Ok I am sure this topic has been covered someplace else but has anyone ever tried to convert any of these abandoned carts? I have about 10 pages of abandoned carts right now on each page there may be about 3 - 4 carts with all the customers info.

Has anybody ever collected these names and e-mails and sent out a e-mail asking if there was some problem with check out or a reminder that they have a cart started or something like that? If you have done this, did you see any results? Do you think this will be worth the time?

There have been several threads about this and the general consensus seemed to be that it wasn't worth the time invested and actually sometimes put off the customer who was planning on coming back to complete the purchase.

I've never done it myself, but abandoned carts are a normal part of doing business online from my own experience and what other merchants have posted here.

Thanks for the reply!

Yes it just bothers me to see they took all the time to fill out all the information but was one click of a button away from the sale.

I understand all about the abandoned carts with online shopping. The previous store i worked for was a Y-Store and there were tons on them , but it didn't provide us with as much info as MC does.

Hi Todd!

Sometimes I check the abandoned carts and, like you, get a bit discouraged by the ones who were so close to completing the sale, but didn't.

Many, many times I see their orders come through the next day - or within a few days. Sometimes they just don't have their credit card handy, or they just need to make sure they're ordering the right thing.

I know it sometimes takes me several days to complete an online purchase. I might get sidetracked or, more likely, I can't find my credit card.

I tried contacting people at one time to see if they had a problem with the site. Most of the time they got a little irritated at being bothered about it.

Todd,

Sending emails to customer reminding them of their abandoned shopping cart is not a good idea. I did that myself and the only reply I got back was the angry ones. They felt it was intrusive and did not appreciate that we contacted them without their permission. The idea sounds good but most of them either probably has a buyers remorse before they buy it or just decided to buy it somewhere else. I do notice a small number of thecustomers do come back to make the purchase in a day or so. If a day passed the customer is pretty much gone.

-Darklight

Every person is different, but I actually received one of these follow up emails and was:

1 - Happy, because it was something I needed to order and I completely forgot because I got sidetracked by something else.

2 - Impressed by the concept and the customization. I also thought that the copy was effective without being intrusive or pushy.

The order was about $500 and I went back and completed it. I can see how people might think it's intrusive, but I thought I'd share my positive experience with this.




BTW, I would only suggest this for people that have created an account.

Thank You everyone for your input. I can see both sides to this. Maybe I will just let a little time go buy and keep track of these names to see if they place order later on. But I may use your letter JGirlyGirl and try a few out to see what kind of response I get.

If I get a lot of negative feed back then I will drop the idea all together.

Thanks again

We didn't have this feature before .... and I don't like seeing all of those abandoned carts either. But like the others said, this is very typical .... most likely nothing to do with your site.

And I think about all of the internet shopping carts I've abandoned ..... lots of them! But many times I've returned and purchased. One thing I have noticed on my site is that a lot of the abandoned carts have signed up for the mailing list. Have you checked this? Strictly speaking from a personal situation, I'm not sure I would like being contacted & asked why I didn't purchase. I'm not sure customers would like the idea of knowing that we can track their every move. Actually, I never thought about this feature before getting (I certainly won't be goofing around filling up a shopping cart on my competitor's sites any more!) But if I received a coupon or something from a site I had visited and signed up for the mailing list, I would be inclined to go back & make the purchase.

Sharon

Hey guys -

Just another 2 cents for the pot;

I was doing this with the PRT site and we converted several - never got an angry responce - but our products range in the $1000+ market - so for me it was worth it.

I made a template for each of the type of emails I sent out, I inluded basic responses - links to more info on our site, and such - then with each dropped cart or info inquirey or form filled out I would drop their name and some personal bits into the email bay and viola! a nice big reminder with helpful cart tips, and such.

I found that if they dropped at the shipping stage I could get a convert by explaining our shipping in detail, so on and so forth - again for us it was worth it, but for low $$$ items maybe not

We have abandoned carts as well and even if they are in the "billing" stage of checkout, we cannot see the customer information. We do not require that customers register before they purchase. At what point can you see a customer's information for abandoned carts?
Thank you.

I agree with doing some sort of "helpful" friendly reminder type email, just once, maybe a couple days later. Maybe include links to a FAQ page, shipping page, policies (shipping & privacy) and even an invite to join your newsletter where if they do, inform them that subscribers get exclusive discounts and coupons. So even if they want to think on it for a while, they'll have incentive to go ahead and purchase (eventually).

A pop-up window inquiring as to why the transaction was not completed would be nice. Maybe with a drop down for them to select whether it's a shopping cart issue, product dissatisfaction, etc.

You just gave me a good idea (or at least I think it's good). I love your idea about the pop-up window with the drop-down, but I am thinking this pop-up should be split in half.

Good idea, jGirl, if you can work that out. Wouldn't the same idea work for a pop up form when the search comes up empty or irrelevant? I asked about that in another topic?

Yeah, that's a great idea too! Although, in my opinion I wouldn't want that to be a pop-up. I would want that to be in a customizable results page, that would look something like this.


We're sorry, but there were no matches for XXXXX.

Please let us know what you are looking for. We try to cater to special requests whenever possible. You are not obligated to purchase in any way.

( ) notify me when this item is available
( ) suggest alternative source
( ) submit related question or comment

Item: (already filled in with search terms)
Email:
Additional Comments:

Submit

Can you imagine how useful this would be? Jean, did you receive a reply?

Exactly,JGirl, that's how it should be. Guess we need to submit this officially as a feature request.

Barbi, I finally tracked down the post: http://forums.monstersmallbusiness.com/ind...showtopic=10085
Then couldn't find this one back---in forum feedback????

People search for info or answers to questions as well as specific products. So I'd like a form on the search results page even if there are results. The customer could submit a general "how to" question or question about a particular product. Either way it's a great way for me to make contact by replying to a customer.

I don't know, but I've seen ecommerce sites that when you leave the checkout, a pop-up shows up asking about the service and if any difficulties were experienced so maybe MC can come up with something for a future release. I thought it was cool for them to do that.

I'm going to throw in my 2 cents here and play devil's advocate. As a customer, I have used the shopping cart method as a budgeting tool for some items, so I'll know ALL of the costs involved and what to expect at check out. I also have a personal "house rule", no spur-of-the-moment purchases. If I still want the item after 24 hours than I'll go back.

However, the first time I personally received an e-mail inquiring if there was a reason I hadn't completed a purchase, I was a little stunned. I felt two things; first, the obvious one...that I was being watched and that made it feel creepy. And second, I felt it was the equivalent of having a pesky (aggressive) sales person following me around the store. (One of the perks I enjoy about the internet is the lack there of.)

I would be more receptive to responding to (and using on my site) a pop-up questionnaire. At least it's "in the moment" and seems it would be less intrusive. It wouldn't feel like the house detective just followed you home.

I may be singing a different song once I get my site published, but for the moment.....


Anne

Thanks, Anne, good point!

I found that pop-up MINI questionnaire a nice touch. I think it had the option to state "Can't decide what to purchase; I'll be back later." Much better than sending an e-mail, which I also find a bit intrusive.

Same here.

I am virtually new to the forum and have been trying to "catch up", so to speak, to all the previous topic discussions, which have been extremely helpful by the way. I was wondering if anyone got an answer to the "Pop-up window" suggestion regarding neglected or abandoned shopping carts? Please reply. I thought that the thought put into that suggestion was wonderful and all the feedback given was just as good!

Oh! Didn't I get slammed when I suggested that this was an intrusive practice??

Cheers!


Same here.
[right][snapback]75632[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]