in a handy timeframe too, so that subscribers can think about their decision.

Use your subject line to hammer the point home: the more concise and to the point you can be, the better.

6. Keep it simple

Simplicity is everything in a winback campaign. The subscribers you’re trying to reach are already showing less engagement and the last thing you want them to do is jump through hoops just to show they’re committed to your brand.

If you make them do seven handstands, click four links, and film a video to resubscribe, there’s a very high chance (read: 100%) that they won’t come back.

Framebridge keeps its winback email short, simple, and to the point. Don’t want to resubscribe? That’s fine, you don’t have to do anything! If you do – also fine! Just click this link and you’ll stay.

7. Let users customize their resubscription

Sometimes there’s a reason customers haven’t returned. Maybe they haven’t received the information they need or they’re not getting the right product recommendations from you. Give subscribers a chance to choose their preferences and put them back in control, whether that’s by asking what kind of content they want to receive or what products they’re most interested in. This will help them create their own unique journey and increase the chances of them coming back and staying.

Animoto gives its subscribers the option to choose their email preferences, which include what types of emails they want to receive and what content they’re most interested in.

8. Remind customers what they’re missing

There was a reason someone signed up to your email list in the first place. Perhaps they downloaded an ebook, made a purchase, or simply wanted to get updates from your brand. Winback campaigns are the perfect opportunity to remind users why they gave you their email address in the first place and what they can expect from you moving forward.

Clothing brand Saks recaps what kind of emails customers receive when they stay on the email list.

9. Include social proof

The Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is strong for a lot of people. They want to be amongst all the action and be a part of the cool crowd. Add social proof to your winback campaigns with reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, and numbers. Incorporating a couple of powerful and positive reviews can make all the difference, or showing how other users are benefitting from your product can help subscribers see what it can do for them.

Webflow highlights how many new users it’s acquired since the last time a user visited the site. Showing a dramatically higher user base gives subscribers pause for thought and gets them wondering whether they are missing out.

10. Leverage your brand personality

Your brand personality is what sets you apart. Use this to reconnect with customers and stand out from other, more serious winback emails. This winback example from Paul Mitchell does exactly that. The informal language and cute image pull on customer heartstrings and give shoppers the chance to re-engage.

What a sample winback campaign looks like in action

Successful winback campaigns identify the reason for customer churn and remind users why they should come back. The campaign should be sent to dormant customers who haven’t used your app, bought or product, or interacted with your brand in several weeks.

The content of customer winback email campaigns will vary depending on what you hope to get out of it – do you want to re-engage inactive customers or do you want to encourage a new purchase? Either way, it can take time to warm up subscribers again, especially if they’ve been dormant for a while.

As such, it helps to automate a series of emails instead of firing off just one and hoping it does the job. In this post, we go into more detail about what you need to think about when planning a winback strategy, but here’s a sample winback series to get you started.

• Winback email #1: Tell subscribers exactly what’s going to happen if they don’t stay subscribed and provide a very clear call-to-action (CTA) that tells them how they can stay involved
• Winback email #2: Remind users why they chose you in the first place and restate the benefits they get when they remain a subscriber (you can include new features and content here)
• Winback email #3: Add an incentive to the offer to give on-the-fence subscribers the nudge they need to stay
• Winback email #4: Send social proof or remind customers what kind of communication they can expect to receive from you moving forward
• Winback email #5: Give customers one last chance to re-engage by re-stating the incentive and telling them there will be no more emails if they don’t take action

Winback campaigns increase re-engage customers and improve retention rates

Customer churn is a big problem for SaaS and ecommerce brands today. The sheer amount of competition makes it incredibly easy for shoppers to skip from one brand to the next, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Winback campaigns reach users who are still partially warm and re-engage them with great content, irresistible incentives, and a stark reminder about why they signed up in the first place. This ultimately leads to more conversions, higher customer engagement levels, and an increased customer lifetime value.

The post How to Drive Customer Retention With SaaS & Ecommerce Email Winbacks appeared first on The Good.

There are two ways you can look at this.

Option A is to think, “Look at all these people who didn’t buy from us! Why? People are annoying.” 

Option B is to think, “Look at all this room we still have for growth! We could increase our revenue a good deal if we get this fixed.”  

If you’re in the Option B camp, this article is for you. Abandonment is an opportunity for ecommerce brands, and there are a number of effective ways to get more of your shoppers to convert into buyers. 

Below, we look at:

• What is shopping cart abandonment?
• What is a good abandoned cart rate?
• Why are your customers leaving their carts? 
• How can you reduce shopping cart abandonment? 

What is shopping cart abandonment? 

Shopping cart abandonment is when a potential or existing customer adds something to their shopping cart and then doesn’t make a purchase. 

Someone browsed through your product offerings, selected what they wanted, and added it to their online shopping cart. But before they made a purchase, something happened. They never completed the order and the product remains in the cart until your site automatically clears the order — or you encourage them to come back. 

Now, cart abandonment is often confused with other types of abandonment, so let’s clear that up real quick:

• Browse abandonment is when a shopper views a product but never adds it to their cart. 
• Cart abandonment is one step further than browse abandonment. It’s when a customer adds an item to their cart but doesn’t go any further. 
• Checkout abandonment is when a shopper adds an item to cart, starts down the checkout path, and then abandons purchase before submitting their order and payment. 

Why is shopping cart abandonment a problem for ecommerce retailers? 

Abandoned carts are “bad” for online retailers because they often indicate a website or customer experience problem.

For example:

• Super slow loading times
• Poor trust signals
• A confusing checkout process

These are all issues ecommerce retailers can fix — and recover a good deal of revenue in the process.  

How much revenue? When Baymard Institute looked at solvable checkout problems (stuff you can fix, like slow load times), they found “the average large-sized ecommerce site can gain a 35.26% increase in conversion rate.” Thirty-five percent increase! 

Industry-wide, this translates to about $260 billion US and EU stores can recover.

Some of that revenue applies to your store. Here’s how you can calculate your abandonment rate and the ROI of improving it. 

How do you calculate your abandonment rate? 

Cart abandonment rate is reported as a percentage. It tells you what percent of your total number of shoppers add items to their cart, but don’t complete their checkout.

Here’s how the math works: 

So, let’s assume that your store gets 100 visitors this month. Let’s also assume that 60 of those visitors add at least one item to their shopping cart.

Most of those 60 shoppers won’t actually complete their purchase. They will get distracted by something else, go look for a better price or a discount code, or just “save it for later.”

Let’s say that 20 of those shoppers DO complete their purchase, though. 60 shopping carts were initiated, but 40 of them were never actually purchased, which means that about 66% of your shoppers left without completing their order.

That’s a lot of money left on the table, right? Well, you might be surprised to learn that a 66% cart abandonment rate is actually pretty good compared to industry averages.

What is the average abandoned cart recovery rate?

Based on data from 44 different studies, Baymard Institute reports the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.80%. And these numbers are only increasing. The abandoned cart rate is even higher now than it was pre-pandemic.

Keep in mind though, this is a broad analysis. Some studies found an average rate as low as 57.60% while others reported rates as high as 84.27% (and those were from the same year!). Rates will vary according to industry, niches within industries, and business type as well, so we caution against using any of these numbers as your benchmark. 

What is a good abandoned cart rate? 

But if you don’t use a benchmark, where do you start, and how do you know if your rate is any good? 

We often say “a good conversion rate is one that’s always improving.” The same principle is true for abandoned cart rates. As long as the number is getting smaller, your business is improving.

Meaning, you want to start with your unique abandonment rate and make it better. A good abandoned cart rate is one that’s lower than last month’s. 

To find your rate, you can look at a handful of data sources: 

• Platform analytics: If you’re using Shopify, you can quickly access all the numbers you need to use the formula above. Under Analytics > Reports, look for (a) the total number of sessions where a customer added a product to cart and (b) the total number of sessions where a customer purchased a product. If you’re on BigCommerce, you can skip the math altogether. They have a handy Abandoned Cart Report, which includes your rate (already calculated!) and several other handy metrics (see image below). If you’re using WooCommerce, you might need to install a plugin, such as Cart Reports, to easily view your rate and metrics such as most abandoned products.  

