Minimize cart abandonment with retargeting campaigns Share via

E-commerce businesses around the globe have to face a significant issue when it comes to shopping cart abandonment. A considerable percentage of shoppers abandon their carts for many reasons, like looking for a better discount coupon, high shipping charges, slow checkout process, checking deals on another website, or leaving to complete the transaction later. In any case, the problem of abandoned carts creates a massive headache for the brands who have just lost a customer who had undertaken almost the entire purchase journey on the platform and then dropped out.

According to various research reports, the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is nearly 70 percent, even worse in e-commerce. Although brands do not generate sales with consumers opting out just before completing the transaction, they can retarget them, drive them to complete the purchase, and turn them into customers. In fact, according to some reports, retargeted ads can send 26 percent of shoppers back to the company’s website, where brands can hope to convert them. Let us look at various retargeting techniques that can help marketers minimize the shopping cart abandonment rate and help them maximize sales.

 But first thing first. What is retargeting?

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a digital marketing technique where marketers serve ads to consumers based on the shopper’s previous interactions on the brand’s platform. The benefit of retargeting is that it effectively targets users who have already shown some interest in the brand, and hence it becomes easier to convert them. For instance, you look for a shoe on a fashion website and even like one and check its details, but decide not to buy it at that moment. Later on, you browse another website, but the ad for that shoe keeps appearing on the screen. That is how retargeting works, where the brand’s objective is to persuade the consumer, who has shown an intent to buy the product, to complete the transaction.

So how different retargeting techniques can reduce shopping cart abandonment?

What needs to be kept in mind while retargeting your potential customers is that time plays a crucial role in determining its effectiveness. Therefore, brands need to start retargeting shoppers when they abandon their cart and exit their page. That means marketers need to reach the shopper where they spend most of their time online and check the messages frequently to respond to the retargeted messages when the intent to shop is still very high. If you are too late with your retargeting campaigns, there is a high chance that the shopper’s interest might have fizzled out, and if it happens, it will not be easy to get them back to complete the transaction.

Creating a multi-channel retargeting strategy has proven effective in increasing conversions and reducing cart abandonments as brands reach users through popular social media platforms, SMSs, or e-mails.

Besides timing, brands can significantly get shoppers to complete their abandoned cart transactions by adding discount codes and enticing the users with more value they get now. Moreover, providing extra discounts is a great way to increase the traffic website, more conversions, and higher average order value. For a shopper who has already discovered your website, explored the products on offer, and invested their time building the shopping cart, even a small incentive in the form of additional discounts can push them to make a purchase.

Additionally, creating content that fits the consumer’s needs based on the products they have left in their cart goes a long way in increasing the conversion rate and keeping the abandonment rate minimum. Engaging with the customer through crisp content and high-resolution pictures of the products and making them realize what they might miss if they do not act quickly creates a sense of urgency and improves the consumer’s chances to come back and complete the purchase. Brands can also add a countdown or time limit to avail the discounts and incentives for the shoppers to return and complete the purchase.

Finally, segmenting the consumers based on the products in their cart, their cart’s order value and the shoppers’ purchasing history allows the marketers to personalize their retargeting campaigns to improve conversion rates. The better the personalization, the more effective will be your retargeting campaigns, and the more likely the user will respond to the call of action.

Overall, as mentioned earlier, the problem of high cart abandonment rates has been an issue that the e-commerce industry has been struggling with, and brands have been trying and finding ways to reduce this phenomenon. And new retargeting techniques have proven efficient to a certain extent to address this problem. Brands know that acquiring a new customer is way more expensive than engaging with the already existing consumer, and hence they should focus on converting the users who have abandoned their cart and left the website without any transaction.