Abandoned Basket Emails

When a user starts their checkout but does not complete the purchase, we can turn on a batch job that sends them a link to their saved basket so that they can complete their order.

When is the email sent?

The email is sent 1 hour after the user was last on the checkout.

You can change this to a longer time period by contacting the Help Desk.

Sending the email to users who have not opted in

By default, we send the email only to users who are currently opted in.  Note that we collect the user's email address on the first page of the checkout and have a checkbox for the user to opt-in on this first page.

If you want all users to get the email even if they are not opted in, and you are sure that this complies with the GDPR regulations, contact the Help Desk and they will configure this for you.

Careful when users can opt out directly on your email marketing platform

We recommend that you use the AB Commerce UNSUBSCRIBE url at the bottom of your emails so that they unsubscribe through the website, which then updates your email marketing platform.  If you decide to use the email marketing platform's unsubscribe link, then the website will not know if the user has unsubscribed so will continue to send them the abandoned basket emails.

The website UNSUBSCRIBE link is: yourwebsite.com/unsubscribe

Note that we put an UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of all abandoned basket emails so if they get an email and don't want to receive anymore, they just click this link.  This only works as long as you have not turned on the ability for all users to get the email.

How to edit the Email Text

You can edit the email at any time by following these steps:

• Log on as web admin and click on Marketing - Emails and click Abandoned Basket Email
• In the resulting screen, you will see the current automated email - you can click on EDIT CONTENT to edit the content of the email:
  • In the left sidebar, you can edit these:
    • TEST EMAIL SETTINGS: Before you can click Save to any changes, you must send a test email to yourself (or else your changes could break the website without you knowing) - to do this, just enter the following fields and then you can click Send Test Email at any time to preview your changes through your email account before clicking Save:
      • Test Email To Address: Enter your email address here
      • Test Email Sign-off: You cant click Save until you check this button to say that you have received a test email and you are happy to sign off on this
    • Email Subject: This is the title of the email that will be sent.
    • From Email: This is the email address that the email will be sent from.
      • NOTE: This email address must be validated or else the email will not send.
    • From Email Name: If you want the FROM address to display something other than the email address, enter it here.
    • Title: This appears at the top of the email.
    • Promotion Code: If you want to give the user a promo code within the email, enter it here (ensure that it is working first) - we recommend using Single Use Promo Codes so that they can only use the promo code once so you just need to enter here the Promo Code Reference for the Single Use Promo Code - click here for more details
  • You can also click in the blue boxes in the main page to make edits to the content displayed.
    • NOTE that you should use the HEADERS list under the FORMATS dropdown in the screen below to format the content.
  • Click Preview to preview your changes, click Send Test Email to preview your changes through your email account + if you are happy with them, click Save
  • The changes will update when the cache is cleared - if you want them to happen immediately, just clear the cache.

How to offer a promo code

If you want to add a promo code to the email, just add it to the left sidebar.  And remember to add text about what the promo code does to the email above where the PROMO CODE is displayed.

You can use a standard promo code (that can be used repeatedly) or a once-off promo code that can be used only once by the user.

When does the basket expire

The email will contain a link to Return to Basket that will bring the user into the VIEW BASKET page so that they can complete their order.  We don't change the prices within the basket even if a promotion expires, but you can set a number of days before the basket expires.  To do this, just contact the Help Desk.  The Help Desk can configure your website so that the basket expires at midnight on the same day, midnight the following day, or midnight after a number of days.

The products in the email also are linked to the product detail page so even if the Return to Basket link stops working, the product links in the email will continue to work.

Note also that we don't send emails to baskets that are older than 24 hours (in case the abandoned baskets batch jobs gets paused temporarily).

Trade Customers

Trade customers automatically have their basket saved against their account so that it is there when they log in again.  So they are excluded from receiving abandoned basket emails.

Can i see statistics on the Abandoned Basket emails?

Yes, see Sales By Channel on the dashboard.  Note you will need to be a power user to see this on your dashboard.  The 'abcommerceABAND' channel shows details on the abandoned basket email.

How to turn on Abandoned Basket Emails

To turn this on, contact the Help Desk.

And then when it is turned on, create a basket and go to the first page of the checkout and enter your email address and opt in, and then click NEXT - and then close your browser.  You should get the abandoned basket within an hour.  Once you do, test the links work correctly in the email and that the wording is correct in the email.