According to a study by my favourite research hub Marketing Sherpa, shopping carts abandonment rates are at around 59% (at the time of the study). This doesn't come as a surprise to us in the business of Ecommerce but it is staggering how high the numbers are. Even a small decrease in this number could mean a huge increase in revenues.

Further studies have identified that the number 1 reason for people abandoning baskets is delivery charges. I'll write a separate post on this soon.

One way of reducing the abandonment figure is by auto sending emails to customers who've abandoned their basket with a handy link they can use to continue where they left off. Results for the success rates of this tactic vary from 5% going up to 35% of people clicking through and completing the sale. Those etailers that incentivise the return visit tend to achieve the higher numbers.

What's interesting however is that such a minority of etailers actually implement this on their sites. A US survey by Listrak indicated that out of the fortune 500 retailers they were able to conduct the test on, only 10.55% used this on their sites. The report doesn't detail the reasons why etailers had not implemented this type of solution, but implies that they considered the cost of the set-up and infrastructure limitations as the primary barriers.

It only takes a very simple equation for ecommerce managers to decide if this is worth it for them. Take 5% of your abandoned baskets over a 12 month period, apply your AOV to it and see how quickly you'll be making your money back.

I think this low-hanging fruit is a must have for any ecommerce operation. Low risk with a potential for very high rewards.

So why aren't more of you doing it?