5cartCart abandonment can be looked at as a key defining metric that determines business success, therefore marketers are expected to spend ample to woo abandoners back. eMarketer states in one of its recent reports that cart abandonment emails are one of the most effective ways for retailers to get their message in front of consumers and get them to act.

Presenting data from SaleCycle’s ‘The Remarketing Report – Q3 2015’, eMarketer reveals that when retailers send email notifications about abandoned carts, they have a whopping 40.5% open rate.

carta1Interestingly, this result is about twice as high as what was reported for general retail emails in North America on the Experian Marketing Services network in Q2.

Click rates for cart abandonment emails were also significantly higher and the click-to-purchase rate reached 28.7% compared to 2.5% reported by Experian.

carta2Listrak reported as well that people of all stages still use and act on email, revealing that conversion rates were high, and average revenue per email was $2.61, compared to more than $8 reported by SaleCycle. That was a higher ROI than any other type of email examined by Listrak other than back-in-stock notifications. Some research suggests that when people abandon shopping carts, it’s because they just don’t want to buy, but high open and click-to-purchase rates for abandonment emails suggest many do plan to complete their conversion, and can be spurred to do so with a push message.

According to Bizrate, for instance, 18% of digital shoppers in North America who browse a retailer's site intend to buy, but end up not making a purchase, abandoning their shopping cart. In the UK, according to Royal Mail Group, almost all digital buyers abandon their shopping carts at least sometimes, and 26% of women and 16% of men do so frequently.

carta3Perhaps frustratingly for retailers, the top reason, according to Market Track, is that shoppers simply decide they don't want the item all that much. That's what 28% of US digital buyers said their primary reason was for not buying something in their cart, followed by 27% who wanted to do more research.

Shopping cart abandonment obviously is a fact of life for online retailers. Bizrate's research found that saving items to buy later was still a factor in so-called abandoned shopping carts, and that many people could be easily prodded into pushing the buy button with a promotional email, or even just a reminder. Retailers have options when it comes to bringing back cart-abandoners, including retargeting with display and email, eMarketer concludes.

Besides, a new market report by yStats.com revealed additional interesting facts, such as close to half of online shoppers in this booming region would buy more items to qualify for free shipping or that online merchants in Asia-Pacific are investing in offering faster and more convenient delivery options. In China, the region’s largest market, online shoppers put delivery speed over delivery costs in a ranking of main considerations when buying online. In South Korea, approximately a quarter of online shoppers complained about slow delivery after purchase last year, while in Vietnam this share was above 50%. Moreover, India ranked the highest worldwide in terms of online shoppers willing to pay extra for faster shipping, as of early 2015.

By MediaBUZZ