Ever been ghosted by a potential customer? Odds are unfortunately very high that you have, as the average cart abandonment rate is around 70%.
If only you could stand outside their window with a boombox to win ‘em back…
Seeing as that’s not an option, the next best thing is to find an abandoned cart app for your Shopify store.
They’re mighty useful tools designed to help you recover lost purchases and therefore increase revenue. Who wouldn’t want that?
So, if you’re dabbling with the idea, this post will show you what characteristics and features you need to look out for when trying to choose the best abandoned cart app for your Shopify store.
5 reasons you need an abandoned cart app
Perhaps you’re thinking, I’ve got my marketing on fleek and I’m bringing in new customers so why do I need an abandoned cart app? Is it really worth it?
Yup is the short answer. Here’s the long answer:
1. Increase revenue
An abandoned cart app will provide fantastic ROI. 45% of consumers open abandoned cart emails, 21% click through, and 10.7% convert.
It’s easy to understand why the conversion rate is so high. These people have already shown a strong interest in your product(s).
So, they’re already feelin’ you. They might just need a little incentive or a reminder to tip them over the edge.
This means that using an abandoned cart app is not only an effective way to increase revenue but also a simple one. And, let’s face it, you’d be lying if you said that your main objective isn’t all about those dollar signs.
2. Make more sales with minimal effort
When it comes to running an e-commerce store, the struggle is real. You no doubt have a never-ending list of things to do.
Well, the more tasks you can put on autopilot the better.
Automation is the future, my friend. It’s not all about scary robots that are going to take over the world. The fact is there are all sorts of ways you can use automation to make your Shopify store run smoothly.
Of course, there’s a strong business case for automation, too. 61% of businesses that utilize automation exceeded their revenue targets in 2020.
The cool thing is you can use an app to automate abandoned cart recovery. Essentially, you’re able to set and forget your abandoned cart campaigns and therefore make more sales without any ongoing effort.
3. Shopify is basic
Yes, Shopify has some features to deal with abandoned cart recovery. But even though we heart Shopify, honestly, their abandoned cart features are not the best.
First, there’s a bunch of criteria necessary for an email to be sent:
Which makes sending recovery emails unlikely or consistent if the sale is complex in any way.
There are also limited options for personalizing your recovery emails.
Plus, if you want to make your email special and say add a discount to encourage more people to buy, you have to add a ton of code.
… huh?
If you’re not savvy about this kind of stuff then Shopify’s abandoned cart features are difficult to use.
Essentially, abandoned cart apps are much more user-friendly and offer greater customization options.
4. Understand your customers better
One of the main challenges here is understanding why a potential customer abandoned their cart in the first place. If you can do that then you can make the appropriate changes and have fewer abandoned carts in the future.
Abandoned cart tools offer insights in the form of monitoring and analytics. Thus, you can gain an understanding of what prevented a potential customer from making a purchase. Plus, you can personalize the way you remarket to them based on those insights. 🤯
5. Optimize your checkout process
There are tons of reasons why consumers abandon their carts. For instance, high shipping costs or having to create an account:
But, it’s not all doom and gloom. It also means there are also tons of opportunities to optimize your checkout process and make more sales.
Again, you can use your abandoned cart app’s analytics and monitoring tools to figure out what’s going wrong. Then tweak your checkout pages, or even your sales strategy, to bag more buyers.
How to choose the best abandoned cart app for your store on Shopify
Now you know why you need an abandoned cart app, you’re no doubt desperate to find out how to choose the right one for your Shopify store.
You need an abandoned cart tool that’ll rescue more people than The Avengers. Such tools carry certain qualities and come with top-class features built-in.
Key characteristics to look out for
These qualities will help you decide if an abandoned cart app is a toot or a boot:
Easy to use
Not a tech whiz? You can still create fabulous abandoned cart email designs and set up campaigns for yourself. Just as long as you choose an abandoned cart app that’s easy to use.
Recapture, for instance, is a straightforward platform with a simple yet intuitive drag-and-drop email builder:
There are even pre-written emails and pre-built sequences that you can customize. And today, Recapture makes it even easier with AI Assistant Reva (Recapture Virtual Assistant) to automatically generate, modify and beautify your emails using plain language prompts. It couldn’t be simpler and with half of the work already done, you can get started quicker than you can say, “Dolla dolla bill y’all”.
Customizable
Personalization is a big deal when it comes to any form of email marketing. Transactional rates are six times higher for personalized emails.
Different people have different interests, desires, and pain points. To appeal to your audience, you need to create abandoned cart emails that fit your audience’s vibe and speak to them.
Thus, you need the option to customize abandoned cart recovery emails in a way that not only fits your branding but in a way that’ll resonate with your audience specifically.
