An Abandoned Cart Email is an email sent to people who started adding things to their shopping cart on an eCommerce site but then left without completing their purchases. The main idea of these emails is to encourage people to complete the purchases they have already started.
Even if this initial set of reminder emails don’t work, then a list of people who abandoned their shopping cart before purchasing is still very valuable. This because these people have demonstrated that they are interested in making a purchase from that specific site, thereby demonstrating that they are at least a potential customer.
These types of emails often have very high conversion rates, as they are being sent to such soft targets. However unless someone has already signed in, the identity of people who have abandoned their shopping cart often remains hidden. On top of this, the legality of these emails is questionable – especially in the European Union under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations), as the user has not given permission to be emailed.
Both of these problems can be circumvented by re-targeting people who didn’t complete their purchases with display advertising. However, this type of behavioural targeting is considered the most annoying type of advertising.
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