How to reduce the impact of shopping cart abandonment with an e-gift card?

All brands and retailers with an e-commerce activity are experiencing cart abandonment. The rate is high: 69% of consumers who have filled their baskets, have given up on the act of purchase in 2021. For visitors making their first visit to the site, the rate is even higher. Here only 1% will move on to purchase directly.

*Baymard Institute

This is a real issue for online retailers. Each abandoned cart represents a loss of profit, and an additional opportunity for competitors who are just a click away. However, nothing is lost. If a consumer fills his cart, he clearly shows an intention, it only remains to transform this intention into action. So how do you motivate them? How to limit the repercussions of shopping cart abandonment? Several tools exist, we will talk here about the dematerialized gift card.

Why is there a high cart abandonment rate?

There are many reasons why a visitor abandons his shopping cart. Accumulated, they can explain why e-commerce in general has a high abandonment rate.

The first and most obvious reason is: a check-out that is not fast enough or not simple enough. Consumers are forced to go through several steps, sometimes redundant or complicated. For example, some sites require the creation of an account in order to validate the shopping cart, which prevents some visitors from ordering in a few minutes.

Delivery and shipping costs: One of the main causes is delivery. For the same product sold on two different e-commerce sites, the services will undoubtedly make the difference. The most important one is delivery. Some sites do not announce delivery costs from the beginning. As a result, the amount of visitors’ shopping cart is inflated without having anticipated it, which leads to abandonment. Others do not offer enough choice in the transport of packages. Relay point, express, by mail, in closed boxes… today new technologies are reshaping the delivery landscape. Internet users want to be able to find the means that suits them. In addition to the package transport, they will be attentive to returns. Easy, fast, and if possible free. The easier it will appear to them, the more they will be motivated to make the purchase, without being afraid of making a mistake.

Payment methods: many people give up on their shopping cart when they get to the payment page. If it is too complex, or if an element of the checkout process does not work well, even though the customer has filled in the right information, they give up. Today, several elements are in place to save time: the one-click payment that revolutionized ecommerce some years ago, or simply automatically recognize if the credit card is a VISA or Mastercard, without the customer having to do it manually. Second thing: the limited choices in payment methods. If a visitor doesn’t find what he wants, he will leave. Some will leave their sessions if they don’t have enough confidence in the site or in the payment solution in place.

In the research phase: There are Internet users who put products in their shopping cart, but who have no intention of buying. Why do they do this? They use the shopping cart to anticipate the final amount and then compare the price with other competing sites. Others, knowing that the cart will be saved, use it to create a wish list because the site does not offer this tool. Finally, others do their shopping in several steps, and intend to come back later to finish their cart.

How to overcome cart abandonment?

For the most part, i.e. 61% of Internet users, they have decided to abandon their shopping cart because the final price is much too high. Others still hesitate to validate their purchases. Even if those consumers have given up on buying, they are still likely to do so later. So how do you get them back on track and motivate them to make a purchase?

An automated emailing scenario with the e-gift card

First of all, you have to ask yourself if you know the customer’s personal information. If so, a formidable technique exists: emailing.

This method consists in sending an email shortly after the visit of the Internet user. The subject is a summary of the basket that the consumer has not validated. The goal is to make a reminder that can trigger the purchase. As a proof, 60% of the emails sent a few minutes to 2 hours after the visit lead to the validation of the abandoned cart.

*Salesforce

How to make the email reminder effective?

If the consumer hesitates or finds the price too high, offering a promotion can be relevant. One of the most effective tools is the e-gift card. With a predefined amount (for example 5€ or 10€) and a time limit (24 hours to 2 days), the dematerialized gift card is more efficient than a simple coupon. At least 80% of Internet users prefer it to the latter*. Why? Well, it is directly associated with a real gift, as if consumers were receiving it from their loved ones.
In this case, it is offered by the brand, to support the users’ shopping. Net benefit: it is seen as a reward so users will be more likely to validate their shopping carts.

*NAPCO

But to maximize the number of returns, brands need to set up an automated emailing scenario. Scheduling 3 different reminder emails increases the chances that the user will decide to return to the e-commerce site.

• To do this, it is recommended to send a first simple email, a summary of the cart with images, the final amount, and insert a link directly to the payment page.
• If no return has been identified, it is advisable to send a second email which will contain the famous digital gift card as a promotion, inviting the consumer to validate his basket as soon as possible to not miss this opportunity. It is interesting to send a link to the payment page, where the code of the gift card is already registered, always to impose the least possible steps. Finally, the third element is to offer additional recommendations based on the items in the shopping cart. It is known that gift card holders are more likely to make so-called impulse purchases.
• A third and final email can be sent as a reminder. Here, it is not only about the abandoned cart, but about the deadline of the e-gift card.

If ever a customer is too late to validate, and one of the items is missing (out of stock), being able to offer a dematerialized gift card for the exact amount of the product in question could make him wait until it is back in stock.

Who to send it to?

It is essential, before sending emails, to make sure you target the right person. Set up a segmentation is a crucial step. For example, you can segment according to the type of product in the shopping cart, the amount of the cart, whether it is the first time or not that the user abandons his cart, if it is a new visitor…

When sending a promotion such as an electronic gift card, for example, it is better to target new customers who have not yet purchased on the site. Otherwise, there is a risk of creating a habit among current customers who know the trick to get a discount.

Retargeting with the digital gift card

It happens that a new visitor abandons his cart, without having registered beforehand. The brand or retailer has no information to send him push messages via emailing. Therefore, it is necessary to set up advertising retargeting. The goal is to be able to follow the visitor, thanks to cookies, during his navigation on the Internet, and to be able to deliver specific messages on dedicated spaces of the visited websites.

As for emailing, it seems interesting to push the items which are in the abandoned cart. And here too, the e-gift card has its role to play as a promotional tool. Unlike a coupon code, the e-gift card allows you to know precisely the behaviour of the consumer who has it (when what, how…). We can have valuable information on its use and thus improve the retargeting campaigns.

However, be aware: the segmentation and the setting of the capping (number of times the ad will be seen by the user), are important steps in the process, to avoid being too intrusive.

A pop-up before closing the session

It is possible to reduce shopping cart abandonment by setting up a pop-up that appears when the visitor intends to leave the website without validating his purchase. It is especially effective for new visitors and those who are hesitant. We have seen a conversion rate of over 32% with its implementation. * But for this pop-up to be effective, it is recommended to add a promotion, such as the e-gift card.

*Salecycle

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Shopping cart abandonment is an element to consider. Far from being a negative element, it marks the intention of consumers, which must be converted into a purchase. Emailing, pop-up, retargeting… several techniques exist. And to make it happen, using the e-gift card as a promotional tool will increase the performance of the reminders.

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