How to Drive More Revenue With Abandoned Cart Emails

Only 3 out of every 10 shoppers who add a product to their cart will actually complete their purchase.

This figure is likely to keep rising, as the mobile shopping market share is growing, and the average cart abandonment rate on mobile is higher – 86.7%, compared to 69.8% on desktop.

That’s a lot of revenue left on the table. But the good news is that there’s something you can do about it right now, to recapture a significant amount of would-be lost revenue, with very little effort required.

Keep reading and we’ll explain how to set up abandoned cart emails to recover thousands in lost revenue, plus an underutilized cart abandonment tool that can have an even bigger impact on your bottom line.

MobiLoud can help you add tens of thousands in new and incremental revenue, with minimal effort and investment, by launching a mobile app. Check out our eCommerce App Revenue Calculator to see how much you can gain, then get a free consultation to learn how easy it is to do it.

What Are Abandoned Cart Emails?

Abandoned cart emails are automated emails sent to shoppers who added a product to their cart, but never completed their purchase.

These emails contain a reminder about the products waiting in their cart, and sometimes a small incentive (such as a discount) to convince the shopper to come back and complete their checkout.

Why Abandoned Cart Emails Are So Powerful

According to Klaviyo, abandoned cart emails have an average revenue per recipient (RPR) of $3.65, while the top 10% of performers generate $28.89 RPR. 

Both these figures are the best out of any kind of email flow.

Their data also shows the following for abandoned cart emails:

• Average open rate of 50.5%
• Average click rate of 6.25%
• Average conversion rate (order placed from the email) of 3.33%

Omnisend found these statistics for abandoned cart emails:

• Average open rate of 46.6%
• Average click rate of 5.7%
• Average conversion rate of 2.56%

Both these datasets show that roughly half of the people who click on a link in an abandoned cart email make a purchase.

Few, if any, email campaigns can compare to this.

It’s even better when you consider the ROI of abandoned cart campaigns.

You set up your workflow once and, other than making small tweaks over time, you don’t need to do anything else.

The campaign runs in the background of your business, recovering revenue on autopilot, almost certainly delivering a positive ROI.

How Much Can I Recover With Abandoned Cart Emails?

Let’s assume the following averages:

• 70% cart abandonment rate
• 3% conversion rate for abandoned cart emails

A site doing $15k in revenue per month, with an average order value of $50 and 300 orders per month, could recover $1,050 per month from abandoned carts.

That’s a 7% increase in revenue, just by setting up an automated email sequence that you don’t need to touch again.

If you were to improve your conversion rate from these emails (the top 10% of performers on Klaviyo have a 7.69% conversion rate from abandoned cart emails), you’d be looking at a 17.73% increase in overall revenue.

Realistically, your results will likely be a little lower, as not all abandoned carts have an email attached, and you won’t be able to send abandoned cart emails to shoppers without an account (or who aren’t logged in).

But even assuming you only reach half of your abandoned carts, you could increase your revenue by at least 3-4% with a cart abandonment workflow.

Why do shoppers abandon their carts? There can be many reasons, and we broke down the most common - plus what you can do about it - in this article.

How to Set Up a Cart Abandonment Email Workflow

Cart abandonment workflows are usually very easy to set up, assuming you’re using any popular email marketing automation software or eCommerce platform.

These tools generally have workflow templates in place already, and as long as you’re sending the requisite data to your email tool, there’s little left for you to do but customize the emails with your company’s branding and voice.

This article walks you through setting up a cart abandonment workflow in Klaviyo. Here's an example of what your workflow might look like:

Other tools have similar documentation for you to follow.

Before we get into some examples of abandoned cart emails, here are a few tips and best practices to follow for abandoned cart email campaigns.

Delay

You’ll need to decide on the right delay between the user starting the checkout process (or adding a product to their cart) and initiating the abandoned cart workflow.

You don’t want to send it too early – you’ll turn customers away if they get bombarded with a cart reminder email when they’re still shopping. But too late, and their interest may have waned, or perhaps they bought the product somewhere else.

It’s generally recommended to start abandoned cart emails after a 2-4 hour delay. But you may want to test this yourself to decide on the optimal timing.