Transparent
Obviously, you want to see a good ROI from any tool you invest in. The trouble is some providers make their pricing plans more complicated than your last relationship. In the end, you’re not sure what you’re actually getting for your buck.
Seek out an abandoned cart app provider that offers simple and transparent pricing. That’s why at Recapture, for example, we make sure all paid members get the same features. Our pricing scales with you. In other words, you only pay more when we help you recover more revenue.
Performs Well
It’s a good idea to lay out exactly what you hope to achieve by using an abandoned cart app. Set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
Say, your goal is to recover 5% of abandoned carts in the next quarter, and 10% in a year. You obv need to find an app that can help you smash those goals.
So, be sure to do your research. Look at what people are saying about the tool on the web, read case studies, and so on.
Awesome support
You’d be nowhere without your gal pals, your Fortnite squad, your D&D club… we dunno what you’re into. Basically, what we’re saying is everybody needs a good support network.
The same is true when you use an abandoned cart app. Choose a provider that’s helpful and easy to reach. Also, one that provides the right resources to help you get the most from the service.
Features you need
Unfortunately, not all tools are made equal. These are the boxes the best abandoned cart apps tick:
Tracking
Riddle me this, how on earth are you going to rescue a customer without their deets?
You need abandoned cart software that’s able to capture emails and track your website visitors.
This way, if a customer has given you their email in the past, e.g. they signed up to your newsletter or they’re a previous customer, then you can retarget them with ease.
Integrations
You want an abandoned cart app that works with your existing Shopify apps and other third-party tools. These, for example, might be further cart optimization apps, such as OneClickUpsell. Or perhaps your email marketing tool, e.g. Mailchimp.
This will make it much easier to adopt the new abandoned cart app, and get the most from it. Everything will work together in sweet sweet harmony.
Unlimited messages
Some tools place a limit on the number of emails you can send depending on which of their plans you choose.
But a cap on the number of notifications or emails you can send means a cap on your sales. That would be a travesty. So, choose an app that lets you send an email for every single abandoned cart if you want to.
Analytics
When working on abandoned cart campaigns, it’s vital you monitor the results. You need to see how your campaigns are performing, and where you can make improvements to increase revenue.
With Recapture’s analytics, for example, you get to see how much potential revenue you could recover, what you’ve achieved so far, whether your abandoned cart rate is going down, and more:
Automation
At the end of the day, automation is what’s going to save you time and effort. Not only that, it’ll help you make your campaigns grrrr-eat… is what Tony the Tiger would say if he were a marketer.
Why so great? Automation technology optimizes your campaigns by sending the right messages at the right time.
You need an app that has super smart automation technology built in. For example, it automatically captures customer information and sends out personalized emails with the most relevant offers on your behalf.
It may even send out whole email sequences based on the customer’s behaviors, e.g. they open the email they get one message, they don’t open the email they get a different message. All of this is done to recover as many customers as possible.
Segmentation
Segmentation means splitting up your audience or your customers into groups. Those in a group may have similar demographics, a similar purchase history, similar on-site behaviors, or whatever criteria you choose.
When you segment potential customers you increase the chance of successful abandoned cart recovery. It allows you to make your email campaigns more targeted and therefore the recipients more likely to open the email and more likely to convert.
You can even prioritize high-value customers to achieve greater lifetime value. For example, use your emails to ensure that repeat customers stay on board.
Monitoring
Monitoring is a must as customer behaviors can give you so many insights. What products equal more abandoned carts? At what price points do customers say, uh buh-bye? Who abandoned their cart recently? Etc.
For instance, Recapture’s Live Cart Feed, shows you what your customers are up to in real-time and in granular detail:
GDPR compliance
In this day and age, you know you’ve got to stay in line with privacy regulations. So, any software you choose needs to collect information the right way. Make sure the app you go with is compliant with any regulations in the regions you operate in. GDPR is obviously a biggie.
Support for multiple languages and currencies
International mogul are we? Wit woo, check you out.
If your Shopify store operates in multiple countries, then you need an app that can speak French, German, Greek, hell, any language you like. In other words, you should be able to send emails that feature the right currency and language.
Summing Up
Those naughty consumers abandon their carts left, right, and center. But, you have the opportunity to win them back with an abandoned cart app.
It’s certainly worth it. Learning how to choose an abandoned cart app for your Shopify store will up your revenue, and help you understand your customers better so there are fewer carts lost in the future.
But some of the abandoned cart tools on Shopify are as useful as bacon-flavored gum. Yes, that’s a real thing, btw. 🤢
So, you need to make sure you pick a good one. Use this guide as a sort of checklist when it comes to choosing the right abandoned cart app.
If you want to give Recapture a try, find us in the Shopify App Store. Oh, and we’ll help you get your first $500 in recovered revenue for free. Cha-ching!
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