Fashion and the Art of the Cart Abandonment Email

Fashion and the Art of the Cart Abandonment Email

by | Aug 7, 2020 | Apparel, Digital Marketing, eCommerce

Even the most successful web stores suffer from cart abandonment, which is the term for when customers go through a portion of the purchase process and then leave the website before completing checkout. There can be any one of a hundred reasons why a customer abandons their cart. Sometimes it’s intentional, but sometimes carts are abandoned by accident, because the website timed out or crashed, or the shopper accidentally closed the browser.

According to Bolt, the average cart abandonment rate for clothing is 40%—which is more than the cart abandonment rate for home, tech and fitness combined. HubSpot points out that only 19% of the top 1,000 eCommerce companies engage in any kind of shopping cart abandonment recovery, yet 50% of customers who frequently abandon their carts will complete their purchase when prompted to. So it’s clear that eCommerce websites should be sending cart abandonment emails, otherwise they’re leaving money on the table. Read on for six tips for successful cart abandonment emails for fashion eCommerce websites.

Timing is everything

Contact your customer at the right times. Do this by setting up a series of automated cart recovery emails, or what’s known as a drip campaign. For example, you could set your system to send your first cart reminder email one hour after abandonment, then a second follow-up email a few days later, followed by a third email, perhaps with a promotional discount, a few days after that.

The discount could be a percentage off the product price, free shipping or a bundle deal—it’s up to you. You may want to try waiting to send the first email three to five hours after initial cart abandonment, if one hour after feels too soon. This timing is also something you could A/B test. You’ll never know what kind of timing your customer base responds to best unless you test it. However, it’s important to not become too predictable with your cart abandonment deals, otherwise your customers could learn to wait for coupons to arrive before revisiting their cart and making their purchase. (We’ll be covering A/B testing more, later on in this blog.)

Personalization is key

Make sure your emails are set up so that they specifically reference the product that was abandoned in the customer’s cart. They should include the product image, name and price in the body of the email, and directly reference the product they left behind in the email subject line. They should also address the customer by name—this makes it feel more tailor-made and personal. The more personal your email, the more likely it is to succeed.

You may also choose to have your system set up to trigger an email to one of your sales associates at the same time, so that when your shopper is recovered they can be assisted through the sales process by someone with all of the necessary details. This might only be necessary for larger purchases, B2B companies, or a product that requires customization.

AB test different tones

Witty, straightforward, or somewhere in-between? You need to explore all types of angles in your subject line copy in order to see which tone works best for your brand, but above all your cart abandonment emails should match the tone of your other marketing efforts.

You could try a straightforward subject line like “You left something” or “It looks like you forgot something”, but subject lines that include the product the shopper was looking at—and address the shopper by name—are ideal. For example, “[Name], your new favorite [jeans] are almost gone!”

Humor can also be effective—Adidas used this angle: “Is your Wi-Fi okay? Maybe your browser crashed when looking at [insert product name here].” Australian brand BlackMilk Clothing used this line: “Where’d you go?! That gear in your cart is lonely :(” You could also try the tactic of addressing the customer as if they didn’t intentionally leave the products in the cart, by having copy that says something like, “We can’t send you your [product] yet, because you haven’t completed the purchase…” You won’t know which tone will work best with your particular customers until you start testing some out.

To learn more about A/B testing, check out our recent blogs, “7 Simple A/B Tests to Improve Your eCommerce Site” and “How to A/B Test Your Magento Site to More Conversions”.

Assuage Their Concerns

Common reasons for cart abandonment include slow delivery and concerns about the quality, fit or price of the clothing. If you can follow up and reduce or eliminate these concerns, you’ll be more likely to convert this visitor into a customer. Start by promoting your delivery options, including speed and price. If you are able to offer free shipping, be sure to make this very clear in your follow-up emails.

You could also include copy that highlights the product quality, or shares positive customer reviews of that product. This could be as simple as having a subject line like: “There are ★★★★★ products in your cart!” Or you could include the number of product reviews and the average rating alongside the product name and photo in the body of the email. You could also offer a discount, as suggested earlier. And of course make your return policies clear, to relieve any concern the customer may have about being stuck with an item that’s not right for them.

