What if shopping at your favorite supermarket was just like shopping online? Imagine, you are walking past the aisles lost in your thoughts, adding items into your shopping cart. And right then a cute little puppy riding a skateboard scoots past. You leave your cart behind and follow the puppy only to find the Christmas decor aisle. It’s the holiday season so you take a good look at all the goodies lined up. While you are there, you notice a live band performing where you stop for a bit before heading out of the store.
All along your shopping cart sits abandoned, patiently waiting for your return.
While this may sound bizarre, it’s something that happens all the time in online stores. Shoppers abandon their carts full of items and never get back to finishing the purchase. This is known as shopping cart abandonment.
Shopify store owners are faced with high levels of cart abandonment. Every store owner is on the lookout for an efficient way to combat shopping cart abandonment and increase sales. WhatsApp for Shopify Store is an excellent way to follow up with customers and remind them to return to their abandoned carts. Before we take a look at how shopping carts can be recovered through WhatsApp, let’s understand the impact cart abandonment has on the online retail industry.
Why is cart abandonment bad?
Let’s face it! People adding stuff to their carts but leaving it midway before completing the checkout process simply means- you have lost a sale.
A one-off scenario of cart abandonment is not a big deal for a store, but if the same thing were to happen a hundred times each day, then it’s a different story altogether!
The average shopping cart abandonment rate is at a staggering 60-80%. Every year, nearly $4.6 trillion is lost by e-commerce stores worldwide, of which $ 260 billion is recovered if the stores take adequate steps to tackle the issue.
How to recover carts?
A confusing check out process and unexpected costs are key reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts. To arrest this, be transparent about all charges that a customer can expect in their purchases including shipping, taxes and any other fees that may apply. Make sure your check out process is as user friendly as possible allowing customers to navigate through the pages in just a few clicks!
Today, a lot of online stores are still using traditional methods of cart recovery by retargeting the same customers and sending a few email reminders now and then.
Communicating via traditional modes like email and SMS is entirely dependent on the buyer. Someday if the buyer decides to open and read your message, then maybe they might go on to buy from you.
What if there is a platform where your message will not go unnoticed? A platform where customers don’t have to log in to view messages.
We are talking about WhatsApp! Let’s explore how WhatsApp is beneficial in tackling cart abandonment.
Why use WhatsApp Business API for abandoned cart recovery?
People check their WhatsApp messages several times a day, so reaching out to your customers on it is a sure shot way to get your messages delivered and read. Here are a few interesting facts about WhatsApp –
• Nearly 80% of WhatsApp messages are read within the first 5 minutes of it reaching your recipient’s phone.
• Every day, WhatsApp users spend an average of 38 minutes on the app.
• Nearly 100 billion messages are exchanged on the app every day. Now that’s huge!
• Moreover, unlike email or Facebook, a user does not have to log in to access WhatsApp.
WhatsApp Abandoned cart notifications on Shopify
To tackle Shopify cart abandonment with WhatsApp, you will need to access the WhatsApp Business API, offered by WhatsApp Business API providers like Interakt. Shopify store owners can easily download the Interakt App on the Shopify App Store. Access to WhatsApp Business API opens up a host of interesting features for you such as automated notifications, quick replies, a response chat widget and much more.
With Interakt you can create and send personalized automated notifications to check cart abandonment. These messages act as gentle reminders to get customers to head back to their carts and complete the checkout process. Click here to know the step by step process to create WhatsApp Business notifications.
You can also use notification templates for abandoned cart recovery on Shopify with WhatsApp. Send discount codes or make alternate product recommendations to win back lost customers using ready-to-use winning cart-recovery templates.
Install the Interakt App Today and combat shopping cart abandonment with WhatsApp Business API!
WhatsApp Abandoned Cart recovery notifications are essential for Shopify owners faced with high cart abandonment rates. Check out our free plan available only for Shopify merchants here.
