When running an online business, one of the most common nightmares for all merchants is the rising cart abandonment rate. With most first-time visitors leaving without completing their purchase, e-commerce stores need effective strategies to bring these potential customers back. This is where retargeting becomes crucial, it's a powerful technique that can help you recover lost sales efficiently and cost-effectively. Let's explore the strategic approaches to retargeting that can maximize your conversion rates.

 

Understanding the Abandoned Cart Dilemma

7 out of 10 potential sales slip through the cracks, contributing to an annual loss of around $4 trillion in revenue for e-commerce worldwide. Understanding why customers leave without purchasing is the first step toward recapturing these lost sales and maximizing your store's revenue potential.

Here are 3 key factors to consider when facing high cart abandonment rates:

1. Unexpected shipping costs: Shipping costs can be a real headache for online shoppers in fact, nearly half of customers click away when unexpected fees pop up at checkout. The good news is there are plenty of ways to keep your customers happy and click "buy." Being upfront about shipping costs from the start, offering free shipping on larger orders, and showing clear delivery options can make a huge difference. A smart trick is adding a dynamic free shipping progress bar to your store, when customers see they're just $15 away from free shipping, they're much more likely to add that extra item to their cart!By keeping things transparent and customer-friendly with tools like this, you'll build trust and turn browsers into buyers. 
2. Complicated checkout processes: A frustrating checkout process can scare away even the most interested customer, research shows that over half of shoppers will happily hit "buy" when checkout is quick and painless. Nobody wants to fill out endless forms or create yet another account just to make a purchase! Keep things simple by offering guest checkout options, reducing those form fields to just the essentials, and making it a breeze to check out. Smart features like social login ("Sign in with Google") or one-click point redemption can make the whole experience even smoother. 
3. Distractions or interruptions: Keep your checkout clean and focused, those pop-ups and marketing messages might be doing more harm than good! When shoppers get distracted or interrupted during checkout, they're likely to abandon their cart and never return. Create a better checkout experience by removing unnecessary links and distractions. If you do use pop-ups, make them count like offering a sweet discount when someone's about to leave or sending a friendly reminder about forgotten items in their cart through abandoned cart notifications.

A clean, focused checkout process with strategic reminders helps turn hesitant shoppers into happy customers.

 

Transform Abandoned Carts into Sales

Retargeting has transformed how online stores reconnect with potential customers. Think about the last time you browsed an online clothing store but didn't make a purchase, a few minutes after you saw the same items appearing in your social media feed later. This isn't a coincidence; it's retargeting. 

When customers visit your store and browse products or create an account, they're demonstrating interest in your products. Without effective retargeting, these potential customers might never return. By implementing retargeting campaigns, you can not only bring these visitors back but also significantly increase your conversion rates. Let's explore the strategies that can transform window shoppers into loyal customers.

(resource: Kaggle) 

 

1.Start with Understanding your Customers

Before we start generating content to attract visitors, we should research what our audience prefers. Start segmenting your audience according to their visit history and identify how to allocate your marketing resources to the items your customers are most interested in. For example, what are the common characteristics among visitors based on gender, age, or profession? Having a clear view of these details is essential before starting retargeting campaigns. Like choosing the perfect birthday gift, understanding preferences in detail leads to better results. The more personalized content we generate, the higher the chance we drive more views to our online store.

Take  ASOS as an example, this brand shows how important personalized marketing is and the strategies they leveraged to deal with cart abandonment. They have been one of the biggest online clothing retailers and reported net online sales exceeding $3.5 billion in 2023. 

Their deep understanding of its target audience is one of the main reasons why it reached such success. They gathered insights by engaging in social media campaigns and influencer collaborations. Through analyzing user behaviors and preferences, ASOS provides tailored product recommendations and style advice ads to visitors who viewed their site or did any kind of engagement. This retargeting strategy provides a higher chance to attract customers back and place some orders, as well as retrieving losing sales from cart abandonment.

Tools like the Ako Marketing: Loyalty Retargeting CRM app can help you easily capture insights from visitors and generate effective retargeting campaigns afterward. The app provides a CRM dashboard that helps merchants easily collect insights about potential clients across Facebook, Instagram, and Google who have expressed interest in products. Find out who has the highest potential to engage with your brand so we can successfully come up with more personalized marketing content.

 

Based on the insight collected from the dashboard, we can move on to launching the retargeting campaign. To get started, the app provides ready-made campaign templates that allow users to set up their ads efficiently. After set-up, it helps automate ad placements based on customer behavior, such as those who visited your site or abandoned their carts. 

Additionally, the app provides vivid ads allowing merchants to showcase items that customers have previously viewed and create a personalized shopping experience tailored just for them. This makes ads relevant and timely, increasing the chances of converting interest into sales. Let’s have a deeper look at how important it is to create dynamic ads. 

