Guide to Browse Abandonment Emails that Convert

Our guess is that everyone reading this has looked at products online that they wanted to come back to. Maybe you saw an ad or were shopping for a gift, or a friend told you about a product. Either way, you most likely didn’t make an immediate purchase. Most people don’t because they are usually only in the information gathering/research phase of buying. 

You see a ton of products online, chances are unless you see a product you like again, you won’t remember which store you were at or the name of the product. 

Enter browse abandonment emails. 

Browse abandonment emails, keep you top of mind with people in the early stages of the buying process. If a buyer comes to your website searching for home decor and then leave without adding an item to the cart, you can trigger an email reminding them of the products they were looking at or best-selling products in the category they were searching. 

Browse abandonment emails drive the third most revenue of any marketing emails, following the welcome series and cart abandonment emails. So why it shouldn’t be the first automation you build, it should definitely be on your list as they do drive revenue. 

I already have cart abandonment emails, what’s the difference?

The difference between cart abandonment email automations and browse abandonment emails is intent. People that abandon carts have shown strong purchase intent by adding an item to their cart. Whereas the other 90%+ of website visitors are merely browsing. You spend a lot of time and money getting people to your site, browse abandonment emails allow you to convert more of those visitors to buyers. Think of what it could do for your business if you could convert an additional 5-10% of website visitors. The great thing about browse abandonment is that once the triggered email automations are set up, those additional conversions will happen without any more work on your part. 

What’s the Purpose of Browse Abandonment Emails?

You may be thinking, if these browsers don’t show enough intent to add a product to the cart, why reach out to them at all? Early stage buyers haven’t selected a brand or an exact product yet. Browse abandonment emails, keep your brand and products top of mind for when they are ready to buy. 

However, the lack of intent can make email messaging tricky. Is the person really interested in your product, or just the store in general? Try to hit both in your messaging. Address the product, but also include overall best seller, and links to product categories and the home page. 

What Do I Send?

First we’ll dive into the types of Browse Abandonment Emails, and then we’ll hit the different audiences you can target and how to approach automations for each. 

Types of Browse Abandonment Emails

Homepage Abandonment

These website visitors hung out on your home page and then bounced. They showed enough interest to go to your website, though. You can simply send these visitors a hello or ask them if they would like to take a second look at your website. The email can highlight your most popular products or product categories on your website. Give them a friendly little nudge to revisit your website, look around, and ultimately strengthen their relationship with your brand,

Search Abandonment

Often website visitors will search for a product but not actually click on any of the results. But you know what they were searching for, and you can retarget them accordingly. As an example. Let’s say that a website visitor typed “throw blankets” into the search  bar. You could send an email highlighting your best-selling throw blankets or an article on how to use throw blankets in your decor, with pictures for inspiration and links to featured products. 

Category Abandonment

Category abandonment references visitors who bounced from your website while viewing a specific category, but never went as far as clicking on specific products. You know exactly what they are looking for, though, so you can trigger emails based on the category they were interested in. These emails should include eye-catching product images and only a small amount of text, to encourage visitors to click through to your website. 

Product Abandonment

Product abandonment references visitors that were interested enough to check out specific products on your website. You can easily retarget these visitors by send an email with the products they looked at in an attempt to re-engage them and encourage their return to your website. Product abandonment emails pack a lot of punch because visitors often recall the seeing the product immediately. Emails should be designed with high quality photos and a strong call to action asking them to give the product another look. 

Browse Abandonment Audience Segments

There are different audience segments you should target separately and tailor your browse abandonment emails. 

1 – The Ones Who Haven’t Purchased Yet

You speak to people early in the purchase journey differently than someone who has already purchased from you. Try segmenting non-purchasers into their own group so the messaging is relevant. You want to encourage those who haven’t made a purchase to return to your website and encourage them to make a purchase. You can incentivize them to purchase with a coupon code, a flat rate discount, or with tasks that build their loyalty rewards points while encouraging interaction on your website.

2. The Ones Who Have Purchased Once

You have to be a bit careful with your segmentation of this group. As recency of purchase is vital for messaging. If a customer placed an order yesterday, you may not want to send them emails right away. However, if someone who purchased a few months ago lands on your website again, sending a browse abandonment email with a coupon or highlight similar products to what they purchased before could turn them into a repeat buyer.

3. The Ones Who are Loyal

These website visitors love you your brand so much they are frequent buyers. People who frequently purchase from you don’t need a ton of reminders to do so again. Set browse abandonment emails based on activity and time since last purchase. If a buyer usually buys from you at set intervals and they are browsing your website around that time frame (i.e. they typically purchase every 3 months) sending a browse abandonment email may encourage them to purchase. 

4. The Ones Who Can’t Stop Checking Out That Product

Oh yeah, you saw them checking you out again and again. They want that product, and you want to sell it to them. Time to create a sense of urgency. You could send a browse abandonment email with a time sensitive offer or a low stock notification, which might be the nudge they need to finally make a purchase. 

Examples of Browse Abandonment Emails

The most important thing when sending browse abandonment emails is avoiding the creepiness ditch. The creepiness ditch is when personalization and tracking cross the line from improving customer experience to creeping your customers out because you know too much. Do not send emails that state – We saw you looking at us. This category abandonment email from ASOS says hello in a friendly way and features the black dresses the customer was browsing. 

Here’s one from Credo creating urgency for those customers that just can’t stop checking out your product. 

Subject Line: Get it before it’s gone.

We saved the best for last! This final example from Smartwool speaks to the end goal of the shopping. It creates urgency without screaming it – hurry up, adventure is waiting. 

Stop searching. Start exploring. 

The CONs of Browse Abandonment

You have to know who the customer visiting your website is. If they have been to your site before and given you their email address, you’ll be able to recognize and send website visitors browse abandonment emails. 

But what about the rest of the visitors on your website? That’s where RAEK comes in. RAEK identifies more of the website visitors you don’t know, allow you can send browse abandonment emails to more of your visitors.

Scrolling through websites is a favorite pastime of many. But if you actively nurture people in the early stage of their buying journey, you’ll be top of mind when they decide it’s time to buy. Leverage the traffic you’re driving to your site by setting up browse abandonment email automations. You’ll create an amazing customer experience that turns visitors into buyers.