Email Requirements and Cart Abandonment Recovery

This is not a drill - we have very urgent news about changes made by Google and Yahoo that you need to know.

This is a MUST READ if you ever plan on sending another email. 

If you miss this, all of your emails will go straight to spam for all Gmail and Yahoo email addresses.

Don’t worry though - We’ve got your back though and are going to walk you through exactly what you need to do to stay on track.

This isn’t just a newsflash though -

We’re committed to increasing your sales with every issue of Shopbytes™.

But first we’re also going to show you how to double your sales by reducing cart abandonment.

Double Your Sales With Cart Recovery

You know what makes us warm and fuzzy inside?

It’s not a steamy bowl of chicken noodle soup.

It’s not even a basket full of puppies…

What makes us warm and fuzzy inside inside is customers completing checkout.

You’ve worked hard to hack your competitor’s traffic and take them on the perfect customer journey, and a completed checkout is the ultimate chef’s kiss of running an online business.

On the other side, we hate abandoned checkouts…

Every week someone asks us “Why do so many people leave products in their carts?”

The Truth About Cart Abandonment:

70-80% of your store visitors will abandon their cart with products in it before completing checkout.

This is NORMAL.

And the number is even higher on mobile devices.

Here’s a simple example:

100 visitors →10 add to cart → 8 abandon cart → 2 finish checkout.

This example gives you a conversion rate of 2% overall. (2 out of 100 visitors finished checkout).

Here’s where it gets exciting:

We’re not just stuck living in the world of missing out on sales.

We can take very direct action to get the customer to come back and complete their checkout.

That’s what’s called Abandonment Recovery, and it’s so beautiful, it brings a tear to my eye.

If you can recover just 2 of those abandonments, that gives you a 4% conversion rate and doubles your sales.

In this example, 2 recoveries isn’t a 2% increase in sales…

It’s a 100% increase in sales!

This is just an example based on averages for a lot of the stores we’ve seen, but it should give you an idea of how important it is to put significant effort into reducing abandonments and increasing your abandonment recovery to improve your conversion rate.

But Why do Users Abandon Their Cart?

Some abandonments are unavoidable:

• Window Shoppers

• Price Checkers

• Product “Savers” (that never really plan on coming back)

• Gift Shoppers

• And more…

According to Baymard Institute’s latest study for reasons for abandonment found that 47.8% of US online shoppers have abandoned a cart within the last 3 months because “I was just browsing / not ready to buy.”

Most of these will abandon even before they initiate the checkout flow.

However, if we segment out these people that are  “just browsing”, and look at the remaining reasons for abandonments we get the following distribution:

Reasons for Abonnement During Cart & Checkout (2023 data):

• 47% Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees)

• 25% The site wanted me to create an account

• 24% Delivery was too slow

• 19% I didn't trust the site with my credit card information

• 18% Too long / complicated checkout process

• 17% I couldn't see / calculate total order cost up-front

• 16% Returns policy wasn't satisfactory

• 14% Website had errors / crashed

• 11% There weren't enough payment methods

• 6% The credit card was declined

Alas, there is hope young Padawan!

Here’s the part you really want to know -

The Top 10 Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment

1. Shipping Rates and Free Shipping

   •Make them reasonable and offer a free shipping threshold if a customer spends a certain amount

2.  Clear shipping options and delivery days (see the example below)

3. Use “exit intent” popups. 

   •When someone appears to be leaving the site, a popup will appear with a special incentive to complete checkout.

4. Do not require an account to purchase. Make accounts optional.

5. Make you cart and checkout simple, clean and free of clutter.

   •Reduce the number of clicks where possible.

6. Use email flows or automations to ask people to come back and complete checkout.

7. Use SMS text flows or automations 

   •(TIP: only send 1 SMS per person per abandonment, it is illegal to send more than 1)

8. Have a great guarantee and easy return process.

9. Run “retargeting” ads on all platforms.

   •These are ads that show up for people that leave your site without making a purchase.

   •AdRoll  (https://www.adroll.com/)  is a simple way to do this across almost all ad platforms.

10. Add social proof or reviews on your cart and checkout page.

This may seem like a lot at first, but just take small bytes to start (see what I did there?)

That’s what improving your store is all about-

Add together all of the small pieces for HUGE results.

We know that if you focus on this and take the time to implement/optimize these, you WILL reduce your abandonments and make MORE money!!!

We know that was some juicy info about making more money, but here’s the really urgent matter that you need to pay attention to now.

Changes You Need To Make Before Tuesday

If you miss this, all of your emails will go straight to spam for all Gmail and Yahoo email addresses.

Beginning next month, Google and Yahoo will require all emails to have:

1. One-click unsubscribes

2. DMARC authentication set up

3. Low spam complaint rates

4. Clean email lists

The Steps You Need to Take:

1. Check with your email service provider (ESP) and make sure they support this functionality. One-Click unsubscribes makes it easy for recipients to unsubscribe with one click and is a new requirement.

2. DMARC IS REQUIRED AFTER FEB 1st. DMARC authentication verifies that emails are legitimate. Here is how to set up DMARC on Google. If you are not using Google Workspace, contact your ESP on how to set up DMARC.

3. Keep your spam rate below 0.3% per 1,000 emails. Monitor spam complaints weekly.

Make sure your email campaigns are delivering in 2024 and beyond! Take these four steps and keep your emails out of spam boxes.

If You’re Not Using Email Campaigns, Shame On You

We’re kidding, but only a little…

We regularly see email campaigns account for 30%+ of a store’s revenue (40%+ for supplement brands).

Let’s be clear: We’re not talking about spam emails with nothing but promos and sales.

We’re talking about creating value-add email campaigns that your audience looks forward to and loves to read.

If you’re not already using email, here’s your sign that it’s time to step up your game.

The good news is, we’re here to help at ShopBytes™ and will be sharing more about that in coming issues so stay tuned.

If you already have an email list and aren’t creating 30%+ of your revenue from it, it’s probably time to get some help from our team.

We’ll help you earn massive sales without annoying your email list (yes, it’s very possible). Click here if you’re interested in learning more about working with our team.

We love the opportunity to create huge value for you and your business.

You’ve trusted us with your time, and we hope we’ve held up our end of the deal by giving you the tools to increase your sales and keep your email out of spam.

If we’ve done that for you, we just have one simple request that you share this newsletter with a friend by clicking the button below.

You’ll also get an exclusive tool to help you grow your store when you share this newsletter with a friend.

To YOUR Success,

-Brent and Rush

Our Partners