 

2. Create dynamic ads across social media

(resource: Celtra) 

To maximize the effectiveness of retargeting campaigns, we have to make sure the content we show to our audience is attractive enough to capture their attention. When we are scrolling through social media and web pages, the content that drives our attention and makes us pause is always the most eye-catching content or the ones that are most related to our interests. In this case, generating more personalized ads based on previous research could lead to more clicks and a higher conversion rate. Dynamic content allows you to showcase products based on user behaviors. If someone viewed a specific item, make sure your ad highlights that product or similar ones. This tailored approach will significantly improve engagement rates. 

Let’s review an example from Sunweb and see how they use retargeting ads to grab viewers’ attention. 

(resource: Bannerwise) 

It seamlessly integrates its brand logo and color into the design while including the stunning holiday house with an exclusive offer. This approach ensures their brand is present and recognizable without overshadowing the primary message. Sunweb not only enhances brand recognition but also creates a cohesive experience for potential customers. In this case, viewers can become familiar with Sunweb as a trusted name in travel while checking out their holiday house offer, making it more likely that they’ll remember the brand when planning their next getaway.

 

3. Utilize the Sense of Urgency

(resource: Medium )

On the other hand, countdown timer popup ads are another effective way to attract customers while launching retargeting ads across social media. The idea behind this is to induce FOMO( fear of missing out) by instilling a sense of urgency. Numbers never lie, we have seen how effective countdown popups are from the studies: 

• 2.7 times increase in click rate
• 1.9 times increase in engagement
• 2.4 times increase in conversions
• 3.1 times decrease in price per conversion

How do countdown ads work with a retargeting strategy? For instance, if customers have previously shown interest in a product but didn’t complete their purchase, showing a limited-time offer can motivate them to return and finalize their transaction. This will not only enhance the likelihood of conversion but also reduce the cost per conversion. By integrating countdown timers into retargeting campaigns, businesses can effectively remind potential customers of what they’re missing out as well as foster them to make that crucial purchase decision. This combination of urgency and personalized marketing creates a compelling reason for customers to engage with your brand and ultimately boosts sales.

 

4. Email Retargeting

Meanwhile while facing cart abandonment, retargeting emails is one of the most common strategies they leveraged to retrieve the sales which have slipped away. These emails typically feature images of the items left behind, a clear call-to-action (CTA), and often include incentives like discounts or free shipping. This strategy has proven to be highly effective, converting three times more than other automated email campaigns. It also helps maintain brand visibility and encourages users to return for further exploration or purchases, enhancing customer satisfaction and boosting conversion rates.

How could we effectively set up EDM retargeting campaigns? One of the most compelling reasons for implementing email retargeting is its ability to reach out to individuals who have previously interacted with your brand. These are not just random contacts, they are potential customers who have taken specific actions such as visiting your website, viewing products, or even adding items to their shopping cart without completing the purchase. By sending targeted emails, businesses can gently remind these customers of their interest and encourage them to complete their transactions. 

Check out the app for email and SMS retargeting: Klaviyo. It provides outstanding retargeting options, allowing you to reach out to customers based on their specific actions. For example, if someone abandons their cart, you can send them a friendly reminder email with a discount code to encourage them back to complete their purchase. This means that if a customer browses a product on your website but does not make a purchase, they can be retargeted with ads featuring that specific product on their social media feeds. This strategy keeps your brand top-of-mind and significantly increases the likelihood of conversion as it targets users who have already expressed interest in your offerings. 

(resource: Pinterest )

Additionally, Klaviyo's real-time data syncing ensures that your audience segments are always up-to-date. The analytics can help merchants easily track how their campaigns are performing and adjust approaches as needed. This step helps connect with your customers in a meaningful way, leading to better engagement and ultimately driving more sales. By focusing on customers who are likely to convert, businesses can maximize their return on investment (ROI) from both email and paid advertising efforts.

 

5. Do A/B testing

When we launch retargeting campaigns, always remember to do A/B testing on your content to understand more clearly the modification we need and help us come up with better marketing strategies and plans. Continuously checking the ads’ performance and making data-driven adjustments will help us focus on the content that truly helps generate more revenue for stores. Trying out different versions of your ads, such as images, and catchy headlines, or adjusting the call-to-actions. This movement can help you find out what grabs your audience's attention and leads to a higher conversion rate. 

For example, Sony conducted an A/B testing on their laptops’ ads to see which campaign has the higher shopping cart ads. Eventually, the result was even better than their expectations, with the shopping cart ads increased by 21.3%. At first, the marketers from Sony expected that emphasizing customization in the banners would make customers turn down the offer because it might be seen as a potential obstacle during the purchasing process. However, A/B testing proved the hypotheses to be completely wrong based on relevant data. In this case, we saw the potential that A/B testing could bring to rising sales for businesses. 

(resource: Auraen)

 

Conclusion

Cart abandonment doesn't have to mean lost revenue. With strategic retargeting across social media, personalized email campaigns, and dynamic ads, you can effectively bring customers back to complete their purchases. Tools like Ako Marketing and Klaviyo make it easier than ever to create targeted campaigns that resonate with your audience. Remember to continuously test and optimize your approaches, as Sony's 21.3% increase in shopping cart ads shows, the right retargeting strategy can significantly impact your bottom line. Start implementing these strategies today and watch your abandoned carts transform into completed sales.