An abandoned cart email is an automated message sent to a visitor who left items in their cart. Fashion brands usually send 3 or 4: a reminder after an hour, a nudge after a day, a discount after two. Below are 17 real ones, captured from live brands, with subject lines and timing intact.
Cart abandonment happens when a visitor adds a product to the the cart of your store... butt doesn't proceed to checkout and complete the purchase.
For you, an abandoned cart means one thing: a lost opportunity for conversion!
What are the reasons why they just leave without saying goodbye?
Users may abandon their carts just because they aren't ready to buy. Instead, they use their cart as more of a "wishlist" as they shop around and compare prices and items. Here's why people leave your cart:
- The visitor feels that shipping fees and taxes are too high
- The visitor is required to create an account first before proceeding with the process
- The checkout process is unnecessarily complicated
It is important to note that while 0% cart abandonment might be unattainable, you can still do better to reduce its impact on your business.
Using Panoramata, we dug deep into some most popular fashion brands' abandoned cart email sequences to see how they reach out to their prospective customers when a cart has been left behind and picked out some fave emails and best practices.
Whether you belong to the fashion industry or not, these examples will inspire you to create better abandoned cart emails!
17 abandoned cart email examples from fashion brands
Customers have gone through the process and trouble of finding a product. The proof is their cart with item/s left on it.
You can now take advantage of the low-hanging fruit here. To do so, you need to be a little pushy but in the right way.
Why not create a simple email series - something that lets the client progress from one stage to the next?
Sending one email reminder is a good practice and can work sometimes but ideally, you have to send 3 emails and time them right.
Let’s look at the following example journeys to find out how it’s done.
What is an abandoned cart email?
I'll keep things simple: an abandoned cart email is an automated message sent to a person who added items to their cart on your website... But unfortunately, they left without buying.
Most fashion brands send three: a reminder about an hour after the cart is abandoned, a nudge with product detail a day later, and a discount as the last step.
The goals are:
- To offer help if they had a question or encountered an issue,
- To recover the sale and close it!
- Get this sale without training your audience to wait for a coupon.
Every email below was captured from a live fashion brand. Subject line, timing and offer are shown as they were sent.
When to send them?
The classic lost checkout flow is a four-email sequence.
Most fashion brands in this article run three or four emails over five days. Here is the shape, so you don't have to reverse-engineer it from the screenshots below.
And of course -- how many cart emails should you actually send?
Let's see this in details!
If you're still wondering if you absolutely need to do this, the answer is yes (and you probably at a minimum have a default sequence already in place).
Here's the proof:
Remind your customers about their cart an hour after a lost checkout.
Subject line: U left these behind..., sent by Crap eyewear
Suggest they finish their purchase.
Subject line: (Almost) gone forever, sent by Crap eyewear 24 hours after the first email
Provide an incentive.
Subject line: Good for the next 24 hours!!, sent by Crap eyewear 24 hours after the second email
Here’s another example from the brand Lulalu.
Remind them about their items
Subject line: Don’t forget about that cart..., sent by Lulalu
Remind them how good your products are
This can increase the chance that they finish their purchase at this point.
Subject line: So...why Lulalu?, sent by Lulalu 24 hours after the first email
Be more generous by offering a discount
This can work wonders, but do not start with it, never. Never offer a discount before email #3 in your sequence.
Here’s a little discount just for you, Robby, sent by Lulalu 1 day after the last email
Send another email to nudge them to buy
You don’t need to limit yourself to only 3 emails. You can send 4 or more, especially if you are offering a good deal.
Here, Lulalu sent a 4th email to remind the client about their discount.
Don’t lose your discount!, sent by Lulalu 2 days after the last email
Let them know what other customers say
One surefire way of securing new customers is by showing them that others have already bought and were satisfied with the item. Just like the example emails below, you can use customer testimonials to help your prospective customers decide - of course in your favor.
A customer testimonial is a recommendation from a satisfied buyer that affirms the value of a product or service.
Show the comments from your previous buyers. If you have plenty of reviews, you can place a CTA so readers can just click to view more of them.
Or, you can use a good layout to organize them in such a way that they do not crowd the email body too much. Otherwise, it will look overwhelming and users may strain their eyes reading them.
Did you see something you liked?, sent by Bohten
Mason, these are still in your cart!, sent by Knickey
Incorporate humor to engage your audience
An abandoned cart can be a serious challenge to your business, especially if the rate is going higher and higher. But some brands take it on a light note on their email reminders, which proves to be effective.
Look at the example emails below. As you will notice, the subject lines, banner texts and images use humor.