Personalization

Like any email, you want to make it feel personal, and not like a generic, automated email.

Use the customer’s name, if you have it. If not, use a fallback value that doesn’t make it obvious that something was supposed to be there.

Most importantly, customize the email with the details of the product(s) in the customer’s cart – name, price, quantity, images.

Show the customer what’s waiting for them.

Follow-up Emails

Most abandoned cart sequences don’t stop at one email. You’ll get better results with a series of emails, catching those whose first email slipped through the cracks, or who are a little more difficult to convert.

The ideal number of emails is two or three (though feel free to test this yourself). This gives you multiple chances to capture the sale, while more than three emails starts to feel overbearing, and is more likely to have a negative impact (i.e. unsubscribes, bad image for your brand).

Space them out around 24-48 hours apart – don’t bombard your customer with emails every five minutes.

Make sure you set up your workflow so that if the customer converts from the first (or second) email, they’re removed from the sequence.

You can also use the series as an opportunity to push harder for the sale for those who don’t convert straight away.

The first email can be a friendly reminder, then you follow up with an incentive in the following emails for those who still haven’t converted.

Urgency, Scarcity & Other CRO Techniques

Abandoned cart emails should be designed with the same CRO techniques in mind as product pages and checkout pages.

You’ll often see these emails lean heavily into urgency and scarcity. It’s much easier to convince someone to take action and complete their purchase if you instill FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), and make them feel like they have limited time to act.

Wording like “check out now before it’s too late”, or “time’s running” is a simple yet effective way to encourage action.

If there’s a limited-time discount attached to the products in their cart, or the products are low in stock, use this in your email copy (and perhaps even the subject line) to deliver an even bigger hit of FOMO.

Subject Lines

There’s no straightforward formula for the ideal subject line.

The best subject lines are ones that raise curiosity and make the customer want to know more.

Here are some examples of abandoned cart subject lines:

• You left this behind
• Come on back…
• Hey, you forgot something…
• A Last Glance at Your Selections

Keep it short, sharp, imbue a sense of mystery, and try to fit in some kind of urgency or scarcity.

As you'll see from our abandoned cart email examples in the next section, many brands use almost the exact same subject lines.

Do you want to go with what everyone else is doing? Or try something different, to make your brand stand out?

Ultimately, you’ll want to test this to find the approach that best resonates with your audience.

13 Real Abandoned Cart Email Examples

We dug up a number of real abandoned cart emails from successful eCommerce brands, to give you some examples to use for inspiration.

For each, we’ll list a few key takeaways that will help you craft effective cart abandonment workflows for your own brand.

Cocofloss

Subject line: You’re *so close* to an even-more-sparkling smile

• Well designed, visually striking email.
• Email links back to their Black Friday special, which increases urgency.
• Product name and details could be more more prominent.

Allbirds

Subject line: Your Cart Feels A Little Left Out...

• Two clear CTAs makes it easy for the shopper to get back to their checkout.
• Product details are clear and center of the email.
• Short piece of copy in the header is clear, convincing, and instills a sense of urgency.

BLK & Bold

Subject line: We saw you checkin’ us out…👀

• Unique approach; short and sharp and well-designed.
• Clear and bold CTA.
• Doesn't include product details in the email, which is unconventional (but may work for them).

Maguire

Subject line: Andrew, left something behind?

• Personalized subject line grabs attention.
• Puts the product first, reminding the customer of what they were looking at.
• Product recommendations below seek to sell the customer on alternative options.

Bruvi

Subject line: Come on back...

• Short, sharp, and effective.
• Visually striking design.
• Gives all the key information in a small space - great for mobile users.

Italic

Subject line: Re: Your Cart—Now 30% Off

• Black Friday sale banner gives an extra incentive for customers to come back and shop.
• Large product image can't be missed.
• Sparse product details - could benefit by adding product name and pricing to the email.

ABLE

Subject line: Oh no! You left something behind

• Attention-grabbing subject line.
• Doesn't overdo it with copy - lets the images sell themselves.
• Two clear CTAs.

Peak Design

Subject line: Your phone (but way, way better).

• Visually striking.
• Clearly shows the products (and associated details) left in the user's cart.
• Personalization has gone awry (placeholder for customer's name in copy) - always test your emails, and add a natural fallback value.