• Google Analytics: Alternatively, if you have the Enhanced Ecommerce feature turned on in Google Analytics, you can access your rate there. It’s in the Shopping Behavior Analysis report, which shows you (per time period) the number of sessions you had at each stage of the purchase funnel. 

From there, it’s helpful to look at what kind of ROI you’d see from improving your abandonment rate. Thankfully, we’ve got an abandoned cart ROI calculator to save you some time.

Let’s say your rate is 70%, which is pretty close to that average rate from Baymard Institute. In the best scenario, that means more than half of your potential customers don’t end up buying from you, which means there is a world of opportunity to continue to grow your business. 

How much opportunity? Let’s do the math.

Let’s say you have 1,000 transactions per month, and your average order value is $100. If you improve your 70% abandonment rate to 65%, you’d see an extra $5,000 in revenue per month. And that’s from improving your abandonment rate by just 5%! 

Now, imagine you improve that rate by a few percentage points each month! 

This is why a good abandoned cart recovery rate for your brand is one that’s always improving. 

Why your shoppers may be abandoning their carts

With that kind of ROI ahead of you, it’s easy to jump to a list of “quick fix” tactics. Don’t.

Before you start treating the problem, you want to diagnose what’s wrong. 

Think of it this way: Your current abandonment rate is like a recurring migraine. If you go to a doctor’s office and complain about your aching head, the doctor may theorize why you’re getting migraines (maybe it’s those 10 cups of daily coffee?), but she’ll still go through a full examination to ensure her hypothesis is correct. Because sometimes, that examination reveals her hypothesis was wrong. 

Likewise, once you diagnose your cart abandonment issue — aka know what’s causing the problem — you can address it. 

So, first, we want to look at some reasons why your customers might be leaving their cart in the internet equivalent of the checkout lane, and then look at optimization steps you can take to mitigate cart abandonment.

Here are some common reasons cart abandoners don’t complete their checkout: 

1. They’re just window shopping 
2. They’re shocked by high or unexpected costs
3. They went digging for a coupon code
4. They’re not sure they can trust you
5. A technical issue frustrated them
6. The checkout process was a total pain 

1. You’re not catering to window shoppers 

There are seven types of customers who come to your site. One of these types is visitors who are “just looking.” We’ll call them “Lookers.” 

Lookers aren’t there to buy, they’re there to window shop. They may add items to their cart, but they do this to create a wishlist, or to save an item they want to look at again later. 

How many folks do this? In all likelihood, more than half of everyone who abandons a cart. Baymard Institute estimates as many as 58.6% of US shoppers abandon cart because they’re simply browsing. This number may only increase, too. As more people shop online as a pastime and stress reliever, “window shopping” rates will rise. 

While this isn’t exactly a problem (a Lookers’ goal is to look, after all), there are several things you can do to entice Lookers to return for items they save. 

For example:

• Displaying any true notices about limited availability or low stock
• Listing any promotions, such as bundles, to encourage purchase
• Capturing their email and re-engaging them with a cart recovery email (more on that later)
• Retargeting the Looker through ads over the next few days 

2. You’re introducing unexpected costs 

When you exclude folks who are “just browsing,” unexpected or hidden costs are the number one reason customers who want to purchase say “forget it” during checkout. 

These unexpected costs are the reason 49% of high-intent shoppers abandon their cart. 

Many times, that extra cost culprit is a high shipping fee. 

To combat this trigger for shopping cart abandonment, you can:

• Offer free shipping: Bake shipping costs into product prices, then offer across-the-board free shipping, geographically-bound shipping (“Free shipping in the US”), or free shipping once customers reach a minimum order value (“Free shipping for all orders over $49”). Relevant: 68% of US shoppers say if there’s not free shipping, they won’t purchase at least half the time. 
• Offer flat-rate shipping: If you can’t offer free shipping, consider flat-rate shipping. For example, “$6 flat-rate shipping in the US.” Some shoppers won’t want to pay it, but by listing this cost upfront, you at least sidestep the bad experience of surprising customers with it later.
• Make shipping costs explicit: List shipping costs early on in the funnel. If you offer free shipping, emphasize this in a free shipping bar at the top of each page. Or, if you can’t offer free shipping, make shipping costs explicit on product detail pages, so potential customers aren’t surprised by it in checkout. 

The rule of thumb here is to be upfront and transparent about all costs before the customer reaches the final steps of the checkout flow. 

3. You’re sending bargain hunters off-site 

When shoppers are about to make a purchase and they see an empty “apply coupon” field, many of them pause. The empty field whispers, “there’s a discount out there, you just have to go and find it.” 

Especially if your shopper is a bargain hunter, their next step is to:

• Plug in common codes like “WELCOME15” or “SPRING20” to see if they work
• Or pull up a new tab and search “[your brand] + coupon” to see if they can find a promo

Sometimes, they find what they want, or give up, and carry on to purchase. But many times they get distracted by rabbit holes on Google (like Amazon listings), competitor pricing, or become frustrated (i.e. they don’t find a coupon) and abandon the cart. 

Depending on how often you offer coupons or discounts, you have a few options to deal with this:

1. Place the field low: If you frequently offer coupons or promos, place the code field at the end of the checkout process or below required fields. 
2. Provide codes on-site: Instead of sending shoppers to Google, keep them on a site with a link to “find an offer”, “see all active offers”, or relevant promotional bar on checkout pages. 
3. Pre-apply codes: If you’re using a promotional code to drive traffic from email to a product page, pre-populate the promo field with this code (don’t send shoppers back to their email where they may get lost). Or, pre-apply the code based on qualifying cart items. 
4. Collapse the field: For brands who send codes less frequently, consider collapsing the field in addition to placing it low. A collapsed field will only expand when customers click it (see the example from Sundays for Dogs below), so it looks less like an enticing blank that needs to be filled in. 

5. Remove the field entirely: The discount code field is a default setting for most ecommerce platforms. But if you never offer discounts or promo codes, there’s no reason to leave this field in your checkout. Remove it. 

4. You’re not building sufficient trust 

Buying stuff online is normal, but customers are still (rightfully) wary of sending money to a new brand they’ve just met. 

Even in a world where we’re almost always looking at some kind of screen, consumer trust isn’t something you automatically have — it’s something you earn. 

Now, building trust is a complex process that starts from the first moment a consumer hears about your brand, and we don’t have space to go into every step here. 

But when it comes to a purchase flow in particular, earning trust involves: 

• Displaying ample product reviews: Compared to a product with zero reviews, shoppers are 270% more likely to purchase a product with 5+ reviews. We believe other shoppers more readily than we believe sellers. Collect ample reviews, testimonials, social media clips, and other social proof for your Product pages and Product Detail pages, so you can build trust that carries through checkout.
• Appropriate trust badges: This includes any payment processing security you provide, as well as return policies or guarantees. Eyebuydirect, for example, lists their return policy, satisfaction guarantee, and helpline all on the checkout page. These three pieces of information work together to say, “you can trust us to make you happy.” 

• Footer signals: Real businesses have things like an address and phone number. List these in your footer to signal to customers you’re legit. 

5. You have some technical issues (aka bugs)

Another common reason for shopping cart abandonment is technical issues. For example:

• Slow load times
• The website crashed
• Payment processing glitches
• Poor mobile responsiveness

At best, these user experience issues make the shopper reluctant to try checking out again. At worst, they diminish the shopper’s faith in your ability to process their order or manage their credit card information (“what if they double-charge my card?”), and they seek a more stable site. 

Make sure and regularly test your site in a variety of browsers (Chrome, Safari, etc.), on different device sizes, and on both fast and slow internet connections. Keep in mind usability issues are often best monitored and prevented by development teams, so you may also want to ensure you have someone monitoring site updates, page load times, and bug reports. 

