According to a recent survey conducted by Silverpop, low volume but high ROI emails often comprise less than 5% of a company's total email volume, while delivering 25 to 40% or more of email
revenue for retailers. The survey showed that 83% of respondents will be sending cart abandonment emails by the end of 2011.
Although most industry studies have shown that between 15% and 20% of
retailers currently use cart abandonment campaigns, 83% of Silverpop survey respondents plan to take advantage of this tactic by the end of 2011.
According to shopping cart recovery services
provider SeeWhy, a company doing $200 million in annual revenue loses $1.2 million a day from cart abandonment.
Cart Recovery Email Plans (% of Retailers Surveyed) |
Intent | % of Respondents |
Yes, intend to | 40% |
No, but plan to in 2010 | 29 |
No, but plan to in 2011 | 14 |
No, no plans | 17 |
Resource: Silverpop, January 2011 |
Timely, relevant emails tied directly to consumer behavior deliver much higher metrics than
broadcast emails, notes the report. 80% of survey respondents reported an open rate of 21% or higher for cart abandonment reminders while only 31% experienced similarly impressive results from their
general broadcast emails.
Cart recovery emails can deliver a much higher open rate than the average broadcast email, with 80% of survey respondents reporting an open rate of 21% or
higher for these messages compared to 31% for general broadcast emails. The numbers at higher%ages are even more dramatic, with 53% tallying a 30% or better open rate for cart recovery
emails, versus 14% for broadcast.
Average Email Open Rates (% of
Respondents) |
Email Type | When Cart
Recovery Open Rate Group Is: |
| 10% or
less | 11-20% | 21-30% | 31-40% | >40% |
Broadcast Email | 33% | 36 | 17 | 8 | 6 |
Cart recovery email 1 | 7% | 13 | 27 | 20 | 33 |
Resource: Silverpop, January 2011 |
Even more impressive is the impact these programs have on conversion and revenue, with 45% of survey responders reporting that their cart recovery emails yielded a conversion rate of 11% or higher,
nearly four times that of their corresponding broadcast emails.
Loren McDonald, Silverpop's vice president of industry relations, says "Inboxes are crowded, the ‘noise'
is louder than ever, and generic batch-and-blast emails are becoming less effective... Retailers that have employed... cart abandonment campaigns have seen excellent results... generating incremental
boosts in revenue and customer loyalty... "
According to research conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says the report, 90% of ecommerce leads go cold within one hour.
Despite the effectiveness of cart-abandonment campaigns, the Silverpop study survey found room for improvement in frequency and timing given the following findings:
83% of survey responders
waited five or more hours to send the first recovery email
61% wait more than 24 hours to send the first cart recovery email
67% only send a single cart recovery email
The
survey also indicated a high level of interest in other transaction-based messaging. Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents send a notification after a sale is completed. 50% with service
satisfaction surveys, and 43% with product review requests. However, only 2% are sending notifications that the review has posted, missing an additional opportunity to engage with the consumer.
Despite delivering higher conversion rates than standard broadcast promotional messages, "happy birthday" and "purchase anniversary" emails were used by less than one
in five respondents. These messages provide another means of contacting customers outside of the regular promotional calendar. And since they are usually paired with a
friendly incentive to return and purchase again, they are a savvy way to increase engagement and loyalty-and boost revenue at the same time.
Type of Post-Purchase Email Used |
Type | % of Respondents |
Service satisfaction survey | 50% |
Product review request | 43 |
Recommendation | 29 |
Do not send | 26 |
Bounceback | 21 |
Cross-sell/Upsell | 19 |
Happy birthday | 17 |
Reorder | 17 |
Anniversary | 12 |
Resource: Silverpop, January 2011 |
McDonald concludes that "...
relationships should never end after a purchase... the brand should do everything in its power to show loyalty to its customer... by acknowledging recent actions, or offering ‘happy
birthday' and ‘purchase anniversary' emails... "
To obtain the full survey, please visit Silverpop here.