How we doubled the abandoned checkout revenue for a cosmetics brand - twice

Here is how we doubled our abandoned checkout revenue... twice...

Without giving discounts or being pushy.

Disclaimer: This is a 7-figure cosmetics e-commerce brand, so results may vary depending on your size and niche.

When we first approached this brand, the abandoned checkout looked like this:
Trigger, 4-hour delay, 1 email, done.

That setup had a 4.8% Placed Order Rate in the first email. (see screenshot on the left)

We then ran an A/B test with 2 delays, 4 hours vs. 30 minutes.

30 minutes won with a Placed Order Rate of 8.1%.

Then we noticed that the AOV was pretty low for this flow (at around 20€) even though we offer free shipping on orders above 39€ and our usual AOV is 41€.

That's when we went ahead and created a split that would split up the carts into those that had a value above and below 39€.

In the email for customers with a value above 39€, we mentioned clearly that they are now eligible for free shipping. That was enough to double the Placed Order Rate for the 2nd time to a whopping 16.3%.

For the customers with a value of less than 39€, we prepared an email that simply told them about free shipping being available on orders above 39€. This led to even more orders crossing the 39€ mark, even though the Placed Order Rate stayed consistent.

Together with a few other minor improvements, we were not only able to double the abandoned checkout revenue twice, but also to increase the overall AOV for the store.

So, if you're using abandonment automations, make sure to test different time delays and also let customers know about the things you're offering; even if you think they're obvious, they might not be obvious enough.