According to the Listrak fourth annual study of the Internet Retailer 1000 Companies’ Shopping Cart Abandonment practices, 30% more companies adopted shopping cart recovery tactics in 2012.
The study found that 19% of the Internet Retailer 1000 companies sent at least one email to re-engage shoppers, up from 14.6% in 2011 – a 30.1% increase. The Top 500 companies had a respectable 4.8% increase over last year, with 19.4% reaching out to shoppers. But the Second 500 had a remarkable improvement over last year with a 75.7% increase. 18.8% of the Second 500 companies are now sending at least one shopping cart abandonment message compared to only 10.7% last year.
The study also discovered that more companies are sending a series of messages to re-engage shoppers, instead of relying on a single message. Across the IR1000 companies, there was a 19.5% decrease in the number of retailers only sending one message, a 7.6% increase in the number of retailers sending two messages, and an incredible 207% increase in the number of retailers sending three messages.
Number of Follow-up Messages (% of Respondents) | |||
Messages | IR 1000 | Top 500 | Second 500 |
1 message | 62.4% | 62.5% | 62.3% |
2 messages | 17.0 | 16.7 | 17.3 |
3 messages | 20.6 | 20.8 | 20.4 |
Source: Listrak, January 2013 |
Online retailers are also sending the messages closer to the abandonment time to re-engage shoppers while the sale is still top of mind. 58.7% of the Top 500 companies and 75.3% of the Second 500 companies send the first message within 24 hours of the abandonment, an increase of 14.8% and 5.9% respectively over 2011. The second message in the series is also being sent closer to the first message with 66.5% of the Top 500 and 77.2% of the Second 500 sending within 48 hours of the first message, an increase of 8% and 43.2% respectively over last year.
Shopping Cart Abandonment Email Recovery Attempt Timing, 2012 (% Internet Retailer Top 1000 Company List) | |
Top 500 | % Sending |
1st message within 24 hours | 58.7% |
2nd message within 48 hours of first | 66.5 |
Second 500 | |
1st message within 24 hours | 75.3 |
2nd message within 48 hours of first | 77.2 |
Source: Listrak, January 2013 |
Many retailers previously relied on special discounts to tempt shoppers into completing the order; however, there was a 17% decrease in offers in the first message, a 5.4% decrease in the second message, and a 7.6% decrease in the third message across the IR1000 companies. Retailers are realizing that a simple reminder message is sometimes enough to prompt customers into action.
Percentage of Offers in Messages | |||
Company Group | Message One | Message Two | Message Three |
IR 1000 | 38.2% | 57.7% | 57.7% |
Top 500 | 32.3 | 61.1 | 55.0 |
Second 500 | 44.1 | 54.3 | 68.4 |
Source: Listrak, January 2013 |
Sampling of Email Offers Across Three Message Series | |||
Sample | Email 1 Offer | Email 2 Offer | Email 3 Offer |
Top 500 | |||
1 | Free shipping | free shipping | none |
2 | none | none | none |
3 | 20% off | 20% off; free shipping | 20% off; free shipping |
4 | 5% off | 10% off | 10% off |
5 | free shipping | free shipping | free shipping |
6 | none | free shipping | free shipping |
7 | 10% off | 10% off | 10% off |
8 | none | free shipping | $3 off |
9 | none | 5% off | 10% off |
10 | none | free shipping | 5% off |
Second 500 | |||
1 | none | none | 10% off |
2 | none | none | 20% off |
3 | 5% off | 5% off | 5% off |
4 | none | none | none |
5 | none | free shipping | none |
6 | none | none | 33% off |
7 | free shipping | free shipping | free shipping |
8 | none | none | free shipping |
9 | free shipping | free shipping | free shipping |
10 | none | 10% discount | none |
Source: Listrak, January 2013 |
Finally, the author offers some thoughts for consideration:
For more information, and access to the complete study, please visit Listrak here.