Abandoned carts are something that every ecommerce business has to consider at some point. According to SalesCycle, the average rate of abandoned carts is between 61% and 81% across various industries. Even with the most exciting offers and products, customers go through a set buying journey when shopping online.

Many will research and compare numerous products before they make a purchase. This means that many customers will window shop and even add products to their cart, only to abandon the cart before completing their purchase. As frustrating as this can be for e-tailers, there is not much that can be done to eliminate abandoned carts completely.

What you can do, however, is take a look at ways of recovering carts and attracting browsers back to your store in order to complete their purchase. This is a great way to re-engage customers who may have abandoned a cart for any reason. One of the most effective ways of reducing cart abandonment is push notifications.

Push notifications are pop-up messages that are received on desktop and mobile browsers that enable brands to interact with browsing customers even if the customer has left the website. This type of notification can also be used to share promotions, send information on order delivery and also confirm purchases.

When used alongside carefully planned offers and sent at the right time, when visitors are active, push notifications offer an excellent way to encourage customers to return to their carts and complete the purchase. In this guide, we share some tips on how you can use push notifications to reduce abandoned carts.

How to Use Push Notifications to Reduce Abandoned Carts

Due to their instant nature and ability to capture attention quickly, this type of messaging can be incredibly effective. There are a few ways that you can reduce abandoned carts using push notifications. Here are some of the most effective strategies to help encourage shoppers to return to their carts.‍

Send notifications at the right time

‍These notifications are sent in real-time, arriving in the notification bar of a website or mobile browser. Needless to say, timing is always important for this type of message. Sending messages at the wrong time will result in messages not being seen or being seen at the wrong time. That means considering things such as time zones, which will greatly affect the success of your push notification. Well-timed notifications make all the difference between catching your potential customer at the right time and either having the customer miss the message or receive it in the early hours of the morning, much to their annoyance.

‍Create a sense of urgency.

‍Humans, by their nature, are motivated more by possible loss than possible gain. Creating a sense of urgency is the best way to tap into the natural human fear of missing out, encouraging customers to complete their purchase before they lose out on a special price or great deal. Phrases such as '5 hours left to purchase' or 'stocks are running low' can help to convey a sense of urgency. You can also show that chosen products are in high demand or even show recent purchases by other customers to further create urgency. This will be especially effective for those who have genuinely liked your product or shown serious interest.

‍Segment your audience.

‍Segmenting your audience is the best way to ensure that you get the most from your push notifications. Browsing customers may subscribe to notifications for many different reasons. Some may want product updates while others may be looking for discount codes. As each subscriber has difference preferences, you will see a high unsubscribe rate if you send out the exact same messages to everyone. Instead, look at segmenting your push notifications according to different factors such as browser type and language, region and time zone, frequency of purchase, whether they are a new or returning visitor and specific actions such as products viewed or searched, pages viewed, purchase history and whether or not they have abandoned carts previously.

‍Consider the wording of your notifications.

‍Another thing to consider is the notifications themselves – especially the wording. There is limited space on these messages, with 40-120 characters usually available to fit in the title as well as the message. Wording, therefore, needs to be considered very carefully to get maximum return from your notifications. You will need to outline value right away and use very clear copy that makes the value easy to see. You will also need to choose your calls to action carefully. You could look at adding images to your notifications as well as content. This can help notifications stand out better, which, in turn, helps to boost engagement and conversion. You could also look at localising the content so that it appeals to specific customers in their native language.

‍Send a series of push notifications.

‍It is also useful to look at sending out a series of notifications rather than just a single notification. While the first can easily be a basic reminder that there are products still in the cart, you can send additional notifications letting customers know that there is a limited time offer and also letting them know that offers will expire within a given time frame.You can then close campaigns if customers head back to their cart to complete the process or you could plan another way to invite customers back to the store with a once-off offer or similar lure. To get the most from this, make sure that you time notifications carefully so that you are not sending out too many too close to one another. This will help to add incentive without the risk of unsubscribes.

Here at Grapevine, we offer a wide range of digital marketing tools that help you create powerful, engaging campaigns across all channels.

Whether you are looking for a marketing automation platform, considering SMS marketing tools or searching for other solutions to help you take your marketing to the next level, our solutions help you overcome numerous challenges, from abandoned carts to stagnant campaigns.