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Today, we're talking about abandoned carts. Learn how to avoid leaving money on the table by streamlining the checkout process, reducing distractions, and offering genuine value that connects with your customers.
So, we're talking abandoned carts today. Yeah. Yeah. I saw this statistic recently just to get us started on whether or not this is a valuable topic, 55% of shoppers. So potential customers will abandon their cart for having to reenter their credit card or payment details. I just had that happen last night. Tell me about it. It didn't bother me because I decided to go back and change what was in my cart. And then I went back through the checkout. Let's pretend I didn't abandon, so, okay. Well. I lied, but it is, you know, it's… A point of friction, right? I don't save any of my credit cards in the browser or I always type it in. I have no problem with that just for, I have mine saved in one password and that's helpful to me. There you go.
But I think, you know, the reason I brought that up is just that, you know, is this a valuable topic? Absolutely. Because we, we see so many clients or potential clients or just us as customers, ourselves, places where, you know, you're, you're making it hard for someone to make a purchase. When I hit that point of friction when I'm checking out, I always feel like Julia Roberts at the boutique and pretty woman where I'm getting my money out and saying, I just, I just want to buy, oh. Yeah. I always gotta hunt down my wallet. I have found that shop pay has changed the game there. I am so much more likely to convert. If shop pay is enabled on a Shopify site. Dang. It, it is so easy. Yeah. Yeah. They've really, they've really made that smooth. It's very cool. Yeah.
But so let's talk about abandoned carts, right? Yeah. So you go into the grocery store, you even go into a Target. I picture it. You don't see carts just laying around full of crap. Right. You go to those stores. Chances are, I mean, it's rare to see anyone. If you stood outside of target with a little notepad and you took count of how many people walk in versus how many people walk out in an hour. What's the percentage of people with bags and obviously families don't count like that's one. Well, yeah, you could also, it's going to be like crazy high. Yeah. Crazy. Like 90 it's high. Yeah. So what's your point? Well, you know, I think there's a lot of people we've had people come to us and say, Hey, our shopping counter abandonments, you know, we're getting 42,000 sessions a week and we're only getting 400 orders. Okay. It's really easy to window shop on the inner webs. Right. You're on your phone, you're in your car, you're at a bus stop, whatever. Yeah. It's easier. So you're going to, it's not going to be like the brick and mortar store. Yeah. We can't, you go there to buy something and not just shop around.
Do we need to start a campaign to change the terminology? So we don't call it a cart anymore. Yeah. I think the key is focusing on people that have gotten all way into the checkout, you know, like the very last step where there, there is clear intent that something at the last moment gotten want to miss. Yeah. So I think that's one, you know, streamlining that checkout process is just fundamental for this. If you're seeing high abandoned cart rates, there is going to be abandoned carts. Yeah. Cross devices. Like obviously it's going to happen more frequently. How many times have you put something in a cart, on a phone and then finished on the, on your desktop? Like with a new session, if you're beating yourself up because it's like, oh, our abandoned carts are high. Yeah. Hey, it might not be true. So all that said you still there's, there's probably something to do to streamline the checkout process. We see it a lot where people create distractions. There's a reason they want to, um, promote a discount that they're doing maybe in a different category. They want to remind of accessories or something we talked about in a previous episode that that's valuable. But if you do it in the wrong way, you can distract someone. So you gotta keep an eye on those distractions. Yeah.
Which brings back to something that you always say is use your own product. Like be checking out on your site. Yeah. Did you have somebody from your marketing team and some sort of like sign up for our email list and they accidentally put it on the checkout so that you're distracting someone. Yeah. That's, that's a, that's a kind of thing that you see sometimes. And, you know, getting rid of those distractions is one easy way to start moving people through that process. Yeah. I think our point abandoned cart emails. We love them. They do work. We can get, we can recapture that, but our, you know, if we had a pick, right. If you had a pick between getting abandoned cart emails perfect. Versus. Avoiding it in the first place. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it is, it's something you should try to avoid. Yeah. Avoid it in the first place. I think, you know, I think sometimes when you talk about abandoned carts, people immediately go to the abandoned cart reminders as the focus. And, you know, we really want to step back and think about what's wrong with your user experience.
Try to minimize those so simple as making sure that people know everything that they need to know about this product they're about to buy, have they already, you know, been given the information, do they feel comfortable in that checkout? Do they know what returns and you know, exchanges looks like, so they don't have to step back and, you know, right. Some, sometimes what you see is people kind of circle back. They put something in their cart, especially if it's a higher value product and then they need to back up into the research phase.
