How to Turn Abandoned Shopping Carts Into More Sales
Tags: Cart Abandonment, Marketing Automation, Personalization, Ecommerce, Digital Marketing

How to Turn Abandoned Shopping Carts Into More Sales Appier Follow Feb 28 · 4 min read

Cart abandonment continues to be a major issue for e-commerce businesses. Up until now it’s been tackled using paid media remarketing. However, today’s AI-driven marketing automation platforms are making it possible to catch and convert cart abandoners, effectively and efficiently, through brands’ owned media channels.

According to recent data by SalesCycle, approximately 79.17 percent of online consumers worldwide put items in their virtual basket but failed to checkout in 2018. The percentage varies slightly by region with Asia Pacific having the highest abandonment rate of 52 percent , compared to the rest of the world.

There are many reasons why shoppers abandon carts. Some are just browsing, still comparing prices or simply distracted. Others become frustrated with slow-to-load pages, mandatory sign-ups, or are put off by high costs or a lack of payment options.

Re-engaging With Remarketing

While some cases of abandonment can be avoided by improving your website or app UX, many can be overcome by remarketing. If your product pops up again elsewhere, it stays top of mind and can prompt people to complete the purchase.

Cart abandonment remarketing via paid media channels, such as Facebook and Google Ads, has proven effective in winning back lost carts and boosting sales. However, such remarketing can be costly, and relies on strong retargeting tech and infrastructure that many companies lack internally.

AI, Owned Media and Cart Abandonment

Can brands tap into the potential of owned media and leverage data to tackle cart abandonment? Turning a ton of customer data into valuable insights and getting the message out there fast and frequently via your own channels is often an unmanageable task. Here is where AI comes in and does all the heavy lifting for you.

AI-driven marketing automation platforms enable you to send out engaging, personalized messages to the right people at the right time on the right device via your owned media channels, such as app and web push notifications, email, SMS and Messenger.

Here are four ways how you can leverage an AI-powered marketing automation platform to tackle cart abandonment:

Know What Your Abandoners Are Into

One of the most crucial capabilities of AI is its ability to sift through all of your internal and external data. From this it can figure out what your online shoppers are doing, and likely to do, and deliver valuable, actionable insights.

The combination of internal and external data can show you what your customers are doing both on your own channels and elsewhere. The elsewhere is crucial as it can tell you what other interests or topics they might have — information you can use for remarketing.

For example, if Mark put a t-shirt in the cart but didn’t purchase after repeat messages, AI might identify that he has been looking for sports shoes based on his search on other sites. You can then recommend the latter to interest Mark in a purchase.

Understand Cross-Device Behavior

AI can also help you understand the complete customer purchase journey as it plays out across different devices.

Traditionally, marketers have been unable to see multiple devices as one user, instead seeing them as separate people. AI, however, lets you match a single customer with several devices and predicts the best one for conversions, again helping you remarket more effectively.

For instance, Mark added a VR headset to cart on his tablet on Sunday without purchasing. You can send a push notification about the cart abandonment on Monday to his phone, which is his conversion device. Without AI, you won’t be able to identify that Mark’s conversion device. The notification would be then sent to the tablet, which is ineffective.

Reach Multiple Channels in One Click

This new breed of AI-driven automated marketing platforms also gives you the capability to send your remarketing campaigns through multiple owned channels, including push notifications, email, SMS and Messenger, in the click of a single button.

This not only prevents you from having to switch between different tools and platforms, saving you time, but it also helps you hit your cart abandoners with personalized messages at the right time. This can boost the visibility of your messages and, therefore, the success rate of your remarketing efforts.

Send Personalized Messages in Different Formats

In addition to making sure your messaging is personalized and relevant, marketing automation platforms can also help you make it even more engaging thanks to creative customization tools, such as carousel, GIF and video.

For example, by using a format like carousel push, the products abandoned in the cart can be displayed in an eye-catching manner — proven to boost effectiveness. Indian Jewelry retailer , used the carousel feature in AQUIA and managed to increase mobile app conversions by 55 percent.

Cart abandonment isn’t going to go away — it’s becoming part of the e-commerce funnel. Rather than seeing it as a major sticking point, use these new AI-driven marketing automation platforms as a valuable learning and marketing opportunity — one that can turn your virtual basket droppers into more profitable online shoppers.