How to Reduce Cart Abandonment With Better Communication Solutions
Anita Raghav
Nov 24, 2023
Practical tips to boost your e-commerce sales revenue and increase customer loyalty.
Let’s face it. Shoppers clicking away from their carts without placing an order is hardly uncommon behavior. According to studies by Barilliance, 80% of online purchases are abandoned.
A lot of these issues can be fixed by working on your checkout UX. But others can be solved by smart communication tools.
So what causes this behavior? Experts have found that there could be multiple reasons such as:
- The shopper found your check-out process to complex.
- They may have found a better deal elsewhere.
- Or they did not like an unexpected delivery cost.
In this article, we will explore:
Can You Prevent Abandoned Carts by Speaking to your Customers?
First and foremost, one needs to acknowledge that it’s nearly impossible to win back all your abandoned cart customers. This is because many don’t have any intent to purchase in the first place.
However, there are also those who abandon carts only because they can’t find answers to some lingering doubt. For these customers, it’s likely that by listening and speaking to them, you could convince them to complete their purchase.
If you’ve ever shopped at a premium brick and mortar store, you can relate to how this works. Here, a good salesperson can put your mind at ease, and help you purchase the right product. Additionally, there are staff at hand to help during checkout, even if you opt for self-service.
But, is it possible to replicate this at scale for your online store?
Turns out, it is.
How to Enable Effective Communication for Hesitant Shoppers?
Shopper abandoning their carts are doing so at the very last stage of the buyer cycle. You want to “talk” to them in a way that is unobtrusive, helpful, and effective. In order to do this, you need to keep these two key points in mind:
Choose the right channel to communicate.
Select the right moment to connect.
Step 1: How to Choose the Right Communication Channel?
There are multiple ways in which you can communicate with your hesitant shopper. This includes live chat, text messages, emails, or phone calls. Let us explore what these channels can offer, in order to understand which would suit your shopper best.
1. Live Chat.
Live chat is the simplest way to speak to customers on your website. On this channel, you can use a chatbot that can answer customers’ simple queries, 24 X 7. If, for example, a shopper is having trouble with the check-in process, she can type in whats bothering her into the chat window. If the bot cannot answer the query, it can be forwarded to a live agent.
Pros and Cons: Live chat can provide immediate help to your website visitor, but reasons for not going through with purchase are sometimes complex, and cant simply be typed into a chat window.
Also Read: Upgrading your chat experience by letting shoppers switch to voice
2. Phone Calls.
In case your shopper prefers voice support, its possible to initiate voice calls to them as well. For example, if a customer is taking longer than usual for checkout, an automated voice call can be made to them. Depending on the order value, customer profile, time of day, or other factors a voice not, you can have an automated IVR or live agent speak to your shopper.
Pros and Cons: Phone calls may not have very high pickup rates, however a phone conversation, especially one with a live agent, can be highly convincing, and lead to a premium customer experience.
Also Read: Call center solutions for Ecommerce
3. Text Messages
SMS texts can be sent to your shoppers who’ve abandoned their carts. These texts can advertise new offers to them. For instance, you can send them a link to their saved basket, or you can send them some discount coupons.
Pros and cons: Text messages are unobtrusive to the shopping experience and boast high open rates. However, every customer is different, and this may not work for your customer especially if it’s a high-value purchase.
Also Read: Bulk SMS Service for your Business
4. Email.
According to BigCommerce 2, sending an email with social proof that the shopper has abandoned a highly rated or popular product, can propel them to make a purchase decision.
Pros and cons: Unlike SMS text messages, emails can be image-rich, and therefore more compelling. However, emails do have low open rates and maybe opened much later. Possibly after your shopper has made the purchase on a competitor’s site.
Also Read: Don’t restrict yourself to a single channel, enable omnichannel customer communications
Step 2: Choosing the Right Moment to Connect with your Shopper
No matter whether you choose to appeal to your shopper via email, phone, live chat, or text messages, you need to time your communication correctly. For instance, your first email or SMS can be sent as soon as your shopper abandons their cart. And, a second email can be sent 24 hours later (because you don’t want to appear too pushy). Meanwhile, a live chat window or a phone call can be triggered upon exit intent. This could be, for instance, when you estimate a shopper has exceeded the time usually taken to make this sort of purchase.
Conclusion
The key is to make the connection when the appeal of your product is still fresh in their mind of your customer while not being too pushy.
Remember, being able to speak to shoppers who abandon cart means that you can get valuable feedback from them on improving your user experience, checkout process, product mix, or even prices. IN this way a carefully crafted communication strategy can not only improve your sales and revenue in the short term but the long run as well.
1 https://www.barilliance.com/cart-abandonment-rate-statistics/
Photo Credits: Paweł Czerwiński, Unsplash
