14 Tested Ways to Recover WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Sales

As an ecommerce business owner with over 15 years of experience building online stores, I know how frustrating it can be to lose sales from abandoned shopping carts. You‘ve done the hard work of getting potential customers interested in your products, only to see them leave without buying.

According to Baymard Institute, the average shopping cart abandonment rate across ecommerce stores is a whopping 69.57%. This means if you have an average conversion rate of 3%, you‘re still losing 67% of potential purchases.

Recovering even a small portion of these abandoned carts can dramatically increase your revenue and profits. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share 14 proven tactics that have helped ecommerce stores like yours recover millions in lost sales from abandoned carts.

Understanding the Impact of Abandoned Carts in WooCommerce

Before we dive into the recovery tactics, let‘s briefly look at some key statistics around abandoned carts:

• The average abandonment rate across all online stores is 69.57% according to Baymard Institute. For WooCommerce stores, the rate is slightly lower at 67.45%.

• As per Barilliance, cart abandonment costs ecommerce stores over $4 trillion in lost sales every year.

• A study by Listrak found that nearly 25% of recovered abandoned carts are converted within the first hour. The odds of recovery diminish significantly after just 2 hours.

• Marketing experiments by VWO found that timely abandoned cart emails can recover over 20% of lost sales. For a store with $100k in monthly revenue, that represents $20k in extra sales.

• Offering free shipping is one of the most effective ways to recover abandoned carts. According to SaleCycle‘s study, free shipping can reduce abandonment by almost 16%.

As you can see, the revenue impact of recovering abandoned carts is enormous. A small improvement in your store‘s recovery rate can result in tens of thousands in additional sales.

Next, let‘s look at why shopping carts are abandoned in the first place. Having this insight will allow us to address the root causes effectively.

Top Reasons For Shopping Cart Abandonment

There can be a number of reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts instead of completing the purchase. Here are some of the most common ones:

Unexpected shipping costs – Many stores display shipping fees only at the end before checkout. If the actual shipping cost is much higher than what a customer expected to pay, it can cause them to abandon their cart.

For example, a Shopify study found that free shipping can increase conversion rates by almost 16% by removing this unexpected cost barrier.

Required account creation – Guest checkout allows customers to purchase without creating an account first. According toBaymard Institute, requiring registration during checkout causes a 28% loss in conversion revenue.

Many customers simply want to buy a product quickly without the hassle of setting up yet another account.

Complicated checkout process – The checkout process should be short and simple. But often ecommerce stores have overly complex multi-step checkout flows that frustrate users.

An Ecommerce UX study revealed that a short, single-page checkout process can improve conversion by over 35% compared to a lengthy multi-page one.

Lack of trust – First-time visitors who land directly on a product page tend to lack trust in the store. Without adequate trust-building elements, they assume it may be scam and abandon their cart.

As per a Social Proof study, displaying trust signals like customer reviews and testimonials can improve conversions by over 15%.

There are many other minor reasons like not finding the answer to a product question or remembering a coupon code after the fact.

The key is to identify and address the biggest cart abandonment causes specific to your WooCommerce store.

Next, let‘s look at proven ways to recover lost sales from abandoned shopping carts.

14 Tactics to Recover Abandoned Carts in WooCommerce

Here are the top 14 tactics that have been proven to successfully recover abandoned carts:

1. Use Exit-Intent Popups to Remind Users

Exit-intent popups are overlays that appear when a user‘s mouse is about to leave a page. This is the perfect time to remind them about cart items before they leave your site completely.

For example, an exit popup can show a message like:

"Don‘t forget your cart! You left $49 worth of items behind. Checkout within the next 15 minutes to get free shipping!"

The popup can include a call-to-action button for the user to go directly to the checkout page and complete their purchase.

Exit-intent popups provide one final chance to recover abandoning users. OptinMonster is the leading popup software trusted by over 1 million websites to increase conversions.

As per their case study, exit-intent popups helped an ecommerce store recover 7.14% of abandoning users, generating $51,000 in recovered revenue.

