Why don’t online retailers have an abandoned cart program? The holiday season is a make-or-break time for many retailers. Why not contact customers who add items to their virtual shopping carts but never buy?

Shopping cart abandonment affects both parties. The seller loses money. For the buyer, it means a missed opportunity to try your product. While retargeting ads can help with abandoned carts, an email campaign can help close the deal.

Paying customers take time and effort, so marketers must ensure that their efforts are not wasted. Timing is everything when it comes to sending an abandoned cart email that re-engages your customer.

How to send timely abandoned cart emails

Take a look at some ways by which you can send timely abandoned cart emails

1. Determine When Your Customer Left

Determine your customer’s order status first. What turned off your customer after they finished browsing and started entering data? Is it because they entered an incorrect billing address or because your website revealed shipping fees?

With this data, you can tailor your message. Modify your website if you notice a trend that could be solved by a new ordering process. For that, you need analytics. You can get this data from your eCommerce platform or a web tracking solution.

2. Send Your First Email Right Away

Regardless of the reason, you only have a few hours to reclaim your lost customer. Within an hour of the cart abandonment, send your first email. It should be sent before the shopper leaves the computer.

So ask for an email address as soon as possible. No way to follow up without an email address.

3. The First Email – Helping, Not Selling

Your first email should be friendly. By sending an email right away, you risk annoying your potential customer and creating negative associations with your brand.

As a result, your first email should help rather than sell. Maybe they had technical issues. Was it too slow, or was their payment declined? Present solutions and ask for feedback. Feedback will help you improve your purchase process and messaging.

4. The Second Email – A Sense of Urgency

Take a break after sending your first email (within an hour of the shopping cart abandonment). Wait 24 hours before sending another email.

Your second email should be urgent. Inform your customers that their carts will soon expire and that discounts and availability may change.

5. Third Email – Motivate

If you send a third email, it should arrive within 48 hours. Remember that irritated future customers will mark your emails as spam. Consider offering a time-limited discount or free shipping in the third email.

But you don’t want your smart customers waiting for an offer in every email. Send incentives only 20% of the time. You can also use complex logic to trigger rewards. If the shopper is valuable but hasn’t redeemed an incentive in the last month, try a third email.

6. Mobile Optimization

Your follow-up emails must be responsive. By the end of the year, over 25% of global internet traffic will be mobile, making mobile-friendly marketing critical. Because the second and third emails should be sent well after the initial shopping session, your shopper is likely to read them on mobile. Make it simple for them to convert.