Recover Lost Sales With Abandoned Cart Email Templates

If you had to guess how frequently customers abandon their carts before completing their purchase, what would you say? Maybe 40 percent of the time? Or 50 percent? The answer is a whopping 70.1%! You can see why abandoned cart email templates are integral to successful marketing.

You may never know why a potential customer decided to abandon their cart. And that’s okay; you don’t have to. If you can write compelling email content that makes them change their mind, then all’s well that ends well.

The right abandoned cart templates can help you improve conversion rates and recover lost sales. In this blog post, we’ll show you various abandoned cart email templates, key elements, examples, and more.

Key Takeaways

• Creating effective abandoned cart emails requires clear and concise messaging, compelling subject lines, and promotional offers.
• Implementing your marketing strategies using EngageBay’s custom abandoned cart email templates puts you in the driver’s seat to success.

Key Elements of an Effective Abandoned Cart Email

The average open rate for an abandoned cart email is over 56%, and the click-through rate is nearly seven percent. Achieving these numbers in your campaign requires you to have the following elements in your abandoned cart email template.

Engaging subject line

Here’s your one and only chance to turn the tide and get the customer to reconsider their lack of purchase. You need a winning subject line that incentivizes the lead to open your email.

There are plenty of ways to write these kinds of quality subject lines. Here are some of my favorite tips:

• Connect emotionally: Put yourself in the customers’ shoes and imagine how they’d feel about your deal. Now, how will missing out make them feel? Sad? Angry? Jealous of others? Use those emotions to foster a stronger connection.
• Use urgent language: I’ll talk more about this briefly, but when you send an abandoned cart email, the subject line should clarify that this deal won’t last long.
• Add emojis: One or two emojis are okay to encourage more email opens. You can try these:
  • Alarm – 🚨
  • Money with wings – 💸
  • Flame – 🔥
  • Money bag – 💰
  • Alarm clock – ⏰
• Ask a question: Even a question as simple as: “Did you forget something?” works. The key is not to rely on simple questions with yes/no answers.
• Watch your character limit: It’s embarrassing and unfortunate when your subject lines exceed the limit. They get cut short when you send your email, hurting your re-engagement campaign. Stay within 50 to 60 characters.

Do you want a few sample subject lines to get you started when writing your abandoned cart email templates? I figured you would, so I prepared these for you:

• I Think You Forgot Something
• You Left This in Your Cart
• How Does 10% Off Your Purchase Sound?
• Come Back…?
• Hey, We Noticed Something in Your Cart
• We Saved Your Cart for You!
• It’s Not Too Late to Save on What’s in Your Cart

Read more: What is an Abandoned Cart Email?

Personalization

We are long past the days when email personalization was a nice-to-have. It’s now a must-have. The American Marketing Association reports that emails with personalization in the subject lines get 26 percent more opens.

Personalization starts with addressing the lead or customer by name. It goes a lot further beyond that, though.

If you’re trying to win them back, why not offer a complementary product or service that complements what they were initially going to purchase?

For instance, if the customer left a vacuum cleaner in their cart, you could offer them attachments and replacement hoses. Bundling the entire deal and reducing prices will surely get the lead to convert.

Clear and strong call to action (CTA)

Okay, you’ve got the lead to open your email. They like what they see and are perhaps ready to buy. Great. Now, you need a call to action to seal the deal.

A CTA, often used in button form, helps a lead or customer take the next step. In your case, the CTA will take them to your store page so they can complete their purchase.

Every element of your CTA must be conversion-ready, especially the copy. The best CTAs are concise, action-oriented, and clear. Your text can’t say “Click here” because where is “here”?

Here are some CTAs for abandoned cart email templates you can’t miss:

• Come Back and Save
• Claim Your Cart
• Check Out Your Items
• Save on Your Purchase
• Get Your Deal Now
• Click for Savings
• Buy Your Items Before They’re Gone

Social proof

As I said, you won’t know why your leads or customers abandoned their shopping carts. However, you should still cover as many of your bases as possible.

On that note, it helps to have social proof. Truly, it always helps to have social proof. Reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content increase trust.

Many consumers feel like they can trust their fellow shoppers over a company. Other consumers usually don’t have an agenda. Including even one testimonial or review on your product page can go a long way toward improving conversions.

Urgency

Okay, so let’s talk urgency, as I glossed over it before. An abandoned cart offer shouldn’t be good for long. You don’t want to give the customer too much time, after all. They could end up waffling again, costing you the sale for good.

