Targeting consumers who abandon shopping carts or “drop off” during the buying process is still not a widespread practice, according to [download page] an October 2011 report from Econsultancy in association with RedEye. Data from the “Conversion Rate Optimization Report 2011” indicates that only 26% of companies surveyed target these consumers, down about 12% from the 29% who did so in 2010. Supply-side results are similar, though according to the agencies surveyed, the proportion of clients targeting consumers that abandon shopping carts has slightly increased to 33%, from 31% in 2010. Of the companies that target abandoners, an impressive 70% increased their sales, with 19% claiming a large increase in sales.
Automation Gains Clear Prominence
60% of companies say they use automatic cart abandonment email based on website activity to target consumers abandoning shopping carts, a 30% increase from the 46% who did so last year. By contrast, just 26% of companies manually select email based on website activity, down one-third of respondents from 39% in 2010.
Remarketing is the second most-used method among companies, jumping to 32% of respondents, representing an increase of almost 80% from 18% in 2010. Remarketing has also soared in popularity among supply-side respondents, surging to 59% from 33% in 2010. By contrast, the proportion of supply-side respondents that refer details to a call center halved year-over-year, from 24% to just 12%.
Response Time Accelerates
According to Econsultancy insight, as marketers become more focused on real-time data and interactions, their response times have accelerated. This year 33% of companies report targeting a customer who has dropped off a sale within 1-4 hours, a 38% increase from the 24% that did so in 2010. Likewise, the proportion of companies that wait one day or more to target a customer has decreased, from 49% to 43%. The same pattern is evident on the supply side, as this year 56% more agency respondents say that their clients target customers within 1-4 hours after cart abandonment, while 15% less agency respondents say their clients wait one day or more.
Listrak: Shopping Cart Abandonment Response Often Inadequate
Online shopping cart abandonment rates are on the rise, with the average abandonment rate jumping roughly 6% from 71% to 75% during the first six months of 2011, according to data released by Listrak in October 2011. However, Listrak analysis shows that 77.5% of all shopping cart abandonment campaigns received from the top 1,000 online retailers were single messages, including 80% of the top 500 and 75% of the second 500. In addition, 15.8% of campaigns from the top 1,000 retailers, including 16.7% from the top 500 and 15% from the second 500, sent two emails. However, only 6.7% of the top 1,000 retailers overall, including 10% of the second 500 and only 3.3% of the top 500, sent what Listrak terms the all-important third message.
About the Data: Econsultancy’s data is based on more than 700 global respondents to an online survey conducted in July and August 2011. Respondents included both client-side (in-house) organizations, and agencies, vendors or consultancies (supply-side).