2. Send Follow-Up Email and Push Notifications

Another way to reconnect with users is to send follow-up emails reminding them about their abandoned cart. These can be automated using plugins.

For example, you can set up an email that gets triggered whenever someone abandons their cart. It will contain details of the products they left behind and offer an incentive to complete their purchase.

Here‘s a sample abandoned cart automation email from FunnelKit:

Email follow-ups typically recover between 7-10% of lost sales on average. For bulk emails, tools like Mailchimp and Sendinblue offer abandoned cart automations.

You can also send web push notifications using software like PushEngage. These show up on a user‘s browser even when they aren‘t on your website.

Push notifications have open rates of over 80% compared to 20-30% for emails. Leverage both channels for maximum impact.

3. Make Your Cart Icon Noticeable

Sometimes users simply forget they added items to their cart earlier while browsing. You can avoid this issue by making your cart icon clearly visible on all pages.

For example, Amazon shows the cart icon prominently in the header:

The cart icon serves as a constant reminder to the user. When paired with a compelling CTA like "You have 2 items worth $49 in cart", it can effectively recover abandoning users.

If your WooCommerce theme doesn‘t have a dedicated cart icon section, use the WooCommerce Menu Cart plugin. It lets you add a custom cart icon in the navigation menu.

4. Show Exact Shipping Costs Upfront

Hidden or unexpectedly high shipping fees later in the checkout process lead to huge cart abandonment. You need to display the exact shipping costs accurately beforehand.

For products with variable shipping, use a cost calculator so users can estimate the fees before adding an item to their cart.

The Table Rate Shipping plugin for WooCommerce lets you define variable shipping rates for each product. This provides accurate fee estimates upfront.

You can also build shipping into the base product price and offer free shipping. This not only recovers abandonments but also incentivizes larger order values.

5. Allow Guest Checkout

Requiring users to create an account before checkout results in a significant loss of sales. As per Baymard Institute, mandatory registration leads to a 28% drop in revenue.

That‘s why you need to allow guest checkout in your WooCommerce store. This enables users to purchase quickly without creating an account first.

To enable guest checkout, go to WooCommerce Settings > Accounts and toggle on the ‘Enable Guest Checkout‘ option.

You can still collect necessary customer details during checkout without requiring account creation. This results in higher conversion rates.

6. Speed Up Your Checkout Process

Abandoned cart rates go up significantly when your checkout process is slow and clunky. You need to optimize it for maximum speed and performance.

Here are some ways to improve WooCommerce checkout speed:

• Enable caching to reduce server response times
• Use a CDN like Cloudflare to serve assets faster
• Compress images and enable lazy loading
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code
• Eliminate unnecessary checkout fields
• Upgrade to a better hosting plan if needed

Also, simplify the process by removing extra steps or distractions. The shorter your checkout process, the better the conversion rate.

7. Provide Multiple Payment Options

Only accepting limited payment options leads to lost sales from cart abandonment. You need to offer flexibility based on geographical customer preferences.

According to a SlimPay study, providing 3 or more payment methods increased conversion rates by over 15% compared to offering just one.

For example, many users prefer PayPal because it lets them pay without entering card details manually. Supporting PayPal reduces abandonment rates significantly.

WooCommerce makes it easy to accept payments via credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and 100+ other gateways. Go to Payments settings to configure additional options.

8. Add Urgency and Scarcity

Urgency and scarcity tactics leverage the fear of missing out to nudge users to buy. For example, a countdown timer creates urgency by signaling limited time availability.

eCommerce studies by CXL found that adding urgency and scarcity signals on product pages and in carts led to over 10% higher conversion rates.

You can highlight low product quantities or a short validity of a coupon code. But avoid going overboard as it may have an adverse effect. Stick to subtle nudges.

For urgency, OptinMonster makes it easy to add attention-grabbing countdown timers. For scarcity, highlight availability and stock left for a product.

9. Show Social Proof and Ratings

Displaying social proof like customer testimonials, ratings, and reviews helps establish credibility for your products and store. This increases user trust leading to higher conversion rates.

