Online marketers are aware of how powerful shopping-cart abandonment tools are, but the reality is that solutions addressing shopping-cart abandonment alone are missing a significant amount of potential sales that are lost before a shopper can add a product to a shopping cart.
Finding a way to positively reengage these visitors and monetize their visits would allow the eMarketer to receive that unrealized income…as well as provide a valuable service to customers.
Companies need to identify and pursue those opted-in consumers who show interest in the eCommerce web site yet don’t place items in a shopping cart. It’s also a necessary component of a robust CRM program. When companies communicate with the opted-in customer based on the exact content that person is viewing, random messaging is eliminated and the company shows consideration to that customer in terms of both time and relevancy.
Advertisement
In order to test this program, we conducted a blind study of four customers for a period of six months prior to and six months following their integration of a web site reengagement program as part of their overall email strategy. What we discovered was that web site reengagement lowers vendor email costs between 21 and 32 %.
Web site reengagement enables companies to identify opt-in email subscribers who visit the company’s web site and send them a reengagement email message shortly after they leave the site. The functionality is rules-based. Typically, companies:
- Send reengagement emails to subscribers who have not made a purchase over the previous two weeks
- Send one reengagement offer per day
- Limit reengagement offers to current site offerings (typically a reminder of free shipping or a special code that can be used for a discount on the site)
In addition, reengagement emails may offer product content based on specific pages the subscriber visited while on the site.
Web site reengagement is not the same thing as shopping-cart abandonment. This tool reengages subscribers whether or not they have visited shopping-cart pages. In view of the fact that only 5% of site visitors ever get to the shopping-cart stage, shopping-cart abandonment strategies engage only a small percentage of customers. Web site reengagement engages every customer.
With all that in mind, it’s time to look at some results. We took a number of different customers from different ecommerce areas and studied them to see how web site reengagement worked for them.
For each customer, we measured how much it cost the customer (vendor costs only) to generate one dollar in online revenue (tracked purchases on the site directly linked to emails). First we studied the cost to generate one dollar in revenue for the company prior to instituting a reengagement program. Next we used the same calculations starting four months after the reengagement program had gone live (in order to eliminate the possibility of lift being due to the newness of the program).
There was no significant rise in unsubscribes or complaints directly from customers, or through ISP feedback loops, once the reengagement program was instituted. There were minor differences in complaint and unsubscribe rates after the program was launched, in some cases slightly higher and in others slightly lower.
Following are four examples of successful web site reengagements:
1) Customer One is a cosmetics eCommerce company
Without using a website reengagement strategy, the company sent 4.7 million emails at a cost of $2.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $9,400 to send those emails, or $0.03 per email. Total revenue was $141,000. The bottom line? The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.066.
Using a web site reengagement strategy, the company sent 4.7 million emails at a cost of $2.00 per thousand, and an additional 141,000 emails at a cost of $2.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $9,682 to send those emails. The revenue generated by the reengagement emails was $46,500, for a total of $187,500. The bottom line? The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.052.Web site reengagement saved this company 21%.
2) Customer Two is a women’s clothing retailer and catalog company
Without using a web site reengagement strategy, the company sent 1.2million emails at a cost of $3.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $3,600 to send those emails, or $0.06 per email. Total revenue was $72,000. The bottom line? The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.05.
Using a web site reengagement strategy, the company sent 1.2 million emails at a cost of $3.00 per thousand, and an additional 66,000 emails at a cost of $3.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $3,630 to send those emails. The revenue generated by the reengagement emails was $36,300, for a total revenue of $108,000. The bottom line?The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.034. Web site reengagement saved this company 32%.
3) Customer Three is a catalog and online furniture/home décor company
Without using a web site reengagement strategy, the company sent 400,000 emails at a cost of $4.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $1,600 to send those emails, or $0.06 per email. Total revenue was $5,600. The bottom line? The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.29.
Using a web site reengagement strategy, the company sent 400,000 emails at a cost of $4.00 per thousand, and an additional 11,000 emails at a cost of $4.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $1,644 to send those emails. The revenue generated by the reengagement emails was $2,057, for a total revenue of $7,657. The bottom line? The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.21.Web site reengagement saved this company 28%.
4) Customer Four is an electronics retailer
Without using a web site reengagement strategy, the company sent 1.6 million emails at a cost of $4.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $6,400 to send those emails, or $0.14 per email. Total revenue was $22,400. The bottom line? The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.29.
Using a web site reengagement strategy, the company sent 1.6 million emails at a cost of $4.00 per thousand, and an additional 72,000 emails at a cost of $4.00 per thousand. The total cost was therefore $6,688 to send those emails. The revenue generated by the reengagement emails was $18,576, for a total revenue of $40,976. The bottom line? The cost of generating one dollar in revenue was $0.165.Web site reengagement saved this company 44%.
It’s clear from these results that web site reengagement is a powerful CRM tool that generates significant ROI as well. Marketers need to create an overall CRM strategy that includes a robust reengagement program, addressing the issues positively rather than just relying on shopping-cart abandonment programs.
Jeannette de Beauvoir has provided content consultation and business/ marketing writing to companies worldwide since 1990. She currently works with eWayDirect of Southport, Connecticut. She can be reached directly at Jeannette@ewaydirect.com .
