'Net Features : seewhy

Get Big Returns with Abandoned Cart Email Remarketing

Mike Phillips — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:30:00 GMT

Too often, merchants forget that shopping cart abandonment is not the end of the line. In fact, it can be a very small stumbling block toward an increase in sales. That's what Dungarees has discovered.

In just 30 days, and using iGoDigital personalized product recommendation software, Dungarees realized a 490 percent increase in abandoned cart email revenue. Implementing this software within their existing email service provider (ESP) solution, Dungarees is able to send an email, triggered by an abandoned cart, that makes recommendations based on the abandoned item, while using that item in the subject line. Those emails had a 55 percent open rate, 17 percent conversion rate and the aforementioned 490 percent abandoned cart email revenue increase.

"In a content-driven world, the number of messages consumers receive on a daily basis continues to increase, making personalized marketing messages that much more important," said Eric Tobias, president, iGoDigital. "By injecting product recommendations into remarketing emails and mentioning the name of the abandoned item in the subject line, Dungarees has seen an improved customer shopping experience, ultimately generating more purchases and return visits to its website."

SeeWhy, another provider of remarketing solutions, recently concluded a study that found customers who abandon shopping carts spend 55 percent more than those who purchase straight-away. Why? There are many reasons, including that heavy online shoppers are accustomed to price comparison shopping before making a final purchase – hence the abandoned cart. Another factor is that some customers are using shopping carts as virtual lists, saving items for purchase later while they shop around. A remarketing email reminds them of that list, as seen in the Dungarees example of mentioning the original product in the email's subject line.

SeeWhy also found that timing is critical. In the first 24 hours following abandonment, 54 percent of returning customers who make a purchase will do so within the first few hours. After 48 hours, that number climbs to 64 percent and rises again, to 82 percent after seven days. In other words, more than half of customers will abandon the cart for good if not remarketed within 24 hours of the abandonment. SeeWhy outlines four key metrics when analyzing remarketing:

Recovery rate – percentage of visitors that abandon, are remarketed to then return to make the purchase.
Open rate – SeeWhy's analysis shows an average 46 percent open rate for remarketing emails, more than double most standard email marketing campaigns.
Clickthrough rate – the rate of those who click to the site from a remarketing email. SeeWhy shows 15 percent, more than triple standard email marketing campaigns.
Unsubscribe rate – the proportion of shopping cart abandoners who subsequently unsubscribe from future remarketing emails.

While the monetary returns are most impressive, developers should keep in mind that retargeting is not just limited to e-commerce.

When unsubscribing from Groupon email lists, you might see this page. It asks you to punish "Derrick", the person responsible for keeping Groupon subscribers active. Click the video and Derrick gets chastised, ending with a splash of hot coffee in the face, followed by a button to re-subscribe. Of course, Groupon is known for its edgy, witty atmosphere so this approach is not for every business. But it does highlight a unique approach to remarketing.

Email remarketing could be used to gather feedback. If a user unsubscribes, why not ask a couple of questions? Why did they unsubscribe? Were you sending too many emails? Are the products or content no longer relevant to their interests?

Another option might be to introduce a new product. Perhaps they have unsubscribed because of a relevancy issue – but do they know about your new product or service? That might be just what they were looking for. In the same vein, maybe you have another website that more closely matches the user's needs? Consider including a little information about that site, along with a link to a page describing the benefits and, of course, a subscription button.

By all accounts, remarketing with email is an opportunity available to just about every business using any sort of email marketing system and can be tailored to fit any unique business model. If the customer is all but lost, why not make an effort to get her back?

Guest Post: ‘Tis the season...to abandon your shopping cart

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:25:00 GMT

by Charles Nicholls, Founder, CSO of SeeWhy, Inc.

While past seasonal trends suggest that ecommerce conversion rates rise in the holiday season, there is some evidence that this year may be different. Will the 2009 holiday season be the biggest abandonment year on record? SeeWhy tracks shopping cart abandonment rates across a wide variety of ecommerce sites and has watched the rate increase steadily in 2009 as the holiday season gets into full swing. For October 2009, the average shopping cart abandonment rate was at 71 percent, the highest this year so far.

In normal years, click through and conversion rates can be expected to increase as the deadline of Christmas approaches, and customers seek to find presents for loved ones.

But this year we’ve seen significant changes in buyer behavior as customers have searched for better deals. According to Hitwise, searches for promotion codes are up 40 percent year over year. The significantly increased sale volumes driven by the holiday shopping season have the effect of amplifying underlying trends.