As per a BrightLocal consumer study, over 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

You can collect reviews by asking customers post-purchase. Select the most detailed ones to display on your product pages, cart, and checkout. This provides reassurance at key points in the sales funnel.

The TrustPulse plugin makes it easy to add social proof notifications when users are about to checkout. For example:

10. Answer Buyer Questions Proactively

When users have unanswered questions about a product, it causes uncertainty, which leads to cart abandonment. An easy fix is to provide detailed product FAQs.

Allowing users to get answers quickly improves trust and conversion rates. As per an eCommerce product listing study, FAQs can lift conversions by over 20%.

Address common buyer questions related to shipping, usage, assembly, warranty, sizing, ingredients etc. The Custom Product Tabs plugin makes it easy to add FAQ tabs.

Providing size charts, video tutorials, and other visual guides can further reduce product uncertainty.

11. Offer Live Chat Support

While FAQs work for common questions, customers will inevitably have unique queries. This requires real-time communication via live chat.

As per SuperOffice research, over 70% of customers prefer live chat for quick question resolution before purchasing. It also boosts conversion rates by 20%.

LiveChat is the most popular tool that lets you add live chat support across your WooCommerce store. Agents can answer questions instantly which reassures visitors.

You can even use software like ChatBot to fully automate live chats if you sell lower priced products that don‘t require deep research.

12. Publish Authentic Customer Testimonials

User-generated testimonials are more authentic than product descriptions and establish credibility. By sharing positive customer experiences, they provide social proof.

Actively collect and curate testimonials from satisfied customers and display them prominently across your store.

For example, here‘s an authentic testimonial on the PetBucket cart page:

Curated customer testimonials can lift your WooCommerce conversion rates by over 15% on average. Paid tools like Stamped.io and Yotpo help manage testimonials at scale.

13. Utilize Trust Certifications and Badges

In addition to testimonials, you can use trusted third-party certifications and badges to establish legitimacy. These signal safety, security, and credibility.

For example, displaying badges from Norton, TrustPilot BBB, buySAFE conveys that your store is safe and secure.

Choose reputable verification providers like McAfee, SSL, which are widely recognized. Avoid shady or unknown brands that don‘t inspire trust.

Prominently display 3-5 trust badges on your homepage, product pages, checkout, and other high-impact areas. But don‘t overdo it.

14. Provide Reassurance via Phone Support

Some abandoning visitors need personal reassurance and human touch before purchasing. This is where phone support comes in.

Prominently display your business phone number in the header and footer. Train your team to provide exceptional support over calls. Guide users through any concerns about purchases.

Many customers feel more comfortable speaking to a sales rep before buying compared to email or live chat. Offering readily available phone support increases conversions.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

Here are the key takeaways from this guide:

• Understand why carts are abandoned on your store – shipping costs, lack of trust etc. Then address those specific issues.

• Remind abandoning visitors via exit popups and follow up notifications. Capture emails for retargeting.

• Make your cart icon clearly visible. Show exact shipping costs upfront.

• Simplify checkout and accept multiple payment methods. Add urgency and scarcity cues.

• Build trust with reviews, testimonials, support, and security badges. Answer buyer questions.

• Focus on dramatically improving user experience to lower abandonments in the long run.

Now it‘s time to start implementing these tactics on your WooCommerce store. I recommend starting with the "quick wins" that are easier to test:

• Install exit-intent popup software like OptinMonster

• Set up abandoned cart automation emails and push notifications

• Make your existing cart icon more noticeable across all pages

• Display shipping cost estimates upfront for variable products

• Enable guest checkout immediately to remove forced account creation

Once you‘ve knocked those out, move on to tactics like building reviews and social proof, installing live chat, and optimizing checkout speed.

The key is to not get overwhelmed. Small incremental changes can have a big impact on recovering lost revenue from abandoned carts.

Test different tactics and keep iterating. Over time, these efforts can not only recover more sales but also significantly lift your overall conversion rates.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘ll be happy to help you implement these tips or provide any other ecommerce advice based on my experience. Feel free to reach me at [your email]