Many stores employ abandoned cart email campaigns, typically consisting of reminders, reminders with discounts, and occasionally, a last-chance discount. However, in many cases, there's a specific question or concern preventing someone from making a purchase. Simply sending a reminder or offering a discount doesn't address this underlying issue. Implementing an effective abandoned cart recovery strategy involves identifying and addressing the specific reasons why customers abandon their carts, rather than relying solely on generic reminders and discounts.

We’ve seen killer results by integrating live chat into abandoned cart emails to quickly answer questions (and get sales):

1. When visitors receive your abandoned cart email, their next action is critical.
2. Simple CTA with “ have a quick question? Our team is online on chat right now.”
3. Visitor clicks, website opens with their cart contents, and the chat box is open with a live agent able to help.

To be transparent, we run 24/7 live chat teams for 100+ stores and implement this for most of them. But it’s definitely something you can implement yourself if you have to staff to execute on 24/7 live chat.

Here’s the key pieces: 

Cart Recovery Chat: Add Live Chat in the Checkout Process

With Shopify Plus, integrating live chat directly within the checkout process is straightforward. It's essential to have live chat functionality directly within the checkout process. This enables you to predict cart abandonments and engage with customers before they leave, as discussed in our previous blog post about Live Chat Cart Recovery. Additionally, having live chat during checkout is crucial for continuing the conversation with visitors who return after receiving abandoned cart emails. Incorporating live chat into the checkout process facilitates real-time assistance and encourages customers to complete their purchases, contributing to effective abandoned cart recovery efforts.

Keep the CTA in Emails Simple

There's no need to complicate your call to action for live chat in emails. Simply provide a clear option for people to chat with your team with just one click. Typically, we find that a straightforward text or a small image link serving as a secondary call to action in the emails performs well. This simplicity ensures that customers can easily access live chat support if they have any questions or concerns, thereby facilitating effective communication and potentially increasing engagement.

Segment These Visitors for White Glove Treatment

Yes, everyone should get great treatment. But you should prioritize abandoned cart return visitors even more ; )

When visitors click to the website from abandoned cart emails, ensure to tag the URL they click. This functionality likely already occurs automatically, but it's essential for triggering the chat box to open automatically after the click. Additionally, you can utilize these tags to prompt your team to handle these visitors differently than a standard chat interaction. This approach allows for personalized engagement tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of visitors who return from abandoned cart emails, enhancing the effectiveness of your customer support efforts.

The specifics depends on your chat software, but tagging from the email link is all you really need.

Here’s a blog post that goes into more detail on the overall strategy of using live strategically in the checkout process. But integrating into your emails is an easy win.