Emailing customers with abandoned carts

Do you do this? Has it helped you regain those lost sales?

I did it once several months ago, but it didn't result in any customers coming back to complete the sale.

I have done some research on this and have gotten mixed points of view.

Funny, VistaPrint sent me an email when I abandoned my cart on their site, so apparently some other sites do this tactic.

I would offer a discount to the customer for completing their purchasing by XX date.

My only problem with this is that I don't know if it would be considering email spam or not.

 

I have received emails from companies myself when I have abandon the order.

Most people do this for some of the most common reasons.

1) They are shopping for the same item at another site and may find a better value and then just close the site.

2) They have buyers remorse. Which of course alot of us get when we are about to spend our money on something and wonder if we really need it.

3) There was something in your checkout process that they may not like.

4) Any number of other reasons.

I know that I have had a couple sites send an email to me asking if there is anything they can do to improve their site so that they can compete better. I do answer these back honestly and tell them my reason for not finishing the order. This information is helpful to them in the future.

Also I would not offer a discount. Sure you may get a sale from it, but this will start a trend you will not like. For many they will figure if you will give a discount everytime they stop their order then they will do all their shopping this way. In addition many will spread the word and you will start receiving alot of discounted orders. I would seriously think about this.

 

It could be a very good idea, but the only thing I would use it for would be to try and get feedback from the customer. I would not try to discount anything. Use it to ensure that there is not some huge flaw in your system. Not every person is going to make a purchase, but by eliminating the common snags, you can reduce the number of lost customers.

If you eliminate things like required registration, and list your shipping prices early on, it will go a long way to lowering shopping cart abandonment.