Yeah. So what can you do to make that process really smooth so that they already know that information? So, you know, that's, that's kind of this intersection of like knowing your customer, knowing your product and, and knowing the relationship there. Yeah. So let's say we do, you know, we, we had a whole conversation about the UX last season about, you know, UX of, uh, a shopping experience. So I think that would be a whole different conversation to get into like how you can streamline that process. One thing that you see a lot, and I think, you know, the, the value is there, uh, obviously depends on your product and, and how your site is set up. But, you know, getting rid of all of those distracting elements, like navigation and popups and everything, like that's, that's a trend, that's a pretty solid trend in just a pretty streamline. All you see is the checkout forms. Like the, the, the data you have to put in and there's nothing else. Yeah. It's all pointed in one direction. Uh, any other thoughts … Question for you though? Yeah. Like, so, and we've all done. It we've all abandoned a cart.
I probably did it 14 times this morning. Why though? What are the reasons
On a product like that. What would've made me finish would be an incentive. My next order would be free shipping. If I order within 30 days, there you go. I get free shipping. Yeah. Because I was, it was like a, try me. It was the first product I was buying from this company. Yeah. Returns are difficult, you know, like it's an investment sort of thing. So if they would've shown me that if I ordered something else, you know, presuming that shipping is a barrier for other consumers. Because if I'm thinking about buying three, five pieces from them, that's, you know, five pieces over the course of a year is, is a hundred bucks in shipping.
Yeah. That's, that's a big percentage of the… Yeah. So they should know. It's very easy to know that, oh, Nora Lahl stopped at this part of the checkout. Yeah. Uh, and if you set up your checkout correctly and in a way where you can, you know, and this is where multi-step checkouts really become valuable. Mm-hmm
Well, yeah. And I think that goes back to, you know, knowing your, if I were let's compare that brand that I'm talking about this higher end sustainable fashion brand, it's an investment piece that you're going to versus old Navy corduroy pants. I can buy both from both. Okay. Companies. One is going to be, you know, maybe $40 and the other is $200, $250 for a pair of pants, Andy. But that's, you know, that this is my choice. The point is I'm only buying one pair of pants instead of five. Right. Whatever. That's an idea. So again, you're, you're assuming you're, you're pretty confident that that one pair of pants is going to last you 20 years versus… Yes. I've already decided a year that this is a good brand. Yeah. But my point…Is, so the value is there for you, you see the value in the product. Yeah. The abandoned cart message is totally different, right. Because if I'm just like abandoned my $40 old Navy cords, like yeah. Maybe I just forgot. And that's probably what happened. I, this is a commodity, right? I'm just buying the pants that old Navy has been selling for years and will continue to sell in some shape or form. So my barrier is probably not price this other brand. Maybe their return window is small. They're, you know, sizing I'm not familiar with yet because I'm a first time purchaser, which you should know, right. You should know this about me if I'm already in your system or not. And maybe the shipping is another barrier. So that journey is harder to take and it should be right. Like this, this brand is probably embracing that, that, that choice is a little bit more intentional than the old Navy choice.
So that message is really different. So it's maybe the same trigger of, oh, they abandon their cart. We're going to send out an email in a sudden amount of time. What's that email going to say, what problem might you be solving for someone when you send that email? And I think that that's where you can really tune, you know, your abandoned cart messaging to your audience, but then also you're reinforcing your brand through that. That's another brand touchpoint that I think is really, really valuable. Cause you're reminding people who you are. So the tone that you use matters. So you love something in your cart is so bland. Yeah. I see it as another opportunity to build a connection too. So it's not just, you know, maybe that cart is abandoned forever, but if I infused a little bit of personality into it or reminded you about, you know, our breadth of products or whatever, you might come back in a month. So that abandoned cart email, yeah. Can do some, some heavy lifting for you. Yeah. And we see that a lot. So I agree with you. That is a, that is part of the brand experience. Yeah.
