Abandoned carts are a real phenomenon – and a challenge for Shopify merchants everywhere. According to a study by the Baymard Institute, most US shoppers will add a product to their cart without going through with a purchase. Shopify abandoned cart emails and Klaviyo email marketing can be real lifesavers, helping to recover orders and close more sales.
Think of it this way: visitors who abandoned their cart have already shown genuine interest by adding one of your products to it. These are precisely the potential customers you don’t want to lose without making an effort to re-engage them.
In this article, we’ll share tips on crafting the perfect Shopify abandoned cart emails and walk you through the five steps to successfully use Klaviyo marketing, just as we do at our agency.
What Are Shopify Abandoned Cart Emails?
Shopify abandoned cart emails are designed to target shoppers who added a product to their cart but didn’t complete the checkout process. These emails serve as a gentle reminder about the item left behind and encourage shoppers to return and finalise their purchase.
If you’re using a major eCommerce platform like Shopify, your store might already have abandoned cart emails enabled. However, with Klaviyo, you can create highly customised emails, increasing the likelihood of turning visitors into customers.
Why Do Visitors Abandon their Carts?
It’s common for shoppers to visit online stores just to browse or before they are ready to make a purchase. They then abandon products in their cart, and if that’s where the story ends, that means a potentially lost sale for you.
Shopify abandoned cart emails reengage visitors and give them a second chance to become loyal customers.
Why Are Shopify Abandoned Cart Emails Important?
Shopify abandoned cart email flows are important because of one simple reason; they work. Abandoned cart flows are the single most profitable email series, generating an average revenue of $3.42 per recipient. The reason? Shopify abandoned cart emails allow you to target customers who clearly have a desire to buy your products.
A visitor who adds a product to their cart is “highly aware”, meaning that they know about your business and at least one of your products. More than that, they’re specifically interested in at least one of them.
That’s why reengaging these “almost-customers” is so effective and why this customer winback method can help you increase your sales. There could be several reasons why the visitor didn’t complete the purchase, but there is a distinct possibility that a gentle nudge could be all they need to go through with it.
5 Tips to Compose the Perfect Shopify Abandoned Cart Emails
Let’s go through the things you’ll have to keep in mind to create Shopify abandoned cart emails that rekindle your future customer’s desire to buy your product.
1. Catch Their Attention with Humour
Before you can do anything, you need to catch your reader’s attention with your subject line and make them click on your email. The best way to do this is to keep it short, personal, and catchy.
Using a light tone will make the customer feel like there’s a person behind the email. They’re not being spammed by a robot. They're just getting a brief reminder from someone who sounds like a friend.
Examples:
- Hey Sarah, where’d you go?
- Oops, you forgot your shopping cart!
- Phew, we saved your cart for you.
- Your cart misses you!
When possible, adding the shopper’s name by personalizing subject lines is always a good start to the subject line. Mentioning the product in their cart is another way to make the subject line seem personal and enticing. If you have fewer products in your online store, try to find a humorous line that is specific to your product or brand.
Naturally, humour doesn't have to be limited to the subject line of Shopify abandoned cart emails. The best Klaviyo flows have emails that include humour in the rest of the email too, for example in the CTA (Call to action). Instead of a “Buy Now”-button, why not find a more unique spin?
Examples:
- Take me to my cart!
- Pick up where you left off
- Find your way back to your cart
Source: Snuggle Puppy
2. Soothe Their Fears
Next, address any potential objections the shopper might have. Perhaps they lacked sufficient knowledge about your product or trust in your brand.
Effective Shopify abandoned cart emails can ease these concerns by leveraging social proof. Include short, attention-grabbing reviews, ratings, or testimonials from previous customers. A simple “See what others are saying” followed by one or two powerful testimonials can highlight the unique value of your product.
This approach utilizes user-generated content (UGC) to showcase your product’s quality and reinforce your brand’s authenticity.
Source: Glow For It
3. Shine with Your Customer Service
When customers lack knowledge of your brand, another thing that can appease them is the promise of fantastic customer care. Let your visitor know about your customer service being available for them any time they might need it.
One way is to include a review in your Shopify abandoned cart emails which comments on your good customer care in your social proof. Another option is to really show them your commitment by inviting them to contact your customer service – maybe even inviting them to a 1:1 call to get their questions about the product answered.
Source: The Oodie
4. Offer a Small Discount if Possible
Shopify abandoned cart emails can also address another common objection that might have stopped a visitor from completing their purchase: the price tag. If possible, offering a personalised discount code can provide the final nudge the shopper needs to take the leap.