6. Your checkout customer experience isn’t optimized 

Envision the ideal checkout experience in a brick-and-mortar store. It’s likely simple, fast, easy, and friendly. That’s how an optimized checkout should work in an online store, too. 

But many ecommerce stores haven’t optimized their checkout. As a result, potential customers experience all kinds of unnecessary friction or confusion as they try to make a purchase. 

For example:

• Difficulty updating or adjusting cart items
• Ambiguity around what’s in the cart 
• Distracting banner notices or ill-timed pop-ups 
• Unclear sense of progress (i.e. no progress indicator)
• Unclear next steps 
• Too many form fields 
• Confusing error messages
• Poor financing or payment options 

Below is a real-life example from a brand that didn’t hit the mark with its checkout form. As a user, you have arrived at the final step of the checkout process only to be met by confusion. Among other issues, there are too many fields, it isn’t clear what is required, and it lacks motivational messaging for the user.

Now, a big reason many of these issues persist is brands don’t know they’re happening — they’re tough to spot from where you sit because you’re not walking through the checkout process. 

So, the best way to uncover these issues is through an audit. Some effective options include:

• Pathway analysis: Pop into Google Analytics and use their reports to figure out where customers are leaving. The Goal Flow Report, Users Flow Report, and Enhanced Ecommerce feature can all come in handy here.
• Combing feedback: From there, look through records of wherever customers engage with you to figure out why those dropoffs might be happening. Are there any recurring checkout complaints in your live chat logs, SMS, support emails, or social media tags? Are folks requesting a payment method you don’t offer? Look for and document any trends.
• User testing: Finally, use a service like userinput.io to quickly test any hypotheses you formed from looking at analytics and feedback. Or, if you want to DIY user testing, gather a group of potential customers who fit your persona (e.g. regularly purchase furniture, have over $100k annual income, etc) and have never seen your site before. Then, ask them to walk through the checkout flow. Ask them to talk you through what they find helpful and/or confusing.

Once you know where consumers are getting stuck in checkout, you can begin testing improvements.

7. Your shoppers are human and the universe is chaotic

This last bucket of why shoppers abandon carts is a catch-all. While it feels good to sort human behavior the way we just did, the gritty truth is there are plenty of other reasons someone ditches a cart — and many of those aren’t solvable. 

For example:

• The doorbell rang for a delivery
• The credit card is all the way across the house 
• The dog just threw up on the carpet 
• The oven timer went off (ack! the souffle!) 
• A phone call came through
• The kids got home from school

And dozens of other reasons. Case and point: I abandoned several carts while writing this article and gathering screenshots! The point is, you can’t account for every irrational quirk of human nature and the universe, nor should you try to. 

The goal isn’t the cart equivalent of “inbox zero.” Remember, you’re not trying to eliminate cart abandonment, you’re trying to improve your specific rate.

There are a few other practical ways you can do that.  

Five other ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment

To recap, some of the suggestions we’ve brought up so far are: 

• Clearly stating all shipping costs 
• Adjusting how/where you display coupon fields 
• Building consumer trust with reviews and badges
• Ensuring a dev team is monitoring your site uptime
• Auditing your current checkout flow

These improvements all address the solvable reasons consumers jump ship, while helping you create a less distracting path to purchase. 

Another good way to reduce friction in your checkout process is to give shoppers the option to skip any kind of signup. 

Offer a guest checkout option (no sign-up or log-in required)

While, yes, a sign-up helps you collect valuable customer data, it’s not a good idea to force customers to do this. 

Remember when Baymard Institute looked at customers who wanted to complete a purchase? The number one reason those folks abandoned cart was unexpected costs. The number two reason was “the site wanted me to create an account.” This is why 24% of potential customers who wanted to purchase left. 

To avoid losing a quarter of your “ready to purchase” site visitors, give them a guest checkout option (the way Crate&Barrel does below) that doesn’t require them to sign up or log in. 

A guest checkout helps maximize the chances a shopper completes their purchase. And, if they complete their purchase, you’ll still receive their email, so you can always prompt them to create an account later.

Another helpful tactic is allowing shoppers to save their carts for later. 

Add an option to “save cart” for later

Remember, as many as 58.6% of US online shoppers abandon their cart because they’re just browsing and aren’t ready to purchase yet. 

One good way to encourage these Lookers to come back is to allow them to save their carts for later. Anthropologie provides this option beneath each item you add to your cart.  

Create recovery emails (or improve the ones you have)

We spoke with Val Geisler, email marketing expert and Customer Evangelist at Klaviyo, who shared about the opportunity to stand out with recovery emails. “Unlike marketing campaigns that are sent to many subscribers all at the same time, transactional emails like cart abandonment messages go out on a case-by-case basis.”

The average open rate on cart abandonment emails, aka recovery emails, is around 48% with an average click-through rate of 6.5%. This is substantially better than the average open rate for marketing emails, which have an open rate of 18% and a click-through rate of 2.6%. 

Val emphasized “They’re personalized to the customer’s journey with your brand and their impact is huge – if you can capitalize on them with customized content and a meaningful message.”

We go into detail about how to design abandoned cart emails elsewhere, but an overview is you want these emails (much like your other emails) to be:

• Automated
• Timely
• Personalized 
• Low-commitment 
• Simple

Specifically, Val mentioned that “Cart abandon emails don’t have to be creepy. Consider your copy choices and how you might feel if you got your own email as a customer. Would you be grateful for the reminder? Annoyed at the timing? Weirded out by the ‘we saw you looking’ vibes?”

One strategy she recommends as you design your emails is to “take a tour of your emails from the customer’s perspective before you let them go out into the world.” This will expose any areas for improvement. “Those big click-through rates come from messages that put the customer first.”

This abandoned cart email from Everlane, for example, checks all those boxes and more. 

If you don’t have any recovery emails set up, clear some time on your calendar to get these going. If you do have some running, pull them up and ensure your email elements are optimized. 

Use SMS alongside your emails

If the shopper has given you their phone number and opted in to receiving texts from you, you can also leverage SMS to remind them to complete their purchase. 

Abandoned cart texts often require fewer images, design, and formatting than emails, though you’ll still want your message to be timely, personalized, pointed, and simple. 

Keep in mind, SMS messages ideally work with your emails to provide a cohesive reminder experience. For example, you could send an abandoned cart email the day the customer leaves their cart and follow up the next day with a text, before the cart or an offer expires. 

Here’s how Omnisend visualizes this approach: 

There are two primary ways to send this kind of text:

• Automated: You can use tools such as Postscript or Omnisend to set up automated flows like the one in the image above. Postscript notes brands using a blended email-text automated approach have generated results like earning over $75,000 in revenue in just a few weeks.  
• Human-powered: You could also use a tool like Cartloop to engage with customers in a more personal manner. As a bonus, this approach can help you both diagnose why customers are ditching carts as well as recover their purchases. ShineOn did exactly this using Cartloop and generated over $101k in 30 days. 

Invest in retargeting ads 

One other way to bring potential customers back to your site is retargeting ads. Use tracking pixels or cookies on your site (work with your development team here) to resurface your brand or products the customer explored in:

• Future related Google searches
• Social media feeds
• Sidebars of other sites

This strategy has proven successful. Brandon Bauer, Director of Omni-Channel Strategy at award-winning digital marketing agency Logical Position says “Based on all of the campaigns we run, the highest conversion rates we see come from shopping cart abandoners.” That higher conversion rate means “you want to try and win them back more aggressively” through retargeting. And Brandon assures us that the ROI is worth it. 

Retargeting ad strategies for shopping cart abandonment

Several factors go into retargeting, including determining when a customer returns to purchase (so you don’t keep retargeting them), so an expert agency should be considered for your campaign. As a starting point, Brandon outlines some of his advice below.