Urgent-sounding language will instill in your customer that it’s now or never. Your abandoned cart email template needs terms like this:

• Only
• Limited-time
• Limited quantities
• Hurry
• Exclusive
• Now
• Immediately
• Final

Enhance Your Email Marketing

Bring your customers back with our beautifully crafted, easy-to-customize abandoned cart email templates! Simply personalize your brand’s images, headings, and CTAs, and send compelling reminders to recover lost sales in minutes!

Browse the Template Library

Types of Abandoned Cart Email Templates

You should always have abandoned cart email templates built into your email marketing campaign planning. This way, if you need to send them, you’ll be ready.

Whether you only have time to send a single reminder or a multi-part email sequence, don’t miss my favorite templates for making more sales. I’ll also share my best advice for writing these emails.

Single reminder emails

If you’re only going to remind your customer once about their abandoned cart, your email can’t miss a thing. It needs a strong opener, and I don’t only mean just the subject line. Your header text also needs to be killer.

Header text is part of the email header. If you go into your inbox, you should see all the emails have a few lines of text that act as a preview. That’s header text.

Besides that, you also need well-placed CTAs, urgent copy, good formatting (bullets, subheads), and visual media. After all, what entices people more than appealing imagery?

Oh, I know! That is a good offer. Make sure you have that as well.

This template, courtesy of EngageBay, is ready for your next email marketing campaign.

Email sequences

It usually takes a few emails to convert customers who abandoned their carts. You’ll get the best results if your first email goes out within 30 minutes of the cart being abandoned. Then, wait a few days after the initial cart abandonment email to send a second or third message.

A multi-email sequence requires more than timing. You also want to push for a sale but keep your email verbiage unique. If a customer feels like they keep seeing the same email over and over, they’ll report you for spam.

Here’s what I recommend. Your first email should be a cart abandonment notice. You can use the same type of template as before, offering your customer a deal to sweeten the pot. Then, within a day or three, you’d send a follow-up.

You should do that in the third email if you haven’t already sent a special offer or promotional discount. If you did make an initial offer, but the customer didn’t bite, the second offer should be even better. Email automation will help you automate when to send which emails based on triggers that you set.

Here’s the first cart reminder template:

Next, you’d send the follow-up email if you don’t get a response to your initial message. Here’s an abandoned cart email template to use:

Now, it’s time to convince the customer to act by introducing that sweet, sweet offer. Here’s a template to show you how to do it.

👉 Boost Sales with Free Abandoned Cart Email Templates by EngageBay

Incentive-based emails

Remember, the goal with abandoned cart email templates is to cover all your bases. This way, whatever the customer’s objection happens to be, you have a counterargument.

So, if your customers balk at your price or only buy when something is on sale, bring the sale to them. A limited-time discount for 24 or 48 hours should lead to more quickfire sales.

You can even offer free shipping. That will help customers save on their orders.

If that’s what you want to offer customers, you need to see this abandoned cart email template:

Service and support emails

And what if it was a support issue that stopped the customer from purchasing? Well, you can craft an email to help them with that issue, too.

The goal of a support-style abandoned cart email template is to put the customer at ease. You want to clear any doubts they might have and alleviate any concerns. That will remove any roadblocks stopping them from finalizing their purchase.

Check out how to write one of these abandoned cart messages via this handy template:

Read more: 7 Tips and Examples To Craft the Perfect Abandoned Cart Email

Crafting Your Abandoned Cart Email

It’s time to bring your abandoned cart email template to life with rich, enticing visuals that make customers realize what they’re missing. The first part of this section will explore layout and design choices that grab attention.

Next, I’ll delve into how to ace your messaging and content. Your abandoned cart email templates will be 10 times better by the time you see all my tips and advice!

Design and layout

Okay, so let’s start with those visuals. The following pointers will help you create a compelling design that gets people clicking once they’ve opened your emails.

Embrace clean and uncluttered

Think of where your customer is on their journey through the funnel. They’re aware of your products. Maybe they’re even interested. Yet there’s something stopping them from buying.

When you consider those points, you can see why an uncomplicated design is best. The customer doesn’t need to be bombarded with product images. They know your product already. Maybe one image as a reminder is fine, but that’s all you need.

Instead of an image, I like using an explainer video. You can provide more information that could possibly drive the conversion.