The two main underlying changes in behavior seen this year are:

- Increased use of shopping carts as ‘wish lists’ where items are bookmarked by leaving items in the cart
- Buyers looking for a better deal, by comparing prices or searching for free shipping and voucher codes, especially among higher income buyers

This reflects the prevalent consumer behavior in 2009: more window shopping, more cautious and looking for a bargain. In addition, a pre-holiday season survey by the National Retail Federation revealed that customers are expecting to receive holiday promotions and will defer purchases in anticipation of finding a better deal. This doesn’t suggest that Holiday 09 will be a high margin, high converting period for ecommerce.

A recent Forrester survey conducted in Q3 09 highlights the primary current causes of shopping cart abandonment.

It’s worth noting that this study highlights behavioral reasons for abandonment. These are, to a significant extent, out of the marketer’s reach. High shipping costs have long been the single most significant cause of abandonment, and marketers are well aware of this. A recent SeeWhy survey into e-marketer’s promotional plans this Christmas shows that free shipping offers and discount promotion codes, distributed by email and via social media, are the tools of choice.

The Forrester data also highlights how little ecommerce teams can do about shopping cart abandonment: most ecommerce sites are now locked down from changes so the only weapons left in the marketer’s armory are price changes, promotions (especially free shipping) and abandonment remarketing.

So, this holiday it’s going to be fascinating to see whether extensive promotions, distributed by email and increasingly social media, will win out and drive high conversion rates; or whether a new breed of ecommerce-savvy consumer is emerging post recession who will search extensively for the best deal and only buy when incentivized with free shipping and other baubles.

Whatever, it’s clear that remarketing is going to be big in 2010. Customers are expecting it. In fact, they’re waiting for those free shipping offers.

About the author: Charles Nicholls is founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy and author of “In search of Insight” which has established a new agenda for the analytics industry. As a veteran of the analytics space, he has worked on strategy and projects for some of the world’s leading ecommerce companies, including Amazon, eBay and many other organizations around the globe. Incorporated in 2003, SeeWhy helps companies improve website conversion rates by bringing back up to 50 percent of visitors that abandon sites prematurely.

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Real Time Remarketing Goes Pro at SeeWhy

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:46:00 GMT

SeeWhy announced the availability of Abandonment Tracker Pro this week, a web analytics service which provides real-time “remarketing” for website abandoners.

The solution could prove valuable to online merchants and Web publishers plagued by abandonment as it automates the sending of follow-up emails (or remarketing) to website abandoners in real time. For example, should a user abandon their shopping cart, an initial e-mail can be delivered in real-time and then followed by a second follow-up e-mail 24 hours later. For those businesses that want to increase conversion rates, continuous real-time analysis of website visitors will help keep multi-stage marketing campaigns in step with the actions of abandoners who return to the site.

“Independent studies consistently show that remarketing best practice is an immediate follow up to an abandonment,” said Charles Nicholls, founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy. “When it’s done right, immediate e-mail follow up can convert up to 50 percent of website abandoners to customers. Timing and tone are everything. If you delay in following up, you risk your e-mail becoming irrelevant or annoying to the abandoner. And the e-mail must convey a desire to serve, not sell."

Additional reasons to try out SeeWhy includes its ability to integrate with existing CRM applications and ESPs (e-mail service providers) and the built-in presence of behavioral targeting. Using self-learning behavioral analytics, Abandonment Tracker Pro monitors users’ onsite behavior in real time to determine whether an offer is required to maximize conversion.

Previous Coverage of SeeWhy:
- Reduce Abandonment with SeeWhy

Reduce Abandonment - SeeWhy

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:05:00 GMT

Conversion is one of the most critical metrics for understanding website (and of course marketing) performance. It reveals how effectively enterprises motivate website visitors to act on their unique selling propositions. One of the barriers to understanding "conversion" is the recognition that a conversion goal doesn’t have to be transactional. In fact, conversions move far beyond making a sale alone and even include getting visitors to register, open an account, request a quote, or simply visit a certain page. While most Web professionals already measure conversion, it is a difficult metric to optimize due to many factors which can affect performance at any moment in time. What if you could identify why visitors were abandoning your pages?

SeeWhy is a solution that does just that - aids in abandonment tracking. The free version of the solutions offers a daily e-mail summary of "abandoners" and abandonment statistics, while the professional version offers these and other features including automated multiple stage follow ups, real time first follow up, hot buyer behavioral targeting, hot route scoring, integration with e-mail and CRM, handling of repeat visitors and offers continuous optimization to site traffic.

As you might imagine, there are many uses including the identification of why users are leaving forms, shopping carts, registration forms, downloads, or Web pages. Set up seems relatively easy - just insert a few tags on the pages which signify the start and end of a process. Once your site is tagged and sending information to SeeWhy, you then receive a daily e-mail notification with details of your abandonment rate, where in the process abandonments are taking place and, if appropriate, details for each abandonment.