• Segment your users: The process starts with proper user list segmentation. Group your site visitors into segments based on their actions so that you can create levers for each list. The more actions a user took on your site, the more valuable they are to your campaign.
• Be careful about frequency: Brandon warns “just because most users expect and know what retargeting ads are at this point doesn’t mean they find them any less annoying or creepy.” His advice is to “ensure you’re monitoring how many impressions users are getting on average or set impression frequency caps, especially if there’s a risk that a user could fall into multiple lists or segments.”
• Take your campaign to the next level with unique ads: Creating different ads for each segment avoids fatigue and creates a more pleasant customer experience. 
• Consider the customer’s timeline: Taking into account the date of a customer’s last site visit “allows you to either hold off on discounts until a certain amount of time has passed since the last site visit, or vary the discount depending on the duration.”

Need some help? We’ve got you covered

The customers who make it to cart have already engaged with you to create an order — they just need a bit of help completing the purchase. 

This makes cart abandonment a tremendous opportunity for brands who want to convert lost sales into profitable customer relationships.

If you’re not sure the best way to do that, we can help. 

Our data-backed processes and intelligent experiments are designed to uncover exactly where your customers are getting stuck and then identify actionable solutions that rescue more sales.

Check out our Comprehensive Ecommerce Conversion Audit to see how we can find out why more of your shoppers aren’t purchasing.  

The post How To Understand, Calculate, And Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment appeared first on The Good.

At least, that’s what it feels like most days. Just look at the stats:

• There are 2.3 million active sellers on Amazon this year
• Amazon Prime has 126 million members in the US alone
• Amazon’s sales revenue was $75.5 billion – just in the first quarter of 2020

In addition, the ecommerce giant has been steadily increasing its share of online retail dollars over the past few years, and shows no signs of stopping. 

How did Amazon become such a powerhouse? 

The site sells more than 12 million products, but thanks to powerful search/navigation tools, it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. 

The checkout process is lightning fast. 

And the free two-day shipping for all Amazon Prime members is the icing on the cake. 

It may be impossible for DTC brands to compete with Amazon on price or efficiency, but there is one area where Amazon scores poorly:

Customer experience. 

Amazon’s strength (millions of merchants selling millions of products) is also its weakness. In the process of automating and optimizing the purchasing process so that every transaction feels the same, the world’s most popular marketplace has stripped out the human elements of online shopping.

This is great news for independent ecommerce shops. 

How can you turn your direct connection with customers into profit?

Read on to learn:

• What customers want 
• 3 ways personalization can increase your bottom line
• How to turn transactional emails into revenue generators

What customers want

Research shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences, and that 44% of consumers will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a particular company.

It’s clear that customers expect brands to deliver an engaging buying experience. But retailers are falling short when it comes to providing thoughtful service. 

“Despite those expectations, however, a majority of consumers are disappointed with the ongoing lack of personalization in their shopping experiences. On average 71% express some level of frustration when their experience is impersonal.”  – Segment’s State of Personalization Report

Let’s take a closer look at this missed opportunity.

3 ways personalization can increase your bottom line

Online shoppers have infinite choices when picking where to spend their money – just think about how many ecommerce mattress companies advertise on the subway, or how many beauty subscription boxes there are in the world. 

Delivering a personalized shopping experience is one way that a brand can stand out in a crowded market, and it’s a very smart move from a financial standpoint. 

Here are three ways personalizing the online shopping experience can increase your bottom line: 

1. Increased Customer Retention

People don’t just shop with their wallets; they shop with their feelings. 

If you can make them feel good about their decision to buy your product by delivering a superior customer experience, or by making them feel like they’re part of something meaningful, they will keep choosing your brand over others. 

According to Hubspot, just a 5% increase in customer retention can increase company revenue by 25-95%. So don’t sleep on building brand loyalty:

1. Offer customers the chance to get to know your brand through your About Us page, or a special email from the founder 
2. Give them the opportunity to meet other customers with shared values via an online community or popup events
3. Reward them for sticking around with a repeat purchase discount, loyalty points or ambassador program

2. Higher AOV (Average Order Value)

“Ultimately, average order value boils down to increased profits and continued success for your brand.” – Alex McEachern, Marketing Manager at Loop  

When you offer shoppers items that align with their order history or browsing activity, not only are they more likely to buy from you; they are more likely to spend more, increasing your average order value. 

A few thoughtful touches you can add to the online shopping experience to raise AOV:

1. Create bundles of related products that customers often buy together
2. Offer a bulk buying discount or subscription on products your customers buy often 
3. Upsell customers on complementary items during checkout

3. New Business (Referrals)

When you invest time or money in personalizing the ecommerce experience, you create happy customers. And those happy customers generate new customers when they spread the word about how great your brand is. 

It’s a beautiful thing.

Take a look at how these Shopify merchants have benefited from creating brand evangelists: 

• Thrive Causemetics earned 18.4X ROI on their referral program in the first month
• The AOV from Pura Vida’s referral sales are 11% higher than normal orders
• 100% Pure generated over $244,000 in 18 months from referrals

Whether you officially build out a referral program, or you delight your customers so much that they can’t help telling their friends, word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool for ecommerce brands. 

How can you get people talking? 

In ecommerce, transactional emails are often overlooked – and therefore a great place to start. 

How to turn transactional emails into revenue generators

Sure, Amazon employs more than 1 million people worldwide. But have you ever taken a look at their customer communications? 

To put it bluntly, Amazon emails suck. It feels like they’ve been written and scheduled by an AI program. 

You can do better. 

Let’s take a look at the transactional emails Amazon is sending, and how ecommerce brands can add a more personal touch to boost customer loyalty and drive revenue.

Transactional Email #1 – Abandoned cart

Amazon example:

Amazon’s abandoned cart email is pretty bare bones: “You added some stuff to your cart. You should go back and buy it.” And the CTA button doesn’t actually demand much action; “View” is a pretty passive verb, after all. 

Ecommerce example (Blume):

Tips for driving more revenue through your abandoned cart emails:

• Pull in customer reviews of the product to overcome any hesitation
• Inject your branding into the copy or design to engage potential buyers
• Provide an exclusive incentive to complete the purchase 
• Offer customer support or a 1:1 session with a shopping specialist

Transactional Email #2 – Subscription activation

Amazon example:

Ah, yes. Nothing screams personalization like using someone’s first AND last name in an email. 

All jokes aside, this is actually Amazon’s best automated message – although it’s plain text the tone is friendly, the benefits overview is helpful, and the nav bar at the top is a nice touch. It’s like they want to convert me as a customer. 

Ecommerce example (Birchbox):

Tips for driving more revenue through your subscription activation emails:

• Invite new members to take a quiz so you can make tailored product recommendations
• Play up any VIP benefits
• Provide access to an exclusive online community to make the membership more sticky

Transactional Email #3 – First purchase

Amazon example:

Once you’ve paid for your first Prime order, Amazon does throw some design elements and product marketing your way. 

However, there’s no hint of relationship building in the copy, and if you note the fine print at the bottom of the email, you aren’t allowed to reply to their “welcome” message. So cold.  

Ecommerce example (Vellabox):

Tips for driving more revenue through your first purchase emails:

• Make customers feel welcome with the copy; like they are joining something special
• Send the message from a team member or founder
• Allow or encourage people to reply to the email with comments or questions

Transactional Email #4 – Shipping confirmation

Amazon example:

Another “just the facts”-style message from everyone’s favorite ecommerce giant. 

Curiously, Amazon’s order and shipping confirmation emails don’t actually mention the products that have been purchased – which can get confusing if you are a frequent/impulsive Prime shopper. 

Ecommerce example (Carnivore Club):

Tips for driving more revenue through your shipping confirmation emails:

• Praise the customer for making a smart purchasing decision
• Build anticipation around the delivery with the copy
• Link to your exchange policy
• Make it easy for customers to contact customer service with questions

Transactional Email #5 – Delivery confirmation

Amazon example:

It is nice that Amazon is asking if my delivery experience was satisfactory, and I appreciate the link to make a return or exchange. But once again, this is a bare-minimum message with no hint of color or humanity. 

