Updated on June 14, 2022
According to industry studies from multiple sources, 69% of shoppers abandon their cart before making a purchase. And that number climbs above 80% in some studies.
If those numbers stopped you mid-thought, go back and read them again. These statistics are the stuff of nightmares for marketers, sales teams, and UX designers.
It’s an issue that every company has to contend with. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a global e-Commerce brand or a mom-and-pop store that just launched a website in 2020. And that shared struggle has driven people to find a solution that can work in a variety of situations.
Abandoned cart strategies fill this void. The use of e-Commerce chatbots can give highly effective techniques to pull abandoned cart customers back into your sales pipeline..
Dealing with cart abandonment rates
As we just covered, cart abandonment is a pretty widespread issue across every e-Commerce industry. The overall percentage is somewhere in the region of 79.17%. This means you have more abandoned carts than you have new customers.
And as more and more shoppers transition to digital storefronts, that number will only affect your business in greater ways. Thankfully, converting abandoned cart customers is only an uphill battle — not a helpless one.
You’re probably familiar with the idea of abandoned cart emails. Mailchimp claims that a well-built email campaign that targets this issue can raise your orders-per-recipient rate by 34x. That is a big improvement…assuming your email strategy works.
The problem here is that not every user who browses your website will give you their emails. If they do, you have no control over how many of them will even open emails you send. That’s why investing in a top of the line e-Commerce chatbot can play such a big role.
Instead of sending a bulk email, using automated systems to engage those would-be customers can help deliver a more personalized experience. By tailoring your efforts for each person, you increase the likelihood of building a sense of trust.
And the easiest way to get personalized solutions is by using an automated chatbot.
Reduce abandoned carts with e-commerce chatbot
Cart abandonment happens for a whole catalogue of reasons. But one of the biggest challenges for any marketing or sales team is figuring out the reason behind each lead’s decision and what (if anything) you can change to address that.
Chances are that even if you do know the most popular reasons behind cart abandonment on your site, you won’t have the capacity to make adjustments for every situation.
Sure, you could rely on email or popup surveys and try to find out the reasons why people are abandoning their carts. But what if you could automate that process? What if you could avoid creating another email campaign, and cut down the number of emails you send each lead?
An e-Commerce chatbot can do the heavy lifting for you. Instead of collecting data and trying to make assumptions behind every abandoned cart, you can use an e-Commerce chatbot to collect that data.
Here’s an example of how this actually works:
Jamenson Alvarez with Latam Digital Marketing saw a 980% boost in customer conversations after switching to a chatbot system.
The reason? Customers saw immediate benefits from the automated communication because their questions were resolved quickly and with zero hassle. Meanwhile, the chatbot data helped Alvarez’s team “generate business opportunities that [they] can redirect to [their] sales executives.”
Instead of guessing what works or doesn’t work, this type of automated communication helps you find out exactly how you can improve the customer experience and increase conversions at the same time.
In many cases (including those listed in that image), the reason people abandon their cart is a temporary complaint. And that means those leads will most likely return to your site at some point, either to consider alternative options or to read blog articles, download free assets, etc.
By using a chatbot that can review data, you can directly (and automatically) engage with those people. A few questions are all it takes to learn why they abandoned their cart, what steps you can take to address their concerns or answer their questions, and even offer a one-time discount code to incentivize a purchase.
Once you pin down what the problem is, you have a few options on how you proceed.
Suggested Read: How to Boost E-Commerce Conversion Rate Using Chatbots
Option #1: Engage customers during checkout
With a chatbot system in place, you’re able to interact with customers before or during checkout instead of surveying them after they abandon their cart. This can be a great opportunity to provide FAQs about the checkout process.
Think of it as automating customer service before the customer is even aware that they have a problem to overcome.
On one hand, you can address any questions or concerns before they become obstacles during checkout. And added the second bonus is that you can help steer customers to the product or service that best meets their needs.
The end goal is to create more satisfied customers who leave with the purchase and heading off concerns as early as possible can do exactly that.
Bonus: Ecommerce Chatbots: Improve Sales And Retention
Option #2: Provide information and resources
The most common reasons behind cart abandonment come down to people doing research and exploring their options. This is the perfect situation for your chatbot because a few careful questions can find out what is keeping that individual from a purchase decision.
If your e-Commerce chatbot determines that a lead is still in the research stage of the buyer’s journey, you have an easy step forward: Provide additional information. By sharing blog posts, tutorials, or testimonials that talk more about your product or service, you’re not just educating someone — you’re solidifying their relationship with you and their trust in your brand.
Option #3: Reconsider your pricing structure
Let’s say your chatbot data shows that most of your abandoned carts are a result of cost. Well, if you’re part of the marketing team, you may not have any say in pricing, shipping rates, or taxes. And while the obvious solution is to incentivize abandoned cart customers with a one-time discount code, you don’t want to build a business around a devalued product.
Think about the extra costs embedded into your checkout process. If you are pushing a product for $100, it should be no surprise that adding $20 in added fees could deter customers.
The easiest solution is to include those additional items in the price of your product. Even if the price increases, customers know what they’re paying instead of discovering it after going through the entire checkout process.
These three steps provide some great starting points. When you begin to integrate your e-Commerce chatbot software into abandoned cart strategies. Try to improve your chatbot’s functionality, with the collected user’s data in the process. You will eventually decrease the number of customers who leave a purchase on the table.
At Kommunicate, we are envisioning a world-beating customer support solution to empower the new era of customer support. We would love to have you on board to have a first-hand experience of Kommunicate. You can signup here and start delighting your customers right away.
