If you’re running a WooCommerce store, you have a number of tools and resources at your disposal. WooCommerce, of course, is one of the top e-commerce platforms in the world right now, making the job of creating and running an online store easier than it has ever been before.
But that’s not to say it solves every problem. One of the biggest issues that e-commerce businesses face, for instance, is abandoned carts. Over 70% of shoppers end up abandoning their carts, even if they have an intent to buy, and this can be hugely detrimental to your bottom line if you let it continue.
Thankfully, however, you don’t have to let it continue. For those with WooCommerce stores, there are a number of strategies you can implement to avoid the abandoned cart problem, each of which has the potential to significantly reduce abandonment rates and recover any revenue you may have missed out on.
These strategies combine the power of WooCommerce’s robust ecosystem with smart marketing and user experience improvements, but they will need to be implemented effectively. To help you out, we’ve listed our five top tips to help you turn missed opportunities into measurable sales gains.
Automatic Email Campaign
One of the best things about WooCommerce is the sheer amount of plugins you can install to customise your store and enhance its functionality. The first we’d recommend you look into is an abandoned cart plugin that allows you to utilise an AI email generator. For abandoned carts, this type of plugin can be a game-changer. It allows you to easily send personalised, timely follow-up emails to customers who are clearly interested in buying, but have not made the final steps to complete the purchase. By leveraging AI, this tool can craft compelling subject lines and email content tailored to the customer’s behaviour, significantly increasing the chances of recovery.
Enabling Push Notifications
Another way to remind customers of what they’ve left behind is a push notification. These are short, clickable messages that are sent directly to a user’s browser or mobile device, even when they’re not on the website itself. For abandoned carts, they act much in the same way an email would – as a real-time nudge to remind customers a few hours or a day after abandonment and create a sense of urgency with customisable messages.
Exit Popups
Another strong strategy is to recognise when users are about to leave your online store and offer them one last popup to encourage them to stay. This strategy – often referred to as ‘exit-intent popups’ – uses smart technology to detect when a user’s mouse is moving toward the browser’s close button, back button, or address bar, and simultaneously releases a popup to re-engage them.
This could be a simple generic message such as: ‘Don’t miss out on your items!’ Or it could be a message offering an incentive to buy, such as: ‘Get 10% off if you complete your purchase now!’. Whichever you choose to go with, proactively engaging your customers as they are about to leave gives you a final opportunity to retain their interest and encourage that all-important conversion.
Discount Offers
Speaking of offering a discount, this is another strong strategy to tackle the abandoned cart problem, with the majority of customers leaving due to cost-related concerns. Incentives, in this way, can be the key to conversion. Every customer loves a good deal – provided it doesn’t seem too good to be true. Using WooCommerce coupons to send discount codes, you can knock some of the money off the purchase and nudge the customer in the right direction, with free shipping also a strong option to reduce hesitation in the first place.
Simplifying Your Checkout
Lastly, it could be a good idea to recognise why customers are leaving in the first place. As we just mentioned, one of the most critical reasons is cost-related, but that’s not the only reason to pay attention to. It could also be because your checkout process is simply too complex.
In order to avoid this, it’s a good idea to have a thorough audit of your checkout and make sure it’s a smooth, frictionless experience. WooCommerce has a number of plugins to reduce the steps needed to buy, including a guest checkout option, multiple payment methods, and auto-fill options. If you nail this part of your online store, the chances are more customers will be engaged enough to hit that final button and complete their purchase.