Ecommerce example (Teleflora):

Tips for driving more revenue through your delivery confirmation emails:

• Celebrate the arrival of the package
• Share product usage tips to reduce your return rate
• Recommend related products
• Encourage additional purchases with an exclusive promo 

Transactional Email #6 – Refund

Amazon example:

This refund confirmation email is business as usual for Amazon – there’s no mention of the product or the merchant, they make no attempt to ask what went awry, and there are no next steps if you have questions. 

Ecommerce example (Figleaves):

Tips for driving more revenue through refund emails:

• Acknowledge that the customer’s experience may have been less than perfect
• Keep them shopping with free shipping or credit towards their next purchase 
• Provide tips on finding a better size or style of the product that was ordered
• Ask for product or delivery feedback to show you are listening

Transactional Email #7 – Subscription cancellation

Amazon example:

Amazon sends its strongest automated emails at key points in the customer journey – when they are trying to close you as a paying Prime member, and when they have lost you as a paying Prime member. 

Here, they do ask for feedback (though the words “external party” and “privacy notice” do not exactly give me the warm fuzzies).

Ecommerce example (CAUSEBOX):

Tips for driving more revenue through your subscription cancellation emails:

• If you sent an activation email from a team member/founder, send the cancellation email from the same person
• Offer VIP customer support if they are willing to give you another shot
• Remind the customer why they subscribed in the first place
• Pull in data about any loyalty points or referral bonuses they might be leaving behind

Instant replay

For all of its clout in the ecommerce world, Amazon hasn’t spent nearly as much time on the email side of customer communications as it has on optimizing the online shopping experience. 

This leaves the door wide open for DTC brands to create a more personalized customer experience with every email sent – including transactional ones. 

Happy shoppers become repeat purchasers and referrers, so if you haven’t taken a look at your automated emails lately, you’re definitely leaving money on the table. 

Who knows – according to Rod’s experience below, your investment could give you an advantage over your competitors as well! 

The post How To Turn Transactional Emails Into Revenue Generators appeared first on The Good.

That would be pretty unusual. Yet when it comes to online shopping, the same behavior – referred to as “cart abandonment” – is all too common.

In fact, cart abandonment rates usually hover between 68 and 82%. That means there are more website visitors who browse your store and leave without buying than those who actually complete their purchase.

That’s a lot of money left on the table!

There are a number of reasons why someone might abandon their cart:

• They get lost or confused during the checkout process
• They are experiencing sticker shock
• They leave to find an alternative or a better deal
• They get distracted by other items (Ex: Your Instagram feed)
• They don’t have the time to complete a long checkout process

As you can see, there are a variety of innocent mis-steps that can end up making the difference between, “I’ll pass,” and “Let’s do this!” That’s why a close examination of your product pages and checkout process is a valuable use of your time.

Here’s the good news: Each of these sticking points are fixable, and with the right tactics, you can drastically reduce cart abandonment, improve your conversion rate, and accelerate your revenue growth.

Let’s walk through eight of our favorite cart abandonment optimization tactics…

1. Make It Clear the Cart Has Been Updated

It’s the golden rule of interface design: for every user action, there must be a clear and immediate reaction. In other words, if a shopper clicks “Add to cart,” they should instantly receive visual confirmation their product has been added to their shopping cart.

Let’s imagine that you went to Costco’s website and added this dehumidifier to your shopping cart. Here is what your screen would look like after you clicked the “Add to Cart” button.

If we hadn’t provided the yellow arrow, do you think you would have felt confident that this product was actually added to your cart?

Probably not, since the confirmation message is small, indistinctive, and buried among other elements. As a result, certain customers probably grow frustrated and leave before completing their purchase.

As a stark contrast, Bellroy makes it quite apparent that the wallet we want to purchase has been added to our cart and the total cart value has been updated. Well done!

2. Strategically Display the “Apply Coupon” Field To Reduce Cart Abandonment

Some retailers put the coupon code field on the first page of the checkout process. Others, like Gap, make customers wait until right before they click “Confirm Purchase” to apply their discounts.

Which approach is more effective? It depends on your pricing and promotion strategy.

If you frequently offer coupon codes— and your prices make it difficult for consumers to calculate the discounts in their minds —follow Gap’s lead and place the coupon code at the very end of the process.

Delaying the coupon application gives people a reason to continue clicking through and entering their information: they’re curious to see how much that $37.99 shirt will actually cost once they’ve entered the 35% coupon code.

TV networks use the same technique to incentivize viewers to stick around through ad breaks—they create a feeling of suspense and anticipation right before they cut to commercial, so that their watchers will sit through the advertisements to find out what happens to their beloved characters.

But if you rarely offer coupon codes, it wouldn’t be wise to design your entire checkout flow around them. After all, you should optimize for the most common use cases, not the edge cases.

If you’re in this bucket, place the coupon code at the very beginning of your checkout process. This choice comes with its own benefits: immediately seeing the redemption box creates less anxiety than searching for it.

3. Provide Coupon Codes On-Site To Reduce Cart Abandonment

When you’re about to buy something, and you see the “apply coupon” field, what’s your first reaction? This field triggers most consumers to open up a new tab and search “[your business name] + coupon.”

Some of them will come back happy, with a discount code in their proverbial pocket. But many will struggle to find an active discount code and never return. The mere presence of the empty field for the discount code makes them believe its out there, somewhere, but they just can’t find it. This leaves them feeling frustrated and annoyed, which diminished your brand reputation and ramps up your cart abandonment rate.

At first glance, this may seem trivial, but the amount of money you’re losing from these incomplete transactions can quickly add up; for example, Sears loses an estimated $16.5 million per month this way.

To avoid having shoppers sucked up by the black hole of Google, consider embedding an option for finding coupons near the promo box.

Macy’s pioneered this strategy. Kent Armstrong, the company’s president of ecommerce, said it successfully kept consumers on the site—and even better, the impact on sales was “far larger than we thought it was going to be.”

Special Note: The Discount Code field is a default setting for most ecommerce platforms. If you don’t run many discounts, we strongly encourage you to hide this field to avoid losing sales to misguided bargain hunting.

4. Enhance Your Reviews

According to an iPerceptions study, 63% of people are more likely to buy from a site with user reviews. But most retailers already recognize the importance of product feedback from real consumers. If you already use reviews to boost sales, it’s time to take things one step further by adding additional context. That includes relevant details about the reviewer—like their age, gender, and other demographic data—along with annotated reviews or verification badges.

“Reviewer details let users find reviews that are pertinent to their situation or use, and review summaries help users wade through large numbers of reviews to see what common issues or strengths the product has,” explains Amy Schade, a director at Nielsen Norman Group.

Lululemon’s review section is a fantastic example. Shoppers can gauge the relevance of a specific comment by factoring in the commentator’s location, exercise preferences, age, and body type.

The key learning point here is that customers are much more likely to follow through with their purchase if they are able to see verified reviews from people who share similar characteristics or are in similar situations and had a positive experience with your product.

5. Offer Free Shipping

What is one of the most rewarding elements of shopping in-person? Instant gratification. You get to go home with your product right away, with no waiting period or additional expense.

Amazon is good, but even they haven’t figured out how to provide instant delivery to online shoppers, so while you can’t replicate that aspect of the retail experience, you can overcome the price objection by offering free shipping.

If you’re not convinced, try this on for size: 77% of consumers say free shipping is the most important factor in their purchasing decision. In addition, more than half will purchase additional items to meet the threshold that qualifies them for free shipping.

This isn’t just hearsay, A study from Usability Sciences found customers who received free shipping spent, on average, 20.8% more. So, even though subsidizing shipping costs will eat into your margins, the reduction in cart abandonments and the increase in total revenue will likely make up for it.

