Boosting turnover by following up on abandoned baskets

This article was originally published on 1 September, 2011

Research shows a small percentage – just 7% – of UK ecommerce retailers are using abandoned basket emails – one of the most basic forms of behavioural email marketing.  Yet this is proven to be one of the most effective ways to boost return on investment and generate incremental revenue.

Many marketers have indicated they will be exploring behavioural targeting in the coming 12 months, so the next question is how do they start using abandoned basket email effectively?  It is a shift from traditional segmentation and needs to form part of the overall strategy, so marketing communications appear seamless and relevant to recipients.

A word of caution however; there is a fine line between what is viewed by your potential customer as “following up” and what is “intrusion”.  The usual way to do this would be to capture the user’s details at registration and then detect the user via a cookie when they return to the site at a later date and retrieve their details from the database.  If they abandon their basket, you can then contact them via email.  Where it becomes intrusive is if you capture their email early in the process by getting them to opt-in and then target them via email, regardless of whether they placed an item in their basket and then abandoned it.

Tagging your site
To effectively collect behavioural data you need to tag your site correctly from the outset.  Whether that’s via your email provider, or a third party, collected data is then combined with other data to drive behavioural emails.  Getting this right is key to accurate data: you need to gather the right information about the visitor and what they are doing online and collect it correctly.

Also consider your objectives – ask yourself what data do I need to collect?  If it’s just basic details, such as basket abandonment, you only need to tag the checkout pages.  However if it’s more complex – looking at gathering browsing and customer information, you must tag more intelligently and consider segmenting data using customer profiles.  For example, if some customers are browsing high value/high margin items, concentrate on following them up, rather than using the same amount of effort trying to convert those browsing low priced items.

Rules
Every organisation should have their own set of rules on communicating with customers.  Agree the rules very carefully in advance – and make sure you stick to them.  The segments should be agreed across the business well before the data starts coming through.  Remember that it’s part of an overall strategy and applying intelligence to each part of the process can work wonders.  If the system is sending behavioural emails to recipients based on basket or browsing information, you may not want to send them the standard weekly offers/newsletters at the same time.  Don’t annoy customers – getting emails from you saying different things minutes apart does not reflect well on your organisation.

Offline and systems integration
Consider if you need to factor offline completions, as the online channel rarely sits in isolation.  If customers phone your call centre to place orders, are you able to combine all the potential purchase channels into one?  While it may be time consuming and not straightforward to set up, combining them into a single customer view is key.  It’s also useful to know if you’re engaged with the customer in one medium and not another, plus it helps with channel preferences.

Tone
The tone of your message (sales as opposed to service) can make the difference between it being read and it being marked as spam – or perhaps worse – ignored altogether.  Every communication should reflect your brand values and what you are about as a business.  However if you are operating in a heavily price-orientated market, then the emails need to be selling hard; if it’s a more consultative/service-led, or high value proposition, they need a different tone.  If emails are supporting your sales effort or focusing on service, rather than a direct sales channel in itself, it needs a softer approach.  Don’t be seen badger your prospective customer into purchasing.

Creative
Creative is often the biggest hurdle to producing campaigns quickly, so it should be considered as early as possible in the planning cycle.  When it comes to creative following up on basket abandonment, less is more.  The text needs to be short and concise, and ideally in a postcard format, with a very clear message and strong call to action.  Messages in other campaigns on the other hand, such as welcome emails, you will typically be using lots of creative, with messaging focusing on thanking them for signing up, and explaining what to expect from your organisation.

Getting the data correct
The key to achieving good results from behavioural email lies in the data; how you collect it, how you hold it and how you manage it.  Without getting the basics right, your organisation will likely fail when it comes to behavioural techniques.
Behavioural targeting can only work effectively if the data is in one place and not moving between multiple databases.  To expand beyond the basics, you’ll need a single database that is scalable and holds not just some basic site information, but a full view of online analytics – from the customer’s first click through to their repeat patterns on the site.  To interpret the data, it’s critical for companies to spend time really understanding their customers’ habits.

Benchmarking
Benchmark the competition and see what they are doing.  Learn from them, they may have already gone through the learning curve so you can catch up quicker.  Ensure you don’t miss anything they are doing well, but then also identify the gaps and take the initiative.  Along the way, look to learn what customers expect in terms of presentation, processes, products and services, in order to slot in with their patterns of behaviour.

Summary
Basket abandonment email consistently provides marketers with their most effective campaigns, giving the highest open and click rates and generating the greatest revenue.  With around 85% of customers routinely abandoning retailers’ baskets, following up on just a small proportion of these means you could be seeing the results from otherwise lost sales in a very short space of time.