How To Reduce Cart Abandonment On Mobile
How to convert purchases that otherwise would have been lost.
How to convert purchases that otherwise would have been lost.
7 out of 10 carts on mobile are abandoned. Think how much your business would grow if you reduced this figure by just one. Chances are it is in the millions. This Blueprint will show you how. It is the simplest way to immediately grow your business.
By instrumenting your app to understand the problem, optimizing your checkout flows, automating cart recovery messaging, you can significantly reduce the cart abandonment problem, which in turn greatly increases your revenue.
Instrument your app to track individual user behaviors. Tracking abandonment rates is the first step towards tackling the problem.
If you know exactly what individuals placed in their cart, e.g. a return flight from Dubai to Tokyo between Nov 8th-18th, you are positioned to send an effective recovery message.
It is crucial to optimize your checkout. A/B test different native UX flows.
Test different call-to actions using Swrve - a graphic, a button, colours, words, offers. Swrve will tell you which check-out flow converts best.
If you are considering totally new purchase flows - such as implementing Apple Pay - you can test the impact with a small treatment group. Again, Swrve will tell you which works best.
Automate recovery messaging, so that you automatically reach out to each user who abandons a cart.
This can take the form of cart abandonment push notification, email or in-app messaging. If you use retargeting, you can export user and purchase data to your ad networks.
If the purchase was abandoned in your app, it makes sense to bring users back to your app to complete it.
Push notifications are often the most effective. Make sure that when the recipient opens the notification, they are deep-linked directly to the purchase page. Deep-linking has a large impact on conversion.
The more personal the more effective. As you’ve instrumented your app, it is easy to personalize each notification to each user.
Tone and language matter too. Have a voice. Be unique and conversational. Avoid being a robot.
There’s no better way of delivering success than A/B testing different variants and finding out definitively which variant delivers the best result.
Equally important is the timing of recovery messaging. Perishable inventories, such as flights or marketplace items, really benefit from creating a sense of urgency. This is where real-time mobile marketing is most effective.
If a user hasn’t responded to your push, or has opted out of push, use other channels such as email or ad.
You can export your user/purchase data from Swrve for retargeting. Make sure to sync with systems to turn off retargeting if a user makes a purchase.
It's tempting to always offer a discount to entice purchase completion. You don't have to. Swrve segmentation knows the difference between users, and will allow you to target them accordingly.
For example: 10% discount for a first-time customer; free shipping for a customer who hasn't made a purchase in the last year; a simple reminder for a long-time customer (this avoids fostering bad behaviors - if customers know that if they hold off completion, a discount will arrive).
If the cart remains abandoned, and especially if it’s a high value item, trigger an in-app message reminding them that the item is still in their basket the next time they open your app.
If the cart stays abandoned after your initial recovery campaigns, all is not lost.
For example, when your business is next having a sale, it's the ideal time to reach out to users who have abandoned carts.
Swrve's recency and frequency features enable you to target users based on their recent behavior.
Implementing abandoned cart recovery messaging, a Swrve retail customer increased conversions by 15.8%.
The use of A/B testing and control groups quantified the gain. A simple series of automated messages generated over $6 million in revenue that was otherwise lost!
Without a comprehensive analytics solution in place, you will not know who your users are, or what they are doing. This will undermine your ability to reach out to the right users, at the right time and turn an abandoned cart into a completed purchase.
Once you have segmented users who have abandoned carts, target them with automated recovery messages - a push notification to rengage them outside the app, an in-app message the first time they re-open the app after an abandonment. Use different techniques for different segments - i.e. power purchases should not be treated the same as first time buyers.
A/B test your messaging (content and timing) and your checkout (flow, CTAs, imagery) to determine which variants deliver the best results.
Don't give up one push notification and an in-app message later! Utilise other channels, like email or retargeting, to try and get their attention. Come back weeks later as well, particularly if your business is having a sale - or try sometime around payday!