6. Make Your Shipping Costs Explicit

Whether or not you choose to offer free shipping, be extremely clear about your shipping rates, timelines, and policies. A staggering 56% of consumers bail on purchases when presented with unexpected costs.

Did you catch that important qualifier? Unexpected costs.

If you have a standard shipping rate for all orders, consider displaying it on a banner across the top of your site or placing it front and center on your product pages.

If you have flexible shipping rates based on things like the number of items in the order, the target arrival time, or the purchase date, you should list all of the available options, their cost, and their terms prominently on your checkout page, like Anthropologie does here…

Or follow REI’s lead, and create an entire page for shipping-related information. Just make sure you keep it up to date as rates, timelines, or other aspects change!

7. Provide Guest Checkout

In theory, accounts are good for both customers and retailers…

Customers get personalized experiences, special discounts and offers, easy access to order statuses, a detailed history of their past purchases, and a more convenient checkout experience.

Merchants get more customer data, lower customer support volume, a more direct relationships with their customers, and usually a higher customer lifetime value.

But the people have spoken, and they despise brands that force them to register for a new customer account in order to complete their purchase. In fact, letting people buy without registering can improve your conversions by 45%. ASOS did slightly better: the company cut its abandonment rate in half by offering guest checkout.

Because registration is such a turn-off, 70% of the top 100 retailers have stopped making it a requirement to purchase.

And if you’re worried that providing a “guest checkout” option will tank your customer sign-up rate, don’t be. After consumers complete their order as a guest, you can still ask if they’d like to save their information for future purchases by creating a customer account – you just ensure that you close the sale first.

8. Make the Shipping and Billing Addresses the Same To Reduce Cart Abandonment

Most ecommerce platforms have an off-the-shelf checkout experience that includes everything but the kitchen sink…

• Recipient Name
• Street Name
• Apartment/Suite Number
• City
• State
• Zip Code

Now, can you fill all of that in for the billing address, too?

Oh, and we’re also going to need your credit card number, expiration date, and authorization code, too.

Would you like expedited shipping?

What about one of these complementary products we offer? You’re going to love it!

Okay, fine, but can we interest your in our email newsletter with new product information and discounts?

You can probably see why this experience gets tiresome for your customers, especially when you consider that the average consumer makes one-third of all their purchases on their phones.

Filling out checkout forms is already tedious, and on a small touch screen, it can be almost impossible if it’s not properly designed.

To optimize your conversion rate, consider making their billing address the same as their shipping address by default, or including a simple checkbox that says “Use Shipping Address for Billing” that takes care of half of the checkout process for them.

You should also consider incorporating expedited checkout options like Google Pay, Apple Pay, or Shop Pay, which leverage stored payment and shipping details to reduce the checkout process to just one or two clicks.

Customers can always edit their information if necessary—and some will—but this design choice will save the vast majority from typing or even auto-filling the same content twice.

The Compounding Effect When You Reduce Cart Abandonment

Let’s face it, there are way more people visiting your site and not buying anything than there are people making purchases. You’ll never be able to convert 100% of your prospects into customers.

However, getting someone to the point where they actively place something in their cart and decide to leave your site instead of completing their purchase is something you can influence, and it’s definitely worth addressing.

We’ve given you a playbook with eight strategies you can implement to reduce cart abandonment. I hope that you carve out time in the next week or so to try at least one of them, but the real power is in checking all of these boxes so that you’re presenting your prospects with a “best in class” checkout experience.

These changes are powerful in isolation, but when you combine them you experience a compounding effect that can dramatically improve your sales performance. If you make it a priority to dial in your purchasing experience, you’ll see a significant reduction in your abandoned cart rate, which means your “Order Confirmation” page will be showing up on far more screens than before.

The post 8 Strategies That Will Help You Reduce Cart Abandonment appeared first on The Good.

Here’s what happened: In the span of 65 days, Bombas sent me 24 DTC marketing emails. 23 out of those 24 were 100% product or sales based emails.

For reference: that’s roughly one product email every 2.5 days for 2 months straight. In total, I opened 3 emails (<15% open rate) and clicked on 1.

When I looked at these numbers, it absolutely floored me. 

How can a brand as successful and widely known as Bombas still be treating this valuable channel with such little regard to the consumers on the receiving end?

That question, I found, is a pressing one in the DTC space. 

As a benchmark, email marketing should be driving around 20-30% of your total revenue. And as you continue to scale, that is going to turn into a multi-million dollar, revenue-driving asset.

Hence why I am so adamant that this channel deserves a lot more attention from DTC brands. 

This topic poses more divisive questions for DTC marketing: Can we use email marketing in a way that’s actually driving acquisition and retention on a large-scale? Can we email customers in a way that actually results in a positive experience?

Today, we’re digging into these questions. 

So why does this matter? Isn’t email dead anyways? 

So here’s the thing with email: experts have been saying “email is dying” for years now. But lo and behold, it’s still one of the largest revenue drivers for DTC brands. 

According to Campaign Monitor: For every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI.

No matter how we slice it, email isn’t going away anytime soon.  

And even though years of spammy email marketing has left us all a bit numb in the inbox, it still gives you the space to get your ideas and content to your customers with limited competition for your messaging. 

Where social media surrounds your posts and ads with competing voices on all sides, email is a lot cleaner, clearer and more direct.

Consumers are less distracted when reading emails than when scrolling through social media. Where a branding misstep on Instagram can be quickly bypassed, bad messaging and a flawed approach in the inbox is extraordinarily glaring. 

When done poorly, email can totally wreck a customer’s experience with a brand. After all, no one likes being spammed, and it’s so, so easy for an email channel to get spammy. 

Instead, we need to think about email as a key channel for building up brand equity with potential customers, even if the immediate sales results aren’t always clear. 

In my podcast interview with Allen Burt, he put it this way: 

“One of the beauties of… email marketing is it actually makes the other stuff you’re doing, your performance marketing, etc. more effective. So if you put somebody into an email flow that’s really high value content, even though they don’t buy off of that email flow, guess what? They’re going to be 10 times more likely to buy on that next ad because now they’ve engaged with your brand…”

So the work you do in your customer’s inbox is foundational for the work you do everywhere else. Focus on engagement, and give them good reasons to open your emails every time. 

Let’s get to the how.

DTC marketing should respect the customer’s inbox

So why was Bombas’ treatment of my inbox so bad? Why did it drive such a lively conversation?

Well, for one, it completely changed the way that I interacted with a brand and my view of them as a whole. It drove me away from engaging with their content and their products. 

And ultimately, it led to a complete severing of relationship. And a bad taste in my mouth. 

I actually wanted to buy Bombas socks when I signed up. I’ve heard great things about the product. But the constant selling and hammering of my inbox led me to question the integrity of the brand itself. 

And in these times, brand integrity one of the biggest drivers of acquisition and retention.

So how do we fix this? How do we actually respect the inbox and make email a positive experience for our customers?

Protect your list and focus on engagement.

Here’s the problem we’re facing now: Most DTC marketing is sending 1 or 2 email blasts per week, with no real understanding of how the people within that list are engaging with those emails. 

If someone hasn’t engaged with your emails or your brand, and you’re *still* sending them 1-2 emails/week days, you’re actually just spamming them. 

Like my case with Bombas, this kills any brand equity that customer may have had when they initially signed up for your emails. And consumers get pretty annoyed by it. 

A closer look at those screenshots explains Nik and Blake’s reactions:

The solution to this is one can make DTC brands weary. When we’re held to consistent metric reporting and pressure to drive sales, the idea of scaling back on such a profitable channel sounds terrifying. 

But ultimately, sending fewer, better-timed emails is what we have to do. 

Val Geisler, Founder of Fix My Churn and email conversion strategist explains:

“Having emails based on time (Day 1, Day 5, etc.) is a good foundational move. It allows you to get something in place and something is better than nothing.

However, if you truly want to do email *right* and use it to make your customers feel seen and heard (which is what all humans want, by the way), you have to send emails based on engagement with your brand, not just time.