Including a limited-time discount in your abandoned cart email not only creates a sense of urgency but also makes the customer feel like they’re getting an unmissable opportunity.
The advantage of offering this type of discount to cart abandoners is that it doesn’t diminish the perceived value of your brand. However, consider holding off on including a discount code in the first abandoned cart email and reserving it for one of the follow-up emails instead.
Source: Luxury Yoni
5. Don’t “Spam”, But Insist
Nobody likes to feel spammed. Try not to annoy your potential customers with too many follow-up emails. That said, multiple Shopify abandoned cart emails generally have better results than just one.
Where’s the balance? According to Klaviyo’s abandoned cart benchmark report, having an abandoned cart email flow with 2–3 emails will lead to optimal performance.
So, a few emails are enough. An example of how to design your email sequence is:
- The reminder: The first email catches their attention with a personalized, humorous subject line, reminding them of the product they didn’t buy
- The discount: The second email follows up with a limited discount code for the product
- The feedback: The third and last follow-up email asks the visitor for customer feedback, making them contemplate if they really have a reason for not buying the product, and giving you a chance to understand their potential objections
The first email should be sent not too long after the cart was abandoned; for example, 3–4 hours after the visitor left the cart. The last email shouldn’t be sent too soon nor too late; a week is a reasonable last follow-up.
How Create Your Abandoned Cart Flow – Step by Step
Let’s walk through how to set up your Shopify abandoned cart emails in Klaviyo. These steps are based on Shopify, as it offers the best integration with Klaviyo. However, the same general process can be applied to other eCommerce platforms.
Step 1: Integrate Your Platform to Klaviyo
First, you have to connect Klaviyo to your eCommerce platform, for example Shopify. You do this by going to Integrations in Klaviyo.
Step 2: Create the Flow
Next, you need to create the abandoned cart email flow, by going to “Flows” and clicking on “Create a flow”.
An easy way to create your flow is by starting with the default flow for an abandoned cart email Klaviyo provides. This way, a placeholder email is already built for you, and all you need to do is adjust it. The best Klaviyo email flows don’t have to be created from scratch.
Step 3: Build the Abandoned Cart Email
As you open the email, don’t be frightened by the code (also called merge tags) that you’ll see at first. Click “preview” and then “show directly in Klaviyo” to get the view that the customer will get when they receive the message.
The metrics need to be activated in your eCommerce store before the merge tags are visible, so activate them before you keep going with the design.
Don’t edit the code in the block, but apart from that, you can now start editing the styling and the email to tailor it to your brand. Remember to add the time delay between the Shopify abandoned cart emails in your series, or your visitor might be bombarded with messages.
Step 4: Add Splits into the Flow
Klaviyo also allows you to add splits into your email flows. This is a kind of conditional logic that can be applied to decide who gets which Shopify abandoned cart emails.
For example, you can add a conditional split for new versus returning customers. If you add the rule “has placed order zero times over all time”, you can make sure only first-time cart abandoners receive a follow-up email with a discount code.
You can also use splits to split customers by where they live or which products they have in their cart.
Step 5: Activate Your Abandoned Cart Flow
Lastly, if you had a default platform abandoned cart email enabled previously, don’t forget to turn it off before activating your flow. This ensures that your customers won’t receive double batches of emails.
In Shopify, this is done by going to Settings > Notification Settings > Abandoned checkout settings, and unchecking “Automatically send abandoned checkout emails”.
Now, you can finally activate your new abandoned cart flow. Go into the flow in Klaviyo and switch all the flows from the status “Draft” to “Live”.
If you wish to make sure that the flow is working the way you want it to, simply abandon a cart yourself and check out the results!
Shopify Abandoned Cart Emails: Key Takeaways
Klaviyo’s Shopify abandoned cart emails can help you recover orders, increase your conversion rate, and sell more. Just follow our 5 tips, and you’ll be on your way to recover orders with the email marketing Klaviyo provides.
Remember to use humour, soothe your visitors’ fears, impress them with your customer service, offer a small discount when possible, and send the right number of emails.
You can also easily create an abandoned cart flow by integrating your platform to Klaviyo, creating the flow, building the email, adding splits, and activating the flow.
Now that you know about the benefits of Shopify abandoned cart emails and Klaviyo flows, you’re well on your way to recovering as many cart abandoners as possible - which can only increase sales!