Do Special Themed Emails During Holidays

Customers who abandon carts during or approaching holidays would likely benefit from holiday-themed emails that offer limited-time deals. For example, you’ll want to include messaging that refers to expected shipping times and also limited supplies of stock in emails that are sent a few weeks before Christmas. Everyone knows there’s only so much time to put in an order, so this could be the nudge many customers need to get clicking and complete theirs.

Keep Testing

Along with the tone of your email body copy and subject lines, you’d be wise to A/B test variations on design, sending times and Call To Actions (CTAs), to see what works best with your audience. Different CTAs to try could include “resume your order”, “complete your purchase”, “check out now”, “restore my cart” or “complete checkout”.

You might also like to try highlighting just the highest-rated or most popular product the customer left in their cart, instead of trying to sell multiple items at once. One eye-catching, recognizable product image might be enough to convert that customer. You can then tailor your copy to talk about that product and what’s made it so popular—and how popular it is, to play on the FOMO aspect (or Fear Of Missing Out, which is a huge driver of sales). You could also include a recent customer review of the product, for an extra push. Test and keep testing until you find what works best for your brand.

Conclusion

Cart abandonment email strategies are a lot like traditional retail sales strategies—they require trial and error. So don’t be afraid to keep testing and tweaking your strategy until something sticks. For help on narrowing down your options and choosing a successful strategy, talk to our team today.

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Padawan Series: Best Mail Practices For Apparel & Accessories

Padawan Series: Best Mail Practices For Apparel & Accessories

by | Aug 5, 2020 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Technology

The use of direct mail marketing decreases every year with brick-and-mortar retailers, as well as  eCommerce stores. Businesses are increasingly opting for the more affordable, faster, and more effective route — email marketing. As an apparel and accessories webstore, email marketing is one of the main ways you promote your brand. As you know, email marketing involves sending out commercial emails to existing and potential customers as a means to communicate important details about your products, webstore, social media and any other relevant information. It’s the most direct way to keep in touch with your prospects and customer base. 

No matter how many fans or followers you have on social media, you don’t ‘own’ those contacts. The average social media post will organically reach less than 1% of your followers. Whereas with email marketing, you ‘own’ those contacts. Assuming their email address is still active, you can be assured that your eblast will reach their inbox, giving you the opportunity to make a connection and a sale. In this guide, you will learn how to make the most of your email communications. Read on for the four best practices when using email marketing for your apparel and accessories eCommerce business.

Personalize Emails for Targeted Audiences

Your apparel webstore needs to have personalized emails to target specific audiences. When we say personalized emails, we don’t mean to send out individual emails, hand written to each customer. Instead, these personalized emails in most cases include welcome emails, standard promotional emails, seasonal emails, newsletters, post-purchase emails, cart abandonment emails and re-engagement emails. Each one of these email types has a specific layout and purpose. For example, cart abandonment emails target customers who placed items into a cart, but never completed the purchase. By sending out a cart abandonment email, you are reminding customers of your site and the products they wanted. Plus if you add an offer, they are more inclined to finish purchasing. 

Personalized emails also work as a means of developing a deeper connection with your customers. Customers prefer personalized emails based on their demographic, geographical location and items they prefer. By skipping out on sending a mass email to every subscriber, your customers most likely will open more of your emails which then leads to more conversions, instead of them throwing it away or unsubscribing. You can customize emails to your customers by checking out your CRM data to learn what your customers are looking at and what they are possibly interested in. 

Keeping up with all the different types of personalized emails can be confusing and time-consuming, especially when working with a large customer database and a CRM like Salesforce. That’s why we recommend working with a marketing firm that understands the different types of emails and when to send them.

Review Your Mail Schedule

Timing is everything and that is particularly true for  email. You have to reach your customers at the right time or you risk losing them forever. Cart abandonment emails work well to drive traffic because it prompts the customers to complete an action they already began. The popular clothing company, ASOS, provides an excellent, straight-to-the-point cart abandonment email:

Another example is scheduling emails around specific holidays like the Christmas season, Cyber Monday, back to school and more. Also, remember that customers unsubscribe from brands that send out too many emails. Most companies send out about two to eight emails a month to their subscribers, depending on the brand and testing. Testing is crucial to this process as well. You don’t want to scare off subscribers with too many eblasts but you also want to stay top-of-mind for them. We’ve spoken at length about the benefits of AB testing your website (here and here) but these same principles apply to your email schedule as well. Test different release schedules on random portions of your contact list to see what frequency solicites the best response.