This is where you can get more creative and grab more than attention than when you send a plain reminder to the customers.
You can incorporate humor naturally by making them relevant to your point or story. Humors are grounded in real-life experience after all.
Keep it short and sweet and choose the right words. It is also worth noting that when talking about an abandoned cart, you can mix funny and serious (as this is a serious matter, at least to you as a marketer).
Missing something? 🧦, sent by Lasso
Are you walking around barefoot? You forgot your Glyphs in your cart! 🦶🦶🦶, sent by Glyph
Use cute graphics in line with your branding
In this email example, the brand RipNDip utilizes cute graphics on their banner image that is aligned with their branding (the cat character).
Yes, it used just a simple and classic subject line (“Did you forget something”) but the banner image really catches the eye.
It also used a simple layout where you can see only a few things: the product left on the cart, its price and quantity, and the high-contrast CTA that reads “Return to your cart”.
Did you forget something?, sent by RipNDip
Save a purchase using the classic FOMO
FOMO or Fear of Missing Out is a classic but still proven go-to when it comes to saving a sale, in any industry really.
It is a message that appeals to customers' desire to latch on to every opportunity before it slips through their fingers. Many people would rather make an impulse purchase than regret failing to act later.
In the example below, you will see right on the second block the statement “We might only have this exact color and size for a little bit longer…”
For a shoe product, it can be convincing knowing that a delay in purchase can lead them to not have the exact item they wanted.
You cant' kill your workout without these 👟, sent by Lane Eight
Answer their potential questions and direct them to your FAQs
Do you know why carts might be abandonned, specifically for the fashion industry?
People don't abandon carts because they changed their mind.
Size, fits, shipping delays, returns. You can (and should!) answer their questions in your lost checkout flow.
The FAQs on your website can be the catch-all page to all your customers’ queries about a certain product or the service you offer.
By directing them to your FAQ page, they will get an instant answer that can lead them to finally continue checkout.
But before pointing them to your FAQ page, you should be confident enough that it is worth browsing through. You can see additional insights about creating an SEO-optimized FAQ page here.
did you forget something?, sent by Mahabis
Pssst... Looks like you forgot something, sent by Harper Wilde
Rescue a cart through customer support
It is possible that customers potentially have questions about the product they wanted to buy, or they encountered technicalities beyond their patience. They are best answered by a person - someone from the customer support team or even the founder himself.
Make sure to spell out the available customer support options such as an email address, phone number, live chat, and any other contact means.
This is also an effective way to know first-hand experience so your team can check and solve it. It will create a frictionless checkout and positive customer experience the next time around.
Did you forget something?, sent by Happy Socks
Need Help With Your Cart? We Can Help, sent by Alo Yoga
Bye for now! See you again for the next round of winning marketing moves.
FAQs
Why do people abandon their carts?
Shoppers abandon their carts for several reasons. They might feel that additional costs like shipping fees and taxes are too high, be discouraged by the need to create an account, or find the checkout process too complicated. Some also use their carts as a "wishlist" while comparing prices or simply aren't ready to purchase.
How many emails should I send in an abandoned cart sequence?
It's best to send at least three emails, spaced appropriately, to remind and nudge customers. Start with a gentle reminder, follow up with an incentive like a discount, and consider adding a testimonial or humor to engage them further. If needed, you can send more emails, especially when offering a time-sensitive deal.
What makes an abandoned cart email effective?
An effective email includes a clear subject line, personalized content, and a compelling call-to-action (CTA). Adding elements like customer testimonials, humor, or FOMO messaging can increase engagement. Visual elements like clean layouts, product images, and aligned branding also help catch your audience's attention and encourage them to complete their purchase
When should the first abandoned cart email go out?
About an hour after the cart is abandoned. Early enough that the client still remembers the product, late enough that you are not interrupting someone who stepped away and is coming back.
Should the first email include a discount?
No, never! If the first email has a discount, you're missing on your margins and leaving money on the table. Hold the discount for the third email, and put an end date on it to increase urgency.
How many abandoned cart emails is too many?
Four is the practical ceiling for most fashion brands. Past that, the extra sends recover very little and the unsubscribe cost starts to outweigh the recovered revenue.
What should the subject line say?
Name the thing they left, or ask a short question. "Did you forget something?" and "These are still in your cart" both appear repeatedly in the examples on this page, across unrelated brands.
Do abandoned cart emails work for fashion specifically?
They tend to work well, because fashion carts are usually abandoned over fit, price or shipping rather than intent. They wanted the item. The email removes the reason they hesitated.