Engagement-driven emails are the right message at the right time and they work harder for you than time-based emails. Every email send is taking up precious inbox real estate. You can either be seen as a nuisance or a timely message. How do you want your customers to see you?”

And if you’re thinking that this is something consumers don’t actually notice, let me tell you a story. 

A friend of mine (let’s call him Thomas) purchased his wife a Christmas gift from Outdoor Voices. Normally, Outdoor Voices is known for their exceptional work on customer experience and retention. But even this DTC all-star fell short here.

After “Thomas” made his purchase, he received multiple emails from the brand that weren’t very applicable to his customer journey. 

5 days post-purchase (and 5 non-relatable emails later), Thomas chose to unsubscribe. Here’s the page he was directed to: 

Here’s what’s wrong with this. The only options for Thomas are to receive all emails (in which he’s already discovered is way too much for him), weekly emails, or no emails at all. 

Thomas: “If they had an option for ‘email me only the really good stuff (about once a quarter)’, I probably would have chosen that and felt better about it + ordered more in the future.

But now I’ve mentally written them off and moved on. No opportunity for them to build brand excitement/loyalty. They yelled at me too much before I cared, and now they don’t have a chance at winning me over”

So yes, consumers notice. It happens quickly and subtly, but disrespecting an inbox leads to unrecoverable relationships. We need to protect our lists like the million dollar asset they are. 

How to do more with less DTC marketing

Instead of hitting your customer’s over and over with time-based emails, you need to target customers with content that’s based on their needs.

A customer’s needs in the inbox isn’t based on demographic information. It’s all about the customer journey and how that specific customer is interacting with your brand.

Allen Burt:

“We find a lot of brands they think of like conversion and making a sale it’s like flat thing. It’s like this one time thing and you’re like, press the button one time the customer does it, like you throw the customer at the site and they buy. But it’s not this flat, one time purchase decision. It’s really a culmination of multiple, sometimes dozens of interactions with your brand that drive them to a decision.

So the more that you think about this as an actual journey, the more you then relax and say, okay, wait, it’s not this flat thing we’d like throw at the wall and it buys or doesn’t, it’s this journey that we need to create steps for each stage along the way that’s going to nudge the person to that next stage.”

AKA: Not every email has to be a sales email. 

Let’s look at some examples: 

1. Outdoor Voices

Like Thomas said, had there been a more applicable option to his customer journey, he may have stayed on as a subscriber.

There’s just too much of a general brush over the whole channel. If a customer named “Thomas” buys a woman’s piece of clothing 2 weeks before Christmas, there are steps you can take to ensure the follow-up actually makes sense for him.

Now, we don’t have to assume this is a gift purchase, but we can have our systems question it. After purchase, maybe Outdoor Voices should have sent pre-qualifying content that gives them a better idea of the type of customer Thomas was.

What if they wrote a blog on How to Wrap your Gift using the Outdoor Voices Packaging and included it in the gift guide email we saw above? Suddenly, it goes from non-applicable, to applicable.

And then, what if Thomas clicked on that post?

Now, Outdoor Voices’ would know what kind of customer this is, where his brand affinity stands, and how to best serve him in the future.

i.e. Two days after Christmas, OV sends Thomas a survey– “did they love your gift? You nailed Christmas, didn’t you!?”
Now they’ve unlocked a whole new conversation.

2. Allbirds

The simplicity of this email is really amazing. It’s a quick, valuable how-to that you can scan in seconds. 

The upsell is really clever here as well. At this point in their journey, the customer has already bought a pair of shoes, so the focus here is on complementary products to improve their experience with the items they just bought. 

Alicia Thomas, Customer Marketing at Crayon, speaks to why this email was such a positive touchpoint for her:

“By truly being helpful, Allbirds turned what could have been yet another sales email into a truly delightful experience. A great example of how a brand can continue to propel brand affinity post purchase.”

3. August Teas

The great thing about this email is that they get that you’ve already bought from them. Rather than jumping directly into pushing another sale, August Uncommon Tea takes the time to explore ways that customers can get the absolute best experience from the product.

I love the way they present the information. Even though it’s pretty high-level stuff (I don’t know about you, but I’ve never made tea using bottled water), they keep it friendly with a starting headline that suggests that their advice is applicable for people across a range of interests and experience levels. 

It’s just a quick, clean, simple message, that provides real value and delivers on the value proposition suggested by the subject line. 

4. Blume

So Blume’s design work is amazing, which is always a great place to start. This newsletter is just a pleasure to look at the whole way through.

The messaging here is really friendly and personal- it brings the values of the brand to the forefront from the very beginning. There’s a consistent focus on well-being around the holiday season, with just a single sales call. Everything here is about providing value and building that sense of community and culture. 

They make a point of ending on a warm personal note that comes back to the fact that the holidays aren’t always easy. It feels really authentic, and reinforces the broader self-care message of the brand. 

These emails all look and feel really different, but they share one major commonality: The sole purpose of the email is NOT sales. 

Now, I want to note that sales can and oftentimes DO happen from content like this. The products are still present in the email, the brand aesthetic is consistent, and customers can easily convert if they want. The opportunity still exists. 

However, the main goal of these emails isn’t necessarily to sell another product. It’s to build brand affinity, brand trust, and most importantly, share really valuable information that connects on a level beyond the products themselves.

Onwards and Upwards (hopefully)

I hope this breakdown helps illustrate how thin the line between engagement and spam can be for DTC marketing.

Spam is overly general, consistent without being focused. Engagement looks at customers’ specific needs and builds a better journey for them.

Spam is focused only on the sale. Engagement puts the relationship first.

For many customers, email will be one of the most consistent touch points with your brand both pre and post-purchase. Both as an acquisition approach and as a retention tool, email is central to creating a meaningful, holistic customer experience. 

Email lists are an incredible asset for DTC brands. So ask yourself, how do we make sure we protect them?

Focus on engagement, personalize the experiences, think about customer journeys, and most of all, defend the relationships that are being built through this channel.

If you’re interested in more of this type of content, subscribe to Kristen’s DTC newsletter. Subscribers get first access to my deepest brand breakdowns, exclusive interviews, and cutest dog pictures. Join her DTC crew here.

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Whatever the reason, it’s an incredibly common occurrence. The global average rate of cart abandonment is a whopping 75.6%. This means that roughly three-quarters of the customers that add products to their cart through your site end up leaving without completing their purchase. This number does fluctuate depending on the industry, but it’s safe to say that every ecommerce store deals with a significant amount of cart abandonment. 

One of the best ways to recover cart abandoners and improve customer retention is through email marketing. Abandoned cart emails can remind customers of their forgotten carts and motivate them to complete the purchase. 

In this post, we’ll be focusing on:

• How and why cart abandonment emails are effective
• How to design a high-impact cart abandonment email
• Testing your variations

How Effective Are Abandoned Cart Emails?

BigCommerce estimated based on recent cart abandonment data that 25% of abandoned carts are influenced by the final price. In other words, it’s not ultimately the price that keeps a person from purchasing. 

Rather, customers often use their carts as wishlists of sorts, piling items into the cart that they hope to someday purchase. This is why abandoned cart emails are so effective. They remind the customer that their items are still in the cart, waiting to be purchased. 

The data backs this up. When it comes to open rates on abandoned cart emails, they hover right around 48%, which is relatively high given that the average open rate for marketing emails is only 17.92%. Clearly, abandoned cart emails are effective, at least when it comes to getting the consumer’s attention. 

So what steps should you take when crafting your abandoned cart emails? 

Step #1: Consider Your Email Campaign Sequence

Your first abandoned cart email should go out within one hour of the cart being abandoned. This short time window is critical if you want to recapture the interest of the consumer. 

75% of all customers who abandon their cart do so with the intent to purchase the same product in the future and 72% of these users intend to buy within the next 48 hours. Sending the first email immediately is critical. 

The longer you wait to send out your first email, the more likely the customer is to find the product elsewhere and the less interested in the product they’ll become. 