Monitor Email Performance

What’s the point of having email marketing if you don’t know how well your emails are  performing? An email performance report will show you what sections have the highest and lowest conversion rates. From there, you can then decide what needs to stay and what needs to change.. 

Many email providers can view your open and click rates. If they notice your emails are not being opened and engaged with, your reputation as a mailer can plummet, which could result in being kicked off the platform. To avoid this from happening, here are three approaches that you should keep in mind:

  1. Use special messaging to reactivate customers.
  2. Reduce the number of emails you send to these customers.
  3. If recipients aren’t opening or clicking on your email, remove them from your list. 

Dropping subscribers from your email list maybe concerning, but it will actually  boost your mailer reputation. If you notice that you are unsubscribing many users, make sure to have a marketing plan to find new potential customers. Monitoring email performance is a tedious task that can be confusing and frustrating, especially if you’re also evaluating any A/B tests you’re currently running. There are many Magento extensions that help monitor your emails as well as do A/B testing. Email tools like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, dotDigital and Listrak are a few places where you can monitor and A/B test your email marketing. 

Revise Future Emails

Email marketing involves a ton of testing and trial and error. When you first start sending emails, it may be hard to know what will and won’t work for your customers. Throughout any email marketing campaign, you will learn what customers click on. From there, you grow and adapt to what they want to see. You also need to remember that customers’ interests are constantly changing. So, a Call To Action or content (video, images or written copy) that worked before doesn’t guarantee that your customers will continue to show interest months down the line. 

As mentioned before, A/B testing your email performance is key to understanding what works for your company. While reviewing your results, you need to take note of every feature that isn’t working and replace it with a new element that may better connect with your audience. This applies to every element of your emails including CTAs, graphics, promotions, copy, images, layout, subject lines and preheaders. By constantly revising and building upon improvements, you should have an email design and release schedule that fits your brand and connects with your customer base in a real and measurable way.

The potential of gaining new customers through email marketing is limitless, but there are a number of steps and requirements every company must go through to send out any emails. The best way to stay on top of your email marketing is to use one of these recommended extensions or work with a knowledgeable marketing team. To learn more about how to implement these strategies and increase online sales, contact us today.

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You’re Losing Sales: Digital Payment Methods Customers Now Demand

You’re Losing Sales: Digital Payment Methods Customers Now Demand

by | Aug 4, 2020 | eCommerce, Technology

Payment trends seem to evolve from year to year as new paying options emerge and trend. As an apparel webstore, you need to find the right payment choices for your shoppers. By limiting your company to one or two payment methods, you are losing potential customers and sales. To successfully increase your purchases, your company should make it as easy as possible to conduct a transaction with customers by offering multiple payment methods. In this guide you’ll learn about the digital payment trends your apparel and accessories eCommerce business needs to offer in order to meet customer expectations and demands.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Payments

Within the last couple of years, peer-to-peer (P2P) payments have been increasing in popularity. Even though this payment trend is more common between individuals, some companies have added it to their webstore as an alternative paying method. You’ve no doubt heard of or used one of the most popular peer-to-peer payment apps, PayPal. P2P companies like PayPal give customers a 1-click version of checking-out, facilitating a faster and easier way of completing a purchase. Many shoppers prefer this option because all their card, billing and shipping information is conveniently all in one place. 

P2P Combined With Payment Installment Apps

A few years ago payment installment apps like Afterpay and Klarna became a paying option on popular apparel and accessories eCommerce sites. Many apparel webstores allow P2P payments with payment installment apps. Payment installment apps allow the customer to pay for their purchase over a period of time by splitting their total payment into equal parts. Many online users are actively looking for stores that include payment installment apps. Recent studies have shown that shoppers are more likely to purchase and add more items to their cart if payment installments are an option. Customers like the notion of buy now, pay later. 

