Abandoned Cart Notices

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Your opinion on Abandoned Cart Notices/emails

  • Helpful/Welcomed

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Indifferent

    Votes: 11 32.4%

  • Purely Annoying

    Votes: 21 61.8%
  • Total voters
    34
Cl(VII)

Cl(VII)

Chris Bender, Lab Rat
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My web hosting company (Wix) keeps prodding me to activate Abandoned Cart Notices, but I can't think of a time I ever personally received one that I found it helpful. I'm a crappy business man as I don't like to advertise...I don't even have Insta-Twit-Face pages...I rely on extreme introvert marketing methods, so nothing really. I tend to only use my subscribed customer email list a couple times a year, and then only to announce new products or sales, so I try to be respectful of people's inboxes. I say all that to point out I have an inherent bias against this kind of thing, but that is a sample size of one. Therefore, in the interest in making an informed decision on this, I ask for your opinion.

For full disclosure I personally fall into the "indifferent" category below.
 
Several times, I've gotten an abandoned cart notice, that included an extra discount - "Complete this purchase in the next week and take an extra 10% off". Those I've found helpful, and sometimes it has tipped the scales in favor of a purchase.

But other than that, if I didn't buy it, then I don't need it, or found a better price+shipping elsewhere. So don't fill my Inbox with useless info.
 
Annoying. Although, I just got one yesterday that gave me the option to unsubscribe from just those specific types of emails from that vendor. Perfect, leave me alone but others still get them if they want it.
 
Same as Kelly. Normally I price comparison shop, and frequently that means loading the cart, then inputting address, etc, to get a final price. Depending on how it goes vs some other vendor I either complete the purchase or go elsewhere. On occasion the company I didn't choose will send me one of those notices (sometimes with a discount, sometimes not).

Count me as indifferent.
 
Very often I'll put things into a shopping cart experimentally, either to see a price that will only show after putting in the cart, or trying out a discount code, check shipping, or whatever. You know what I am *never* going to do? Explicitly go and delete everything from my cart if I decide not to buy. And so I'll get that cart reminder. My reaction is *always* annoyance.
 
I think I wouldn't mind if there was a way to opt in/out. There are a very small handful of companies from whom I buy hobby supplies. From them, I get weekly sales "flyer" emails. With some it's what's on sale, with others (one in particular) it's the regular price but they "push" one thing each week or so, and with another that sells a lot of used model railroad equipment from estates, etc., they post what new things have come into their "store" during the last week. I would be annoyed if every vendor did it, but if I could opt in/out and be selective of which companies I allowed to do it, it might not be okay.
 
Lots of sites won't give you a shipping cost until you go through the cart, and I don't know how many times I've looked at them and decided that the shipping was excessive and therefore it wasn't worth going through with the purchase. So yes, abandoned cart notices are pretty much nothing but a nuisance.
 
A. An option to unsubscribe from abandoned cart notices is always appreciated.

B. I've sometimes let things in a cart, to see if the price would drop, enticing me to buy on fairly rare occasion.

C. The most useful purpose is to alert me that something my wife thought she ordered from Amazon never actually was ordered....
 
Thanks very much for the replies thus far. Looks like the majority is just flat against the Forgotten Cart reminders, and those that are interested favor particular use cases that aren't really relevant to my kind of site/business. Frankly, kind of glad I don't have to figure out another buggy Wix widget.

Thanks again.
 
I hate those things. I do not need to be reminded that the price was more than I wanted to spend...LOL
 
tsmith1315 said:
What I prefer is a persistent shopping cart that will keep the items until I remove them. I rarely shop and purchase in one visit.
Click to expand...
This.

Even if they call it something other than the "shopping cart" having a "wish list" or something persistent is useful especially for things that I don't need right away, but don't want to forget. When they accumulate enough to get free shipping, or just when I finally need them enough, then I can pull the trigger and feel like maybe I'm not forgetting a bunch of things that I was meaning to buy.
 
so there is a secret with some websites (not rocket related), if you put it in your cart, and purposely let it sit overnight, they will send you an email with a discount code. I have done this several times.
 
I seldom abandon a cart. Yesterday a vendor had a sale on an item I was interested in. I put that item in my cart and continued to shop, adding another item. I checked out and it informed me that the first item was no longer in stock. They sold it out from under me. That one got abandoned. Never had that happen to me before. As far as notices go, that's just irritating.
 
PatD said:
I seldom abandon a cart. Yesterday a vendor had a sale on an item I was interested in. I put that item in my cart and continued to shop, adding another item. I checked out and it informed me that the first item was no longer in stock. They sold it out from under me. That one got abandoned. Never had that happen to me before. As far as notices go, that's just irritating.
Click to expand...
That's normal. Adding something to your cart doesn't reserve it, purchasing it does. Definitely frustrating, though.
 
