Expert: Best tactics to re-engage cart abandoners

I recently had the chance to chat with Ross Kramer of Listrak about ecommerce trends; you can read part one of our Q&A with Ross here. Now, for Ross's top tips to re-engage shoppers who have abandoned online shopping carts.

Kristina: Once a consumer is off a merchant website, what are your top 2 tips to reengage them with that shopping experience?

Ross Kramer, Co-Founder & CEO, Listrak: Post Purchase - These campaigns are highly effective at not only building brand loyalty but prompting additional purchases leading to increased customer lifetime value. A post purchase campaign could include 'thank you for purchasing' messages, additional product recommendations, requests for product reviews, or loyalty programs. One of our clients gets a 15% conversion rate with a loyalty offer and another retail client is garnering a 10X increase in product reviews and 7% conversion rate from post purchase review messages.
Welcome Series - La-Z-Boy worked with Listrak to implement a four part welcome series, with each message sent at two-week intervals, engaging customers during the typical two-month buying cycle. Since the series first deployed in April 2011, more than 15,000 shoppers and customers have joined the list. The welcome series has proven successful as evidenced by the fact that the engagement metrics are twice as high as La-Z-Boy's regular monthly emails. The first message achieves a 37.62% open rate, with a 12.17% click-through rate. The second message achieves a 24.42% open rate and a 5.66% click-through; the third message has a 22.30% open and 6.26% click-through; and the final message still gets a 16.75% open rate and 1.97% click-through. Further proof, this series has directly generated online conversions and has increased in-store traffic and sales.

Kristina: To date, 'Best Tactics' for re-engagement included an email offering free shipping, followed by an offer of an additional discount to help reengage. Do these tactics still work?

Ross: The 'Best Tactics' for re-engagement in 2012 would be to target messages, and offers, based on customer/consumer intent, interest and behavior. By using customer purchase metrics and on-site behavior, merchants can create highly targeted messages that are relevant to individual consumers. That doesn't mean merchants should not use offers, however, we recommend holding offers to the second or third re-engagement message. Using this type of discount ladder approach to make offers and increase offers as more time lapses helps retailers maintain profit margins.

Tags: ecommerce tips, ecommerce trends, email marketing, Listrak, re-engagement campaign, shopping cart abandonment