Side note too. And this drives me crazy and I've been on a, a war path recently to clean up my inbox because I get so much email. I've had the same email address. Yeah. 24 years long story. Anyways, I've been on this mission to recapture control of my inbox. So that involves me unsubscribing from a lot of crap that I've gotten. Yeah. And it's amazing the customer experiences you have on the unsubscribe list. And it's very, to me, it's very similar to you. Oh, this is a tangent. This is a tangent, but it's the same to me. It's it's part of, I have dozens of email subscriptions that I unsubscribe to from companies that I still adore and I will still spend money from. There are some though that had, it's almost like they treated me, like I was dumping them. Yeah. It's anti antagonistic for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And some of that's antagonistic just because it's like, you've been unsubscribed, like billion dollar brands with it's like HTML, you've been unsubscribed that's it's on their page. Mm-hmm,
You know, you, Why are they bailing? What can you do once they bail embrace that they might be bailing. Maybe that's like built in, in the journey. It's, it's very common for our best customers to put things in their cart over the course of a month. Right. And then they convert know that. And to your point, like knowing your customer and maybe that maybe an abandoned cart email, isn't a reminder that, Hey dude, you left shit in your cart. Maybe it's an email from the organization that says, Hey, we're here to help give us a call if you have any questions. Yeah, yeah. That could be triggered by an abandoned cart where everyone's, you know, Oh, the abandoned cart that isn't the abandoned cart email, is that Right? It's just a, you know, it doesn't have to be an email. It can just be a trigger for something else. It could be a trigger to write you a letter. It could be a, you know, there's
A handwritten Letter. Everyone thinks of abandoned cart emails or abandoned cart capture mm-hmm
Yeah. Um, if I had one wish in the whole world, it would be that carts could get lined up. I've gotten multiple abandoned cart emails from the same seller in the same day, because I was researching, I was in the middle. I'm going to buy this thing. I'm looking out on my phone. Then I bounce over to my desktop. Then I'm back on my phone, but I open a new tab. So that's another cart maybe. Yeah. If you know my email address, right. You know that I'm one person do not remind me of my three different carts. Right. Like that drives me bananas. It happens all the time. This is like very basic. But I really like the ones where it shows you exactly what you were looking at.
You do like that. It's even a little earlier in the, in the process, maybe like, Hey, reminder, you were looking at this dress or whatever. Yeah. I think, and again, it depends on, is this something that I'm going to have an emotional attachment to? Is it something I want or something I need, right. Because if you're sending me the, Hey, you forgot something and it's for like a new, you know, plunger, the plunger role of, of marketing. Like no one is no one is casually shopping for a plunger. Your husband
If it's a, if it's a need versus a want, the pretty dress that I might wear to an event is going to be this dreamier like, you can have more of a, like, you forgot this thing. Right. Versus like a, a transactional we're trying to help you get a job done. Yeah. And so how you can relate to your customer even gets down to, are they just trying to accomplish a goal or are they, you know, dreaming about your product? I think that that all man, I think there's so much opportunity in the way that you talk about that abandoned cart and treat it, like don't treat it as this like magical thing to me as the consumer. Yeah. It's one of 50 tabs I have open on my phone right now. Like put it in its place.
Yeah. And I always get a kick out. Like I got an email, this is God's honest truth. I should have saved it and documented it and wrote a blog post. I literally got an abandoned card email that had to be at least two years ago. Like, I don't know how they, no, I was like what? I was looking at that before. COVID and it literally just got the email last week. What Kind of product was it? I'm not going to say like, You can't say generally It was a tool. Okay. Yeah. But I'm just like, dude, my guess is that they hired a marketing person, they got this stuff turned on and there was like this backlog that just fired out. So be careful. But That's funny. Pretty Extreme case. Yeah.
You know, I had one, it was for pest control actually. So it wasn't quite a abandoned card, but like I had been looking up. Oh yeah. I remember we first moved to our house. I was looking up and that's like four years ago we bought this house or five, we were looking up, you know, we had some ants, so I was looking, you showed Interest. Yeah. So I like went to the website. I, I don't know if I, I might have even filled out a form. And then just recently I got this weird random email that was like, we are just reaching out. Like the, the tone was confusing. It had buttons in like the whole thing was a mess. Yeah. Um, and so I was just like, you know, I, I was so confusing and weird.
So, pretty easy takeaways on this one first is just find ways to reduce friction so you can reduce the number of abandoned carts. There's probably some simple things to do in your checkout process to clear the path and make it easy for people to complete the process. So that's number one. And then number two, you know, abandoned cart reminders. You're going to have them because you're going to have abandoned cart, but make sure you're tuning those to your audience, To your audience and the, well, not just your audience as a whole, your customer type. Yeah. The, the individual customer Journey. If you know it, if, and if, if you don't know it, then refer back to a couple episodes, go and
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Beyond the Cart is produced by Lightburn. Our episode today was produced and edited by our very own Staci Tischer and it was recorded in person for the very first time with our pal Ray Fister at 5th Floor Recording Company.
Our music is the song Let's Go Go Go by Tigerblood Jewel. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you consume your audio, and you can always learn more about ecommerce at lightburn.co.
We'll see you next time on Beyond the Cart.