I got one of them from LOC, but I had already purchased that kit, so if they were to offer a discount in the future it won’t help me.
 
I'm not a fan of reminders and I really dislike the "We see you didn't buy X, here's a coupon code to get 15% off!" Sure, I like spending less, but I feel the practice is a little bit predatory. I feel like if just waiting 24 hours to get 15% off is OK, then drop the price for everyone 10% all the time and don't charge 15% more for all the people that don't know the trick. Specifically, I'm thinking of older and less tech savvy people. They are used to seeing a price and deciding if they are willing to pay it. If so, buy it, if not don't. The automation and lack of transparency costs them 15% more than a 'life hack' (hate that whole genre. . .).

I know Harris Teeter (local supermarket) switches sale items between Tuesday and Wednesday. So does everyone who goes into the store and reads the sign or looks at the add - the dates are published. If I want to buy Coke on Saturday, but its not on sale, I can go back Wednesday to see if it went on sale. Just like everyone else. If the 24 hour cart discount had a timer saying "Save 15% if you DON'T order within the next 22:59:06 h:m:s" I would not consider that practice bad at all.

I do like having a cart that stays with my login as opposed to emptying after 2 hours or logout etc. My wife and I use it with Amazon a lot for non-urgent items. We see something we want, add it to the cart and once we get 5 or 6 items in, we place the order. It makes checking the credit card bill easier. We hoped it would also mean fewer shipments, but nowadays, if we order 6 things, we probably still get 4-6 boxes. The goal was to passively reduce wasted work, gas, boxes etc., but that's not how it is occurring.

Too much info, I know. . .

Sandy.
 
Kelly said:
Several times, I've gotten an abandoned cart notice, that included an extra discount - "Complete this purchase in the next week and take an extra 10% off". Those I've found helpful, and sometimes it has tipped the scales in favor of a purchase.
Click to expand...

If I don't really need an item and am just casually browsing, I will add things to a cart "just in case", and to price out the cost of shipping. With unknown vendors, shipping can be a hidden mine field, so this helps. When dealing with a known vendor (like the OP), the outcome is rarely surprising. So, if I didn't proceed to payment, it's probably because I either:
1). Got distracted by other activities
2). Didn't really need the item, and I was just clicking around
3). I am shaking the vendor down in case they follow-up with a discount by way of "your forgot things in your cart, here is 15% off if you complete the purchase". This works surprisingly often for fatter margin large ticket items (skis, fridges, clothing, etc).
4). I chickened out because the total added up to an irresponsible number

I am not sure how many #3 customers you want to convert, but it will cost you.
#1's might appreciate a reminder.
#2's and #4's will be annoyed by the reminder.

Marc_G said:
For rocketry sites there needs to be a way to hide the total cost of what we spend from our wives. Optional renaming of site and products purchased would be good...
Click to expand...

I might be willing to pay extra for the above feature!

YMMV,
a
 
I'm not particularly annoyed by an abandoned-cart notice. Anymore I can detect spam by simply reading the title (usually) so it's click and delete. I can do the same with a notice.
 
Sandy H. said:
I'm not a fan of reminders and I really dislike the "We see you didn't buy X, here's a coupon code to get 15% off!" Sure, I like spending less, but I feel the practice is a little bit predatory. I feel like if just waiting 24 hours to get 15% off is OK, then drop the price for everyone 10% all the time and don't charge 15% more for all the people that don't know the trick. Specifically, I'm thinking of older and less tech savvy people. They are used to seeing a price and deciding if they are willing to pay it. If so, buy it, if not don't. The automation and lack of transparency costs them 15% more than a 'life hack' (hate that whole genre. . .).

I know Harris Teeter (local supermarket) switches sale items between Tuesday and Wednesday. So does everyone who goes into the store and reads the sign or looks at the add - the dates are published. If I want to buy Coke on Saturday, but its not on sale, I can go back Wednesday to see if it went on sale. Just like everyone else. If the 24 hour cart discount had a timer saying "Save 15% if you DON'T order within the next 22:59:06 h:m:s" I would not consider that practice bad at all.

I do like having a cart that stays with my login as opposed to emptying after 2 hours or logout etc. My wife and I use it with Amazon a lot for non-urgent items. We see something we want, add it to the cart and once we get 5 or 6 items in, we place the order. It makes checking the credit card bill easier. We hoped it would also mean fewer shipments, but nowadays, if we order 6 things, we probably still get 4-6 boxes. The goal was to passively reduce wasted work, gas, boxes etc., but that's not how it is occurring.

Too much info, I know. . .

Sandy.
Click to expand...

I hear you. Recently I got in on that Amazon Der Big Red Max $21.99 price and bought three of them. I got one each, three days in a row, all from different locations.
 

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