Your first email should focus on the product name, image, and link. The goal should be to reignite their interest in the product, but also create a sense of urgency to push them to complete the purchase on the spot. 

This is why it’s so crucial to capture the email address of buyers before the checkout process. If you don’t have an email address in your CRM, there’s no way to follow up on abandoned carts. 

Step #2: Consider The Basic Email Marketing Rules

When sending out your abandoned cart emails, follow the basic rules of email marketing:

• Optimizing email subject lines and preview text: Your subject line and preview text are the most valuable real-estate in your entire email. They’re the biggest determinant on whether the customer will open the email or not, so it’s crucial that they’re optimized to catch the customers eye.
  
  Don’t waste your subject line and preview text with surface-level copy like, “You left something in your cart!” Rather, create compelling copy that will motivate the consumer to click the email and view its contents.
  
  Ash Read of Sumo.com recommends using one of six types of subject lines for abandoned cart emails:
  
• Incentivised – Incentivised subject lines offer a bonus if the person finishes their transaction. This bonus could be a percentage off their transaction, free shipping, etc. When using discount codes, just be careful that you don’t cut into your margin too much.
  
• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) – Subject lines that create a sense of scarcity and fear of missing out can effectively reduce cart abandonment. This could include a warning that a product may sell out quickly, a limited time discount, etc.
  
• Personalized – Personalized subject lines can include both the name and the product the person left in their cart. Experian reports that personalized subject lines generate a 12% higher open rate.
  
• Product-related – Product-related are, to state the somewhat obvious, directly related to the product in their cart. For example, Whisky Loot uses the clever subject line, “Your cart is sobering up.”
  
• Brand-related – If you have a well-established brand, adding your brand name to the subject line can remind customers why they wanted to purchase in the first place. For example, Dyson is known for creating the best vacuums on the market and they use their name in their subject lines to remind people of that fact. 

• The little nudge – Little nudge emails assume that the consumer has already done the research, decided what they want, and added it to the cart. All they need is a little nudge to finish the transaction. Examples of little nudge subject lines would be, “Almost there,” or, “Just one more step!”
  
• Plain text or HTML emails? There is an ongoing debate about whether plain text or beautifully styled HTML emails perform more effectively for recovering abandoned carts. 
  
  Our take on this is that it depends entirely on the industry and market you’re operating in. Typically plain-text emails will get higher open-rates, but that doesn’t mean that an HTML email with heavy image-use won’t have the same effect. It’s up to you to decide which way to go and what you’re customers will respond positively to. 

Step #3: Emphasize Scarcity

Customers will respond to scarcity. As mentioned above, they have a distinct fear of missing out (FOMO) when it comes to their product. They fear no longer being able to purchase what they originally wanted. 

To create a sense of scarcity, emphasize the limited number of units left or include a countdown if you’re running a particular promotion. Creating this sense of urgency will motivate your customers to take action. 

Step #4: Highlight Value-Adds

The more value you can provide to your customers, the more likely they’ll be to come back and complete the purchase. For example, 55% of shoppers abandon carts due to unexpected shipping costs. If you offer free shipping on orders over a certain amount, ensure that your customers are aware of it. 

Or, if you’re running a sale on the specific item in their cart, highlight that in your email. Your goal is to give consumers compelling reasons to finish their purchase.

Step #5: Be Personal

The more personal you can make your abandoned cart emails, the more likely it is that customers will complete their purchase. 94% of businesses say that personalization is a key driver to their brand’s current and future success online. Customers clearly respond positively to personalization, so it’s no surprise that it can seriously impact the success of your abandoned cart emails or retargeting campaigns. 

Depending on what CRM you’re using, you should be able to include customer-specific details (first name, company, location) in the subject-line and body of your emails. You should also be able to include the specific product that they left in their cart. 

Step #6: Offer A Discount

Normally we don’t recommend offering discounts in an attempt to increase your conversion rates. Discounts eat into your overall profit margin and only temporarily increase your conversion rates. However, when it comes to abandoned carts, discounts can be very effective. 

Frame the discount so that customers feel like they’re getting a better deal than what they originally saw when they added the product to their cart. Additionally, emphasize the savings that customers will receive from the discount. 

For example, if you offer a discount of 20% to consumers who complete their purchase, highlight the original price compared to the discount price and point out exactly how much a person is saving on their purchase. This has the potential to motivate customers to finish their purchase. 

Step #7: Offer Product Recommendations

One reason your customer may have abandoned their cart is because they weren’t able to find the specific product that they were looking for. Maybe they couldn’t find exactly the right color or maybe the dimensions weren’t quite right. 

Whatever the reason, offering product recommendations in your abandoned cart emails is a great way to suggest related products that may better suit the needs of your customer. 

Step #8: Use Low Commitment CTAs

When sending abandoned cart emails, you want them to be significantly less invasive than standard emails. Don’t use aggressive CTA messaging like, “Buy Now,” or, “Continue Purchase”. This can feel too pushy for the consumer. They don’t want to feel like they’re being forced to complete their purchase. Try and adopt a passive voice when drafting your copy.

A better CTA is something as simple as, “View your cart,” or, “See your items”. Notice that these CTAs aren’t specifically calling the consumer to purchase. Rather, they’re gently nudging the consumer to return to their cart. 

When using CTAs, place them as high up as possible in the email, make them clear and large enough to stand out, and repeat them throughout your email. 

Step #9: Keep It Simple

As much as possible, keep your abandoned cart emails simple. The more complex and confusing you make them, the more friction it creates for the buyer. Focus their attention on what’s necessary to complete their order. 

Keep your emails relatively short and to the point. Point them back to your site and encourage them to make their purchase. Adding much more information has the potential to cut down on your conversion rate. 

Step #10: Offer Support

Sometimes people have trouble completing the checkout process. Maybe they got confused. Maybe they had trouble with their payment method. Or maybe your checkout process is simply too cumbersome. 

Whatever the reason, offering to help complete the purchase can go a long way toward recovering abandoned carts. 

Step #11: Present Social Proof

Sometimes people get cold feet when it comes to making a purchase. They abandon their cart because they’re not 100% confident that they’re making the right decision. 

In these moments, social proof can be tremendously helpful. Including things like testimonials and reviews can be a highly effective way to overcome people’s objections and hesitations. 

Testing Your Variations

Once you feel like you’ve developed the world’s best abandoned cart email, it’s time to test a few variations on your customers. 

The backbone of optimization is experimentation, so it’s crucial to always be testing new designs and copy if you want to get the most impact out of your abandoned cart emails. 

Here are a few of the key things you should be testing on your emails:

• Subject line: Try a few different variations of subject lines to determine which one will work the best. Test using the customer’s name in the subject line, including different magnetic words, and possibly even including an emoji or two. You’d be surprised by the impact that a simple tweak to your subject line can mean for your email open rates.

• HTML vs. plain text: Try both of these email styles to see which ones get the best reaction from your customers. Plain text have been known to see better open rates, but that isn’t necessarily true for every business.

• Email sequence: Do you only want to send one cart abandonment email to your customers, or utilize a drip sequence of three emails? Try both of these methods and determine what will work the best for your business. 

It’s Time to Crush Cart Abandonment

Every abandoned cart represents lost revenue. And with three out of every four individuals abandoning their carts once they place items in them, that loss can really start to add up. Don’t let your customers get away. Create a powerful abandoned cart email (or sequence of emails) to lure your customers back and compel them to complete their purchase. 

Yes, it will require a bit of testing on your end to nail down exactly what works best, but the effort is worth it. The more you can cut down on shopping cart abandonment, the more revenue you’ll add to your bottom line. 

Looking for bigger and better ways to improve the conversion rate of your site (beyond just email retargeting)? It could be time for you to consider investing in Conversion Rate Optimization. Request a free landing page assessment where we’ll take a closer look at your site and help you pinpoint where customers may be getting stuck in your UX. 

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