John Varvatos

Subject line: Did You Leave Something Behind?

• Tried & true subject line.
• Prominent product image - reminds the user of what they could be missing out on.
• Uses free shipping and first-time purchase discount as a strong incentive.

Adidas

Subject line: Hey, you forgot something…

• Simple, very straightforward.
• No confusing what this email is about.
• "We'll keep it for 10 days" adds a sense of urgency.

MR PORTER

Subject line: Have you forgotten something in your shopping bag, Mr Buck?

• Personalized subject line stands out in the customer's inbox.
• Adds an extra incentive (10% discount) for the customer to finish their purchase.
• Product recommendations to potentially drive additional revenue.

Hyphen Sleep

Subject line: It’s in the bag

• Strongly pushes the unique selling point of the business.
• Adds an extra incentive in the email.
• Extra effort to push the sale, designed for higher-ticket items (such as mattresses).

Saks Fifth Avenue

Subject line: Your Toteme item is still here. You deserve it.

• Uses product recommendations well.
• Short, convincing copy with a sense of urgency.
• Positive tone gets the customer in a good frame of mind.

Abandoned Cart Email Template

Your email marketing tool will almost certainly have pre-made templates ready for you to use. And your emails don’t need to be rocket science, anyway.

Many of the emails you see above are not complicated. The best abandoned cart emails just:

• Capture the customer’s attention with a short, snappy subject line
• Remind the customer of what they have in their cart
• Give a small nudge that the items in their cart, or any limited-time discounts, won’t be around forever
• Have a clear CTA that makes it easy for the customer to resume their checkout.

Following these simple tips, here’s a straightforward abandoned cart email template you can plug and play for your brand.

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Subject line: You left this behind…

Hey, { customer name }, we noticed you left some items in your cart, and we wouldn’t want you to miss out! 

Your picks are patiently waiting for you, but they won’t stick around forever.

Here’s what you left behind:

{ product details }

Hurry! We won’t be able to hold your cart forever.

Finish your purchase now before it’s too late!

{ CTA: Reclaim Your Cart Now }

Need help or have questions? We’re here for you. Simply reply to this email or contact our support team at { support email/phone number }.

{ end with dynamic product recommendations & company footer }

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Push Notifications for Abandoned Carts

What if we told you there was another, even more effective way to recover abandoned carts?

Abandoned cart push notifications are the perfect way for brands to recover lost revenue today. They’re direct, with high visibility and engagement rates, and like email, extremely easy to set up and automate.

You don’t have to choose between email and push, either. These tools are perfect in combination with each other, helping you increase reach for your cart abandonment campaigns and recover more lost revenue.

If you use a tool like Klaviyo, you can even set up a single workflow that features both email and push notifications, to hit customers on different touch points.

You won’t be able to reach every customer with push notifications, but for those who are subscribed to push, you’ll likely find you get a higher cart recovery rate from using abandoned cart push notifications.

Just look at these results from three different MobiLoud users, and how much revenue they recovered over just 30 days using push notifications:

Win Back Lost Revenue Now

Push notifications are reason enough, on their own, for eCommerce brands to launch an app.

They give you a new, powerful way to go after abandoned carts, with a higher success rate than abandoned cart emails.

MobiLoud makes launching an app easy, fast, and affordable, by simply converting what you already have on your website into a mobile app.

You’ll get your brand in the app stores, boost AOV, conversion rate and LTV for users who download the app, and add thousands of dollars in extra revenue through abandoned cart notifications.

If you want to add potentially tens of thousands per month to your bottom line, here’s how to do it in three easy steps:

• Step One: Set up an cart abandonment email sequence
• Step Two: Convert your site into an app with MobiLoud
• Step Three: Turn on abandoned cart push notifications and print money

If you want to know what’s possible, check out these case studies – just a small cross-section of the 2,000+ successful brands we’ve worked with to launch apps.

Launching an app is the best thing you can do for your brand right now, with organic reach declining and mobile taking over the global eCommerce market.

Book a free consultation now to learn more about how MobiLoud can help your brand grow and thrive with mobile apps and push notifications.