Otherwise, your email needs to be simple and visually uncluttered. Keep your visual media such as images a good size and use whitespace to separate the other elements.

As a bonus, your email will also be more mobile-optimized, especially if you use the mobile-friendly single-column layout.

Use a contrasting color for the CTA

The point of a CTA button is to be seen. Sometimes, you can get everything else right but the color. Even if your CTA is placed well, you won’t get clicks and conversions if the color doesn’t stand out.

For instance, if your brand colors are dark blue, using a lighter shade of blue isn’t enough. Instead, your CTA should be a variation of orange. Why? Orange is the opposite of blue on the color wheel. They’re complementary colors.

Some other complementary colors I’m fond of are:

• Cranberry red and mint green
• Bubblegum pink and light teal
• Lavender purple and tangerine orange
• Bright lemon yellow and hot pink

See this email here? Look at the contrasting CTA button and how beautifully it stands out. That’s how you do it!

Keep your design responsive

Although most people who access your emails will use their phones to do so, not everyone will. A responsive design means your emails render the same across devices. That allows your audience to see your emails on their preferred devices.

Watch your font choices

One of the fastest ways to hurt your email marketing campaign is choosing the wrong font.

Downloaded fonts are a no-go. Look, I like a cool downloaded font, too. But what if your recipient doesn’t have the same font downloaded? There are no guarantees it will render properly. In other words, your message could get garbled simply by a bad font choice.

Even if you use the standard fonts, if you choose the wrong size, you can similarly hurt your campaign.

No one wants to squint to read your emails. You don’t know what device they’re reading on or what their brightness settings are. If they can’t see what the message says, they won’t bother reading or engaging with it.

And while I like a larger text for my reading purposes, there’s a difference between bigger text and grandma-sized text.

The rule of thumb is to stick within 10 to 16 points.

Read more: Mastering the eCommerce Abandoned Cart Email

Content and messaging

Your tone matters so much when messaging your audience. It sets the stage for the entire email.

The goal of an abandoned cart email template isn’t to instill shame in your customers for not completing a purchase. You want to help them close the deal. Go above and beyond to provide support and assistance.

Here are tone variations for your email based on your brand voice:

• Formal: Can We Help You Complete Your Purchase?
• Informal: So…You Left These in Your Cart
• Friendly: Hey! You Forgot About These
• Mysterious: Psst…Your Cart Has a Secret Waiting for You
• Funny: We Miss You Already! (Please Come Back)
• Informational: How Can We Help Make Your Purchase Easier?

Read also: Elevate Special Moments With These Celebration Email Templates

Best Practices for Abandoned Cart Email Campaigns

I’m not done with the tips yet! I have a handful of strategies you can implement to further set up your abandoned cart emails for success.

Timing

If a customer didn’t prioritize your items enough to purchase them, how much thought do you think they’ll give to your brand after the fact? Not much.

That’s why you have to jump in with the abandoned cart emails sooner than later. Ideally, the email should go out within 30 minutes of the cart abandonment.

You can wait up to four hours, but I wouldn’t go longer. Truthfully, I wouldn’t wait more than an hour or two. Each minute that passes makes it harder to close the deal and convert the customer.

If you’re struggling to get the timing right on your abandoned cart email templates, know that you don’t have to do it alone. You can use automation to schedule your emails so they arrive promptly.

Frequency

And what about the frequency of abandoned cart email templates? Well, it goes back to what I talked about before. You could send a single email or add a few follow-ups.

If you choose to send follow-ups, I recommend limiting them to three emails at most. You’ll recall that you also shouldn’t send them one after another.

Instead, let’s say you send Email #1 on a Monday. This is your first abandoned cart notice. If the customer doesn’t complete their purchase after that email, then on Tuesday, you’d send Email #2. However, if they still don’t buy, then you’d send Email #3 on Thursday.

So, plan the first email within a few hours of the abandoned cart, the second within 24 hours of the first, and the third within 48 hours of the second.

A/B testing

Think of the visual elements of your abandoned cart email template like a puzzle. You have to shuffle everything around to find the perfect fit. That’s the outcome of A/B testing.

