the science of shopping cart abandonment

The Science Of Shopping Cart AbandonmentCharles Nicholls

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About

Charles Nicholls Chairman, Conversion AcademyFounder, SeeWhyChief Research & Strategy Officer

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About SeeWhy• The real time shopping cart recovery service

• Best practices education• Primary research in ecommerce

@SeeWhyInc

Why Visitors Abandon

A single track view of conversion

5

Conversion is a numbers game:

Get lots of trafficGet enough to convert

Right?

The problem with one track conversion thinking

6

Less than 1% of new visitors will go straight to buy

More than 99% fall off your single track

Common Perception

Abandonment = Bad?

About our research Research study in August 2011 More than 600,000 individual visitors More than 250,000 transactions

The multiple paths to conversion

8

Abandonment is part of the purchase journey

What do you do to nurture fragile new leads &

first time customers?

Why 71% of shoppers say they abandon

#1 Price #2 Not ready to buy

Males:

More likely to compare prices

Less likely to abandon

Females: • More likely to save products for later • Take longer to buy• Even more sensitive to shipping and

handling costs

Source: Forrester

Design remarketing campaigns to address Price and Timing objections

Takeout

Top converting traffic sources

• Based on traffic arriving at the shopping cart

Source: SeeWhy n=63,507

Source: SeeWhy n=63,507

Develop strategies to capture more email addresses

Takeout

Google: ‘top traffic seewhy’ orhttp://seewhy.com/blog/2011/05/18/website-traffic-source-analysis/

Abandon Behavioral Patterns

Recovery rate of abandoned shopping carts is very different based on behavioral segments

Average abandons per purchase is 1.3, rising to 2.2 following a recent purchase

Recovery Rate 18%

Recovery Rate 48%

Recovery Rate 57%

Avg. 2.4 in 28 days

Source: SeeWhy n=179,907

Abandoning can be part of the purchase cycle

Takeout

Abandonment pattern within 28 days

Impact of Cart Size

$1-$100 $101-$250 $250-$300 $300-$250 $350-$400 $400+

Source: SeeWhy 8-11

Abandonment Rate by Cart Value

Detail on $1 – $200 Carts

Check shipping costs for low value carts

Offer free shipping at $99

Takeout

Those who don't buy initially:

Average time delay between first visit and purchase is 19 hours But 72% will buy in the first 12 hours

Average Time from First Visit to Purchase

Source: SeeWhy and ScanAlert

Start remarketing as soon as they abandon – the first 12 hours are the greatest opportunity

Takeout

The Impact of remarketing

No Remarketing

Nu

mb

er o

f ab

and

on

ers

retu

rnin

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2x - 3x more abandoners will buy when remarketedRemarketing's biggest impact will be in the first 12 hours.

Takeout

On average

8% will return to

buy

With Remarketing

On average, an additional

26%

will return to buy when

remarketed

18% additionalrecovery

What You Can Do About It

Remarketing in Action

Re-considers the purchase

Individual website visitor

Adds item(s) to

their cart...

...and abandons without

purchasing

Visitor clicks through the

email

On average

26% Of identified

abandoners will convert

2 31 Real time API

On average

72%

will abandon

Follow up immediately with a 1-to-1

email campaign

Guthy Renker Proactiv Campaign

Immediate

23 hrs after

6 days, 23 hours after

Typical ‘Starter’ Campaign

Subject line: ‘Oops! Was there a problem with your cart?’

Immediate

Subject line: ‘Free exchanges on your order at LuckyVitamin’

Subject line: ‘Save 25% on your order at LuckyVitamin’

23 hours 6 days & 23 hoursRemind

Reassure

Promote

Heatmap predicts where the eye scans

Best practice example: NordicTrack

1. Relevance Timing Based on their web session

2. Value Service Link back to the cart Contact numbers etc

3. Call to action Clear Value based

Make it personal: Relevance = ROI

Product Detail Page Remarketing Email

Visual connection to the websiteDetails of the product abandonedStay focused: Don't distract the abandoner

Focus on the product Large image Product name Review stars

Free shipping call to action (with club membership)

Columbia Sportswear

Enhances brand relationship

Strong focus on 1-to-1 service

Personal shopper offer

Image of the item abandoned

Prominent call to action

Minimum cart value of $150 to qualify

Any observations?

Impact of skin tones and faces

http://usableworld.com.au/2009/03/16/you-look-where-they-look/

CSR image is too strong

Distracts from the primary call to action

Call to action button not strong enough

Alternate Route – No CSR

The impact of highly personalized content

Test of a 3 step email remarketing campaign, measuring lift in revenue recovered:

2.6%

33.2%

Batch:

Single email at +24hours

Real time:

Single email sent immediately

Real time gives:

A/B test comparing Batch to Real time

105% more revenue

+66% AOV

+30% Recovered

Carts+105

% Revenue

Real time tracking enables:

Multiple campaign steps (total 3 in this test)

Real time + multi stage gives:

A/B test: Real time + Multi Stage

412% ROI

+201%

Revenue

Impact of Step 2 and 3

Pitfalls to watch out for

Staying in step Synchronize remarketing with customer activity Batch transfers of data get out of step

Promotions Use promotions on the last of a sequence Use behavioural targeting to focus promotions on those

unlikely to buy anyway

Optimize Remarketing is part of your conversion path Don’t ‘set and forget’

Q&A

You’ve heard the story...now read the book

30 pages of insight into online buyer behavior

Tips and techniques to drive conversions

Request a copy by emailing us at Info@seewhy.com

Charles Nicholls charles.nicholls@seewhy.com

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