InteractOne worked with the Fawn Shoppe to create an excellent combined peer-to-peer payment system with a payment installment app:

Peer-to-peer payments are not for every company and customer. For example, some sites have experienced issues with hacking associated with their P2P systems. If you do decide to implement peer-to-peer payments, as a company it is your responsibility to build trust and to ensure the safety of your customers’ private information by having proper data privacy. We will discuss later some key elements to look out for when setting up data privacy.

Digital Wallets or Contactless Cards

As an eCommerce company, your brand will want to remove as many steps to create an easier and faster check out process for your customers.That’s where digital wallets and contactless cards come to play. Some popular digital wallets and contactless cards on the rise are Apple Wallet, Amazon Pay, Shop Pay and G Pay. These digital wallets and cards are the one-stop app for customers to enter all their card information. Just like peer-to-peer payments, some shoppers prefer this payment method because it is a 1-click check out process. Whenever a customer checks out with a digital wallet or card, the site redirects shoppers to the digital wallet’s app or website to complete the purchase. Once shoppers finish on the digital wallet app or site, they are automatically prompted to finish and review the transaction on the eCommerce  site. 

Our client, Kabayare Fashion provides a great example of having multiple digital wallets for customers to choose from:

Debit or Credit Cards

The most popular payment method, with 47% of online shoppers claiming it as their preferred payment method, are debit and credit cards. Many shoppers still prefer to manually input their card information into the system because this is the method they are most familiar with it. Debit and credit card companies that most consumers use are VISA, Mastercard, Discover and American Express. It is a given in the minds of customers that your apparel and accessories company will accept debit and credit card payments. These are ‘table stakes’, the bare minimum. If you are hesitant to implement the peer-to-peer payment system or digital wallets and contactless cards, you can always add a payment installment app to go with debit or credit card payments to be able to conduct business with a larger, more diverse audience.

Payment on Account

For apparel and accessories brands that cater to business to business (B2B) stores, Magento Commerce has introduced a Payment on Account feature. This feature is an offline payment method that allows B2B brands to make purchases up to their specified credit limit. Companies can use Payment on Account globally or per account. When you use Payment on Account as your payment method, there will be a message that displays to indicate the status and information of the account like this:

Data Privacy

Customers are looking to purchase from companies that have a large focus on data privacy. Finding a site that has the proper data privacy can be tricky, but many users are avoiding sites that say “not secure” in the URL. Protecting shoppers’ credit cards and shipping information is the most important element for digital payments. If your webstore doesn’t have proper data protection, you will lose a wide range of potential customers. As payment processing and eCommerce technology continue to advance, it is the company’s responsibility to ensure proper data protection from cybercriminals. To protect your customers’ information, follow the EU’s General Data Protection Privacy Act (GDPR) and the Second Payment Services Directive (P2D2.) The GDPR and P2D2 have rules and regulations that govern how companies of all sizes process and transfer an individual’s personal data. Violating the GDPR and P2D2 rules and regulations come with tough penalties like fines up to 4% of the brand’s total global annual turnover.

Mobile-Friendly Payments

In 2019, studies have shown that eCommerce stores have had a 25.5% annual growth rate with it expected to grow to 44% by 2024. With consumers increasingly using their mobile devices to make purchases, your apparel brand needs to optimize its site for mobile-friendly viewing and  payments. So how does a company have mobile-friendly payments? There are many ways to optimize user-friendly payments on mobile devices including clear call-to-action buttons, a secure network and auto-fill billing and shipping options. InteractOne can further help you improve your eCommerce’s mobile site or app.

Conclusion

Your company has many digital payment options to choose from, and it is your responsibility as a business to find the best paying method for your customers. If you are unsure of what payment choices work the best for your eCommerce, consider doing a series of A/B tests to help determine the optimal combination of payment options. Many payment companies have free trials and refund policies for companies wanting to expand their paying methods. For help understanding and implementing the best digital payment choices for your company, contact us today.

