Question
I just received an email from an online retailer asking me if I wanted to complete my purchase. How did they do that given I only added the item to my shopping cart, but didn't actually check out yet? I believe this is called shopping cart abandonment, but I'm not really sure. I also don't know how they were able to send me an email when I've only placed something in my shopping cart and didn't actually check out. Can I do this on my site?
Answer
The fancy term for this is called Email Retargeting. Email Retargetting automatically sends emails to customers who have placed items into their shopping bag, but have not completed their purchase -which is exactly what you experienced. Modern Retail has worked with several companies including: ReTargeter, SaleCycle and CartHook.
While these vendor have similar services, you should contact each of them to see which one is right for you:
You should know that none of these vendors can give the email address of someone visiting your website unless the shopper has already given it to you before. Meaning, they must have entered it during the checkout process sometime in the past, signed up their mailing list, etc. When surfing the Internet, people are anonymous; therefore, in order for both your website and these vendors to have a shopper's email address, the consumer must have given it to you. Email addresses cannot be obtained, at least we certainly hope not, by someone just visiting a website.
Getting email retargeting implemented on your website is pretty easy and something you might be able to do yourself if Google Tag Manager has been added to your site.
If you have any questions, please submit a Support Request and we'd be happy to help you out!