A staggering number of customers leave your parts site without making a purchase! Even after adding items to their digital cart, they often leave without finishing the order.
Believe it or not, these sales aren’t 100% hopeless. When you set up an abandoned cart recovery email campaign, there’s a chance to bring them back.
Bonus: Once you set up your abandoned cart recovery emails, it’s a set-and-forget marketing tool. Just spend a few minutes setting the details and typing up the template email, and then it’ll run on its own.
How exactly do you write that email? Read on…
A few key elements make up a successful cart recovery email, and we’ll break down the best tips and tricks for mastering each section.
1. Email Subject Line
The first goal of sending any email is to convince the recipient that it’s worth opening. This means an attention-grabbing headline. You can also take an approach that reminds them about what they left behind.
Asking a question in the subject line is a great way to engage your customer. Whether they open the email or not, the question makes them subconsciously want to get an answer.
Some example headlines:
- Don’t leave your items behind!
- Forgetting something?
- Do you have any questions about your order?
And here’s a list of 25 more email subject lines you can use!
2. Email Message
The actual message in your email is the meat of the entire campaign. Make sure there’s a clear, focused purpose in the text.
Here are the 4 main pieces of an abandoned cart email you should include:
- Purpose – Right off the bat, let the shopper know why you’re emailing them. Tell them they forgot something, but it’s still waiting for them if they want to come back.
- Branding – You also need to make it clear who YOU are. Include a sentence that mentions the name of your parts website.
- Contact information – Sometimes customers decide not to buy because they’re not sure about their order. This is especially true with auto parts! They want to ensure the part fits their car before spending money. Inviting them to call you with their questions might boost their confidence to finish the order.
- Call-to-Action – Give customers a clear path to take so they know exactly what to do. This is as simple as writing, “come back to claim your parts now!” and adding a link to your parts website.
Here’s an example:
Thanks for visiting [parts website]! Your shopping cart is waiting for you—just [click here] to pick up where you left off.
We’ll hold your parts for 3 days, so hurry back to complete your order!
Questions about the auto parts you need? Give us a call at [number].
If you use this example as a template, make sure to replace the parts in brackets with your own information. And add a link back to your parts website, too!
3. Timing
There’s a fair amount of debate about the timing of your email. After the shopper’s visit, how long should you send the cart recovery email?
Some studies claim that less than an hour is the most effective. Others say to email 1-4 hours after the shopper leaves. You can also send a second follow-up email a day later.
We recommend setting up the email to send an hour after the customer has left your parts site. This is enough time to make sure they’ve actually left your site. Sometimes the customer just got distracted or temporarily lost internet.
In these cases, sending the email too soon can annoy or confuse them because they aren’t done looking around.
4. Coupons
Some dealers add a coupon promo code to their abandoned cart recovery emails. Sometimes, a little discount will be enough to prompt your shopper to take action.
However, there are shoppers out there who will purposefully abandon their carts in hopes of getting a coupon. For this reason, some people choose to only add the discount to the 2nd cart recovery email they send out.
Don’t make the discount so much that you lose money on the sale. A simple 5% or 10% off will work just fine.
SEE MORE: 5 Types of Coupons that Will Drive Sales to Your Parts Website
The most successful abandoned cart recovery emails aren’t created in 5 minutes. If you really want to optimize email performance, test out different subject lines and email messages. But you don’t HAVE to spend a lot of time on it. Setting up something basic is much better than having nothing at all.
RevolutionParts customers are lucky to have an abandoned cart recovery feature built into the platform’s back end. We call it “Drift marketing” in our solution, but it’s the same thing!
Once you set it up, it’ll run automatically, making it an easy way to recapture lost sales. Feel free to use the examples in this article as a template!