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How Voice Integration Will Boost Your Digital Marketing Efforts

How Voice Integration Will Boost Your Digital Marketing Efforts

by | Jul 30, 2020 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce

The field of digital marketing continues to evolve with the introduction multiple forms of new technology. As voice technology becomes more readily available, experts have speculated how it will affect the various digital marketing platforms. The possibilities of this technology in the future are yet to be fully understood as voice search is only now beginning to become a favorite tool among customers. With voice assistance devices like Google Home and Amazon’s Echo becoming popular, brands need to take advantage of this technology to remain relevant.

What is Voice Search?

Voice search simply refers to voice recognition technology, which allows people to conduct online searches by speaking into a device. The device could be a smartphone, smart TV, computers, remote control, or home assistant devices. Since customers no longer have to type what they are looking for in their devices, this approach is considered faster and more convenient.

Successful voice marketing involves understanding how people use voice recognition technology to search for items and knowledge. As this technology continues to evolve, eCommerce brands will need to understand how their customers are using voice to search for products. Voice customer analytics is a good place to start as it shows the phrases and choice of words popular among the customers. Using this data to integrate voice interactions in your digital marketing efforts will earn you a competitive edge over others.

Why Brands Need to Adopt Voice Strategies

Webstores need to adopt voice in their marketing strategy because it is a popular emergent technology, which is expected to only get bigger and influence more of how customers interact with businesses. For instance, the Alexa Magento capabilities allow online store owners to keep track of their sales and store performance. You can simply ask Alexa to provide you with a weekly business summary, a report of the orders placed during the month, summary of best-selling products, and more. You can also create an Alexa customer service using Alexa for your Magento site for better voice interactions with customers.

The benefits of voice technology to customers cannot be overemphasized. Not only does voice technology drive more traffic to your site, but it also improves customer experience and helps your brand stay ahead of the competition. Both Google Assistant and Alexa can differentiate between voices, allowing brands to gain insights about users. Consequently, brands can create more personalized messages and content to improve the customer experience. The more personalized the content is, the more customer interactions become natural and seamless.

A voice search strategy is also important in preventing customers from finding your competitors easily. When you optimize your websites, you will have the chances of prospects finding you on search engines. Your SEO strategy becomes more competitive and you will be able to attract more prospects. As much as this technology is still in its nascent stages, businesses that have started using it report improved results.

How to Optimize for Voice Search

The rise of voice search is expected to revolutionize SEO and significantly affect digital marketing. When optimizing your eCommerce site for voice search, you will need to use conversational language and emphasize featured snippets. Using authoritative and informative content and transforming text search into long-tail questions are also crucial.

When optimizing your website for voice search, frame your content in the way people speak when performing the search. Your product listing, FAQ and landing pages should be optimized for voice search. Typically, people tend to speak in complete sentences when performing a voice as opposed to shorted or summarized queries when typing. While text searches focus on specific keywords, voice searches focus on conversational level language. Instead of optimizing “best hotel in New York,” your voice optimized content should be “what is the best hotel in New York.”

Currently, Google is prioritizing featured snippets that answer questions promptly and accurately. This means the more accurate your featured snippets are, the higher will be your ranking on search results. Creating informative and authoritative content gives you an edge on voice search results. Some of the consideration you should have include:

  • Use of natural-sounding language
  • Provision of concise answers to questions
  • Creating queries into question phrases
  • Targeting long-tail keywords
  • Focusing on action queries
  • Thinking about user intent
  • Keeping your website fast, secure, and mobile-friendly
  • Tightening up your local SEO schema
  • Completely filling out Google My Business Profile

How We Can Help

Implementing voice strategy in your marketing can prove to be a huge challenge, no matter your level of experience in the world of digital marketing. At InteractOne, we ensure that your content marketing reflects the needs of your customers. Before integrating voice interaction, we consider whether your target customers are smart-home enthusiasts, your content experience is valuable with voice, and the likelihood of the marketing efforts succeeding via voice.

When it comes to voice search optimization, there’s a lot to manage from search intent to local SEO. While implementing a voice search strategy is the first part of the equation, making sure it works is crucial. With all the opportunities the new technology is bringing, you will need to work with an expert in digital marketing. If you are stuck on how to make your digital marketing strategy more dynamic and diverse, we are here to help.  Let’s start a new project together!

