Ever been curious to see what a full email marketing automation set-up looks like for an e-commerce store?
You’re in luck.
Over the next two months, we are going to document a FULL Klaviyo set-up, Magnet Monster style, for men’s fashion accessory store PickaPocket, founded by our good friend Anthony Dibble.
Each week we will release a new episode, outlining how we have built each individual email flow for PickaPocket (there’s 6 in total we’re setting up) alongside the creative elements and logic behind each email.
At the end of this set-up, we will be documenting all the results PickaPocket have achieved to date once the email automation has been up & running for a period of time.
To kickstart this project, we’re starting with probably the most important email automation of all for e-commerce brands: the cart abandonment flow.
Setting up PickaPocket’s Cart Abandonment Flow
Over 70% of shoppers abandon their cart online. That’s lost revenue currently leaking through any store like a sieve!
Our goal is to salvage a significant portion of those abandoned carts (we aim for minimum 10% across most stores) and to recover as many potential sales as possible for PickaPocket.
Communicating with Anthony, we set-up an abandoned cart flow that currently looks like this in Klaviyo:
Customers who are new to PickaPocket will go down the right-hand side of this flow set-up. For returning customers, they’ll go down the left-hand side.
There is a reason for this: we only offer a discount in emails 2 & 3 for new customers, not returning ones.
This is because we don’t want to condition customers to expect discounts from the brand and eat into profit margins.
Using them to get a first purchase over the line, however, can be a useful strategy, providing the business can factor it into their margin.
Abandoned Cart Email 1: It looks like you left something behind…
Sent 1 hour after cart abandonment
The goal of this email is simply to encourage the customer to complete the sale.
This is a very simple email that we also A/B test without the main image (“Did Life Get In The Way?”).
The dynamic element of the email shows the items in their cart and rebuilds it once they click the link.
It is set to go out 1 hour after abandonment. We have found through innumerable A/B tests that this has the maximum cart recovery rate for the first email in the series.
Email 2: A gift for you that lasts 48 hours
Sent 20 hours after cart abandonment
If the customer still hasn’t completed the purchase within the next 20 hours, we find it effective to offer a discount to initiate the sale.
The key is to start small with the discount you offer and not go overboard. Destroying your margin with a 20-30% discount is unnecessary and will condition customers to expect that from you at all times.
It’s also important to include time-sensitivity with their discount to ensure the customer has urgency to act.
When the customer clicks through, the discount is automatically applied to their cart and visible at the checkout:
Email 3: Your gift expires today
Sent 2 days after cart abandonment
There is nothing spectacular about this email aesthetically or in the copy. We’ve aimed to inject a bit of humour in parallel to the urgency of the discount expiring, but in general, it’s a very basic email.
The reason for this is because cart abandonment emails, by their nature, should be simple.
Your goal should be to focus the attention on the products the customer was shopping for since the buying intent should be strong.
Diverting the customers attention to different areas and other products isn’t conducive to a positive ROI at this point.
The third email in this flow is designed to build on the previous emails and give a final CTA to drive the purchase.
For Returning Visitors
Email 1 for returning visitors is the same as email 1 for new visitors.
However, email 2 is slightly different, as it doesn’t leverage discounts.
It looks like this:
The goal with this email is simply to provide another subtle nudge to complete the sale, and use language that builds on the previous rapport built with a returning customer.
In its essence, this is another very simple email that is designed to keep attention focused on recovering the sale and nothing else.
The best way to achieve this, is with minimum fluff, and a dynamic product block showing exactly what they were shopping for.
Concluding Thoughts
It is possible to build an even longer, more drawn-out cart abandonment flow. I have experimented with this for clients in the past, primarily those with single product stores.
However, for most stores, 3 emails is the sweet spot between recovering the sale and also keeping the sender reputation strong and not tarnishing long-term deliverability with low open-rates and unsubscribes.
We’re excited to see how this cart abandonment flow performs for PickaPocket, and look forward to A/B testing elements to further enhance its effectiveness in the future.
Stay tuned for next week, where we’ll be showing how we have created their Welcome Email Flow - definitely our favourite email sequence to create for EVERY brand we work with!
And don’t forget to support Mr Dibble’s store by browsing his awesome collection of men’s accessories at PickaPocket right here.
Related Reads Curated For You
If you enjoyed this blog, we're pretty sure you'd enjoy the other parts in this series:
- Creating the Browse Abandonment Flow - The Pickapocket Project
- Creating the Customer Winback Flow - The PickaPocket Project
- Creating the Post-Purchase Flow - The PickaPocket Project
- Creating the Post-Purchase Repeat Buyers Flow - The Pickapocket Project
- Creating The Welcome Email Flow - The PickaPocket Project
further in depth reading
This is a collection of articles that will provide you with more information about our FREE email marketing course.