Here are the variables that should go into your split tests and what kinds of results you should expect:

• Images: Testing can reveal which images you should use in your emails, where they should go on the page, and what size they should be.
• Branding: Although you won’t deviate from your brand, you can test variations of your brand colors or various logo placements in your emails.
• Headers and footers: Testing will reveal which header text is best, which information to put in the footer (such as social media handles or other contact information), and which colors the headers and footers should be.
• Subject line: One of the most important elements of A/B testing is comparing subject lines. You can tweak yours so it’s more likely to resonate with your target market.
• Body copy: Test all elements of the email body, including the formatting, headers, and subheads. Make minor adjustments so the copy is enjoyable to read and readiest to convert.
• Background color: Should you choose a beige or light pink background? A/B testing can confirm the ideal color palette for your email, keeping factors such as readability in mind.
• Text: You can also test the typeface in your emails, including the font name, point size, color, and other elements, such as bolded or italicized. You can then choose your font accordingly.
• Layout: Another of the most critical elements of A/B testing is ensuring your email layout is mobile-optimized. You might switch the layout formatting or column numbers based on your results.
• CTA: Get ready to test all elements of your call-to-action button, including the size, shape, color, placement, and copy. You can increase conversions by taking the time to test each element one at a time.

Analyzing performance

So, how did your abandoned cart email marketing campaign perform? That’s the big question, and you can reveal the answer by studying your analytics.

An email marketing tool like EngageBay allows you to track your numbers as they come in. You can also use Google Analytics.

Of course, you want to pay attention to your open and click-through rates. You should also track bounce rates, conversions, sales, and ROI.

Read also: Perfect Apology Email Templates to Repair Customer Relationships

EngageBay’s Abandoned Cart Email Templates

As you gear up to reconnect with your lost customers, you need software to help you achieve results easily. You need EngageBay.

Introduction to EngageBay

EngageBay is a CRM and marketing, sales, and service platform for businesses of every size. Created as an alternative to pricy marketing tools, EngageBay is one of the most respected platforms of its kind today.

Its email marketing tools run the gamut, with EngageBay’s abandoned cart email templates one of its most popular. These, as well as many others, are part of EngageBay’s 1,000+ free HTML email templates.

Choosing EngageBay for your email marketing needs couldn’t be easier or more efficient. You can create the right email template for your abandoned cart campaign, as EngageBay gives you three options.

Each of EngageBay’s email templates is completely customizable. You can adjust various elements to suit your brand and campaign message, taking a standard template and making it your own.

If you have a favorite third-party email template you would like to use, EngageBay supports uploading those templates. You can import the template into EngageBay and adjust it as needed.

Your third option is to build an email template from scratch through coding. You can ensure entirely original results.

Get started with EngageBay’s abandoned cart email templates

EngageBay’s cart abandonment email templates will help you find the right words to express your message, improve audience trust, and increase sales.

You can use these templates with first-time customers on the cusp of converting. You can even rely on our cart abandonment templates for use with longer-term customers. They’re incredibly versatile.

Better yet, you have the freedom to customize your email templates. You can remove elements, change the existing elements around, or add to them. EngageBay’s straightforward editable email templates make you feel like a pro.

Conclusion

Abandoned cart email templates give customers a second chance at converting. These emails must be well-crafted; further, you must be willing to adapt your strategies continually.

EngageBay is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer support software for small businesses, startups, and solopreneurs. You get email marketing, marketing automation, landing page and email templates, segmentation and personalization, sales pipelines, live chat, and more. 

Sign up for free with EngageBay or book a demo with our experts.

FAQ

What should be included in an abandoned cart email?

A successful abandoned cart email requires the following elements:

• Interesting subject line
• Header text
• Personalization
• Formatting
• High-quality media (images and/or videos)
• Call to action that stands out
• Valuable offer
• Footer
• Branding
• A/B testing

How often should I send abandoned cart emails?

You should send your first abandoned cart message within 30 minutes to four hours of the missed purchase. Then, wait at least a day before a second follow-up. Give it three days before you send the third follow-up.

What are some common mistakes to avoid in abandoned cart emails?

Bombarding the customer with emails is one of the most egregious errors. You might think you’re increasing the chances of making a sale. In reality, you’re annoying the customer and turning them away.

Besides that, failing to make an incentivizing offer is another mistake.

How can I measure the success of my abandoned cart email campaigns?

Review how many people open and engage with your emails. Additionally, track the bounce rate, how many leads have converted, and what your ROI is.

Can I automate my abandoned cart emails? If so, how?

Yes, you can. In fact, the best way to manage abandoned cart email templates is through automation. EngageBay’s all-in-one marketing, sales, and service software has marketing automation built in at an affordable rate.