• by Kate Kaye , March 9, 2004

Maybe "abandonment" is too strong a word. Ecommerce marketers are learning that when consumers drop out of the purchase process before clicking that precious "submit order" button, it doesn't necessarily mean they're gone for good.

Jupiter Research has found that more than 54 percent of online users have halted purchases from some online stores because of concerns about service, delivery, and shipping and handling. However, according to the research firm, those ditched online shopping carts have higher order values than completed ones.

"The sad thing is, what most people do today is pop a survey, or an ad, or send an email saying 'Please come back,'" comments Jon Diorio, VP-marketing at enterprise dialogue marketing company CentrPort. The truth is, he emphasizes, the marketer is bound to come into contact with that very consumer again "hundreds of times through other channels."

In its newly released study of online purchasing abandonment, CentrPort concludes that marketers can lure straying consumers even days after leaving the Web site by integrating ad serving, email, and site systems to tailor all touchpoints to the immediate needs of the consumer.

CentrPort's products act as a central nervous system, sitting between front-end interfaces and back-end data warehouses, and tracking conversions across clients' advertising and email systems, Web sites, and call centers. The technology monitors how often marketers come into contact with a particular consumer, and instructs point systems to dynamically manipulate messages to best suit that consumer at any given time.

Jupiter Research analyst Patti Freeman Evans refers to this phenomenon as "event-based re-marketing," and says travel and financial services firms, as well as other online retailers, have had success with this type of strategy.

Aggregating data collected routinely for six clients during a 16-month period from 2002-2004, CentrPort analyzed ecommerce activity across markets including the airline, automotive, financial services, and telecommunications industries. The research showed that in the 10 days after prematurely exiting the purchase process, Web site dropouts came into contact with marketers at a 300 percent higher rate than did non- abandoners. Perhaps even more eye-opening: only 20 percent of those subsequent encounters happened on the advertiser's site. The remaining 80 percent took place on other sites via ads.

Consider a typical consumer's online airfare research activity. A last-minute spring breaker is bound to visit multiple travel sites and search engines while sniffing out the best deal. "Advertisers ideally will be advertising on those sites," says Diorio, which means they can still coax the consumer to return and complete the order.

How? Real-time customization across all channels is key, according to CentrPort. For example, the firm's system tracks the cookie of a gaming enthusiast who has visited a computer maker's site and other sites to research multimedia gaming systems. CentrPort contends that rather than serving a stock ad message, the PC seller should dynamically alter subsequent communications with that consumer to accommodate her gaming fascination.

"Zeroing in on the purchase they're about to make increases the probability that they'll go back and make that purchase," adds Diorio. The CentrPort study also reveals that companies had online interactions with 33 percent of their deserters after they bailed out. And another study released by CentrPort last year showed a 25 percent lift in customer re-acquisition when marketers integrated customized messaging across ads and Web sites.

At this point, says Jupiter's Freeman Evans, "a lot of retailers don't yet have tools" to do event-based re-marketing, but she affirms that "it is an emerging trend."