Not all shoppers visiting your site will complete the transactions; some are likely to add items to their carts and exit without checking out. Most online businesses face this challenge hence the need for a strategy to motivate or remind customers to complete their transactions. One of the best strategies to motivate customers to check out their carts is to set up an abandoned cart flow.
The role of the abandoned cart flow is to send emails to customers reminding them to check out the items in their carts. This is why most businesses should encourage customers and subscribers to sign up through their email addresses or directly from Google email services. With proper guidelines, you are likely to reduce the number of customers abandoning carts, increase your sales and increase cart checkout hence increase in sales. Here is a detailed guide to help you set up.
Before You Create The Cart
The first process is integrating and synchronizing your operations with a Klaviyo account. The integration will notify you immediately or after a specific duration, triggering an automatic email sent to the subscriber. Klaviyo also synchronizes to specific e-commerce enabling platforms such as Shopify and Big-commerce, Magento, woocomerce etc. You need to consider the platform you are using to anchor your online services before activating the Klaviyo abandoned cart flow feature. You can check these details on their webpage.
After integrating with Klaviyo, you should create a flow library that will enable Klaviyo to access the email library and other details to send the email to the right subscriber. If you are new to Klaviyo, you can select one of the pre-built flows, learn how it works, and customize and modify it later. You can also read a Klaviyo abandoned cart automation guide to get beeter understanding of the process.
Creating The Abandoned Cart Flow
To create your cart, you should follow the creation guidelines effectively. Go to the flows, select abandoned cart, and then click on the Take Action button. This should be followed by the checkout start, which will trigger the process. From the first process, customize different needs and services needed.
You can begin the customization process by clicking on the flow filters and adding the product lists or the ordered item. You can select additional details such as zero times, or since starting the flow etc. These details are critical for triggering when the abandoned cart flow begins. It is best to select the choice that will enable it to monitor customer activities as they add items to their carts up to the checkout time. From there, it can trigger abandoned cart flow protocols.
1. Setting The Timers
You should give the customers time before you send them the email about their abandoned cart. Depending on your business and your needs, you can give them about 24 to 48 hours. The duration will also depend on what you are selling. If you sell bulky and expensive items that may require time to raise the capital, you will need to give the subscriber some breathing room. For smaller and inexpensive items, you can remind them within hours or the day.
You should set the time so that your flow trigger knows when to send the emails automatically to the subscribers. Klaviyo offers different time delays; hence you can select the ideal wait duration on the application platform. The other aspect is when to send the subsequent email; after sending the first email, you should not send too many emails reminding the customers about their abandoned carts. You can set the trigger flow to send it after two days; suppose they do nothing to the cart.
2. Setting Up Conditional Split
Besides the emails, Klaviyo also can include SMS in the abandoned cart flow. This is necessary when customers provide multiple contact details or there is no email provided. It can also be an option when customers are not responding to emails.
Once you complete setting up the flow, turn it live to ensure it sends SMS to customers. The next process is to click on the update action statuses button; then, from the drop-down, you should select the live option to allow the messages to send. In case you created the flow from scratch, click on draft status, which will lead you to review and turn on button. These buttons have the same function to make the SMS live hence sending it in real-time. You can also select the manual option instead of live; this will require you to prompt the system to send the SMS instead of being automatically sent.
3. Abandoned Cart Best Practices
- Email design
You should have a good template for your abandoned cart flow emails; perhaps you can customize the email design or a unique template. Focus on issues such as ensuring the sent email is catchy and can prompt the customer to read immediately and respond effectively. Focus on headings, subject lines, etc.
Klaviyo will provide some unique content blocks to enable you to send the best and most attractive mail to the customers. Focus on aspects such as the products, images, title, quantity, and price; these details are essential for reminding customers to complete and check out their cart.
Also, include a prompt button or link that will help customers to return to the cart to check out or remove the items. Therefore the text included is essential for guiding the customers to return to the cart. This is also referred to as the call to action and should consist of an enticing message using specific text formats such as “finalize your purchase, visit the abandoned cart and click here to complete your purchase.” You can also offer other options, such as reserving the item for later purchases.
- Social proof
Another reason why customers may leave the abandoned cart is due to fear of the brand. In your email, you can attach testimonials, reviews, and other strategies to ensure the customer regains trust. Customers need a little persuasion to complete their purchases.
The language used should motivate the customer to resume their purchase process. It should not be threatening or one that hypes the sales and purchase process. It should create some urgency, i.e., hurry before the promotion ends. You need to customize the message based on the product abandoned. You can also include coupon options, incentives, and discounts to motivate them to return and complete the transaction.
Conclusion
When setting up abandoned cart flow, the first consideration would be on the timer when the email shall be sent to the subscriber. Alsop, consider the email design, content, language, and other content to make it look attractive. Use both SMS and emails to remind the customers to check out.