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How to Integrate Omnichannel Marketing in Your Magento Site

How to Integrate Omnichannel Marketing in Your Magento Site

by | Jul 28, 2020 | Adobe/Magento, Digital Marketing, eCommerce

Omnichannel marketing is a revolutionary way of connecting with  customers. It offers a seamless experience to customers regardless of their choice of the medium or social media network. Omnichannel involves the use of multiple marketing channels to create a unified experience for the customers. Under this marketing approach, a seamless message is created that adjusts to the behavior and needs of the customers through the sales funnel. When integrating this approach to marketing in your Magento site, several factors apply:

Make Your Website Mobile-friendly

Omnichannel marketing combines both online and offline channels. For this reason, your website and eCommerce store should be ready for various devices, including mobile. With 79% of smartphone users making a purchase with their phones, a mobile-friendly site is likely to make more sales. When you optimize your website for mobile, you get to access customers on both desktop and mobile channels.

Identify Channels Your Customers Use the Most

Part of creating an omnichannel marketing channel is knowing which channels will generate more positive results. You should not jump from one channel to another with the hope of increasing customer interaction. Instead, identify and invest only in the channels your customers use the most. For instance, Facebook is an excellent choice for millennials and gen X adults while Instagram is more ideal for Gen Z adults. Linking your website to the appropriate channel will ensure you get the most from your efforts.

Engage the Whole Team

Omnichannel marketing is an all-inclusive approach to marketing. You cannot succeed if part of your team is not invested  in the strategy. Ensure that every team member is on board with your strategy, while putting the needs of your customers at the forefront. Engaging team members from all departments allows you to gather appropriate data and understand the contributions of each department. On one side, the product development team will provide adequate information about your products. On the other side, marketers will be sharing  this information via your site and other means and collecting customer data for better service provision.

Match Content with Marketing Channel

The content that you post on any specific channel should be relevant and appropriate. For instance, photos do well on Instagram while long posts work perfectly with Facebook. You can use influencer marketing videos to market your Magento site on TikTok or YouTube, and provide longer text-based content on email newsletters and blog posts. A common mistake that business owners make is replicating the same content across the channels. On the contrary, you should ensure that you make the most of the different channels by providing relevant content.

Remember that a big portion of the omnichannel strategy relies on the power of personalization and targeting. You need to achieve a deeper level of personalization for each group of customers. When crafting the message, make sure it fits the customer profile data, their shopping behavior, and campaign engagement.

Implement Shoppable Posts

One of the latest features that has proven effective in omnichannel marketing are shoppable posts. Shoppable posts are now common on social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. Instead of the traditional as that would direct people to your site to complete the purchase, shoppable posts allow customers to make a purchase directly on social media, removing multiple steps and clicks. This provides for a much more streamlined Checkout process that removes many of the steps previously required to facilitate a purchase. Taking advantage of this new content  allows you to increase sales through social media sites.

Segment Your Audience

The success of an omnichannel marketing approach in your Magento site will depend on how well you understand your audience. Each audience segment is looking for something specific. Consequently, different messages will  appeal to different groups. Make sure that you segment your customers before conducting lead generation for your website. This should be based on factors like customer data and triggers. The more data you have about your customers, the better your message will appeal to them. Some of the factors you may consider when segmenting your audience include gender, loyalty, geo-location, and previous engagement. You can then determine the most appropriate channel to use with each customer segment.

Provide Cross-Channel Customer Support

Customers expect the same level of efficiency and customer support across all your platforms. If your live chat support is effective but your Facebook chat is inactive, you are limiting your company’s availability and it could be costing you customers. In fact, a third of customers consider switching companies when they experience bad customer experience. To ensure success in omnichannel marketing, your brand must be  consistent across all your active channels. Both your social media messages, live chat, or email support should provide the same level of experience. Allow your customers to call your company or interact on a personal level to provide that extra personal touch.

Bottom Line

Integrating omnichannel marketing in your Magento site involves passing messages to customers across the various channels. Apart from making your site mobile-friendly, you will also need to take advantage of social media and other platforms. Most importantly, ensure that the content you provide is appropriate and ideal for the channel being used.  Talk to our Omnichannel Marketing Experts today and learn how to integrate omnichannel marketing in your magento site.

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