This article will help you understand:
- What an Abandoned Basket Trigger is
- Why you should use an Abandoned Basket Trigger
- Different setups for implementing the Raptor Abandoned Basket Trigger
- How to use/customize all the different settings and filters, so it fits your solution
- How to combine the Abandoned Basket Trigger with product recommendations
🔍 Note: Before you get started, it's essential to understand that Raptor isn't an e-mail marketing system, meaning it doesn't send e-mails directly. Instead, Raptor integrates with your chosen e-mail marketing provider, allowing you to utilize all of Raptor's functionalities alongside with the features in your e-mail marketing system.
See all e-mail marketing systems Raptor works with here: Raptor integrations
What is an Abandoned Basket Trigger?
The king of e-mail automations. Users will add a product to their basket but leave your website without buying, a classic e-commerce challenge. Did you know, more than 70% of online sales vanish because of this?
But there's hope! Given that these customers have already shown interest by adding products to their basket, they are close to making a purchase. To effectively re-engage these abandoners, a series of e-mails can be sent, reminding them of the products they left behind and encouraging them to finalize their purchase.
An Abandoned Basket Trigger scenario could look like this:
The Raptor Abandoned Basket Trigger is activated when a user exits the website without finalizing an order for a product they had placed in their basket.
The user doesn't need to have filled out the checkout form for the Raptor Abandoned Basket to be triggered, as the user is typically already known by Raptor's tracking script if they have logged in, signed up for newsletters, clicked on newsletters, or made purchases before the basket event.
Of course, the Abandoned Basket Trigger always retains a list of the products in the user's recent cart.
Redirect to products or the basket?
There are two methods for creating an Abandoned Basket e-mail with Raptor.
1. Redirect to basket: The ideal solution for abandoned baskets is to redirect the user directly to their basket. This requires storing all basket ID's in your database, each with a unique ID. This ID, referred to as BasketId in Raptor, should be sent with all basket events. This enables Raptor to combine the BasketId with the list of products in the basket, which is necessary for restoring the basket link.
Your webshop also needs a generic URL such as: https://www.mywebshop.com/basketid
The combination of the generic URL combined with the basketId, will redirect the client to the basket.
💡 Example:
Generic URL: https://www.mywebshop.com/basketid=
BasketId: 45056e39-d048-4841-b3dd-f1629aaaab3e9
The user will be redirected to: https://www.mywebshop.com/basketid=4.5056E43
2. Redirect to products: If you're unable to recreate the basket using the BasketId and a generic URL, you can also set up an Abandoned Basket Trigger where users are redirected directly to the product page.
Disqualifying Triggers
A typical challenge when dealing with abandoned baskets is ensuring that a user does not receive an abandoned basket notification after they have completed their purchase.
Raptor's Abandoned Basket feature automatically checks various types of identifiers to disqualify the Abandoned Basket Triggers. This includes checking if the e-mail or cookie ID associated with the user have completed a purchase. Additionally, if tracking of basket ID's is implemented, the system can recognize when a specific basket has already been purchased. This addresses the following common scenarios:
A user may be recognized with one e-mail when they visit the website, but use a different e-mail during checkout.
💡 Example: a user might click newsletter content with their work e-mail (e.g., deg@raptor.dk), but check out with a different e-mail for invoicing (e.g. invoice@raptor.dk). In this case Raptor's Cookie ID will identify that the basket was created and purchased by the same user. If basket ID's are tracked, the Trigger will also detect if the basket has already been purchased.
In B2B setups, baskets can be accessed by multiple users who are operating under the same account.
💡 Example: it is common that multiple users add items to the same basket, which is then checked out by a single person. If your setup allows disqualification on a user level, Triggers will be sent out to all users who add items to their basket but did not check out. By implementing a check on whether the basket has been purchased via basket ID, it ensures that unwanted Triggers are not sent.
Trigger settings
The Abandoned Basket Trigger can be configured in the following manner:
1. Runtime
The Trigger setup exists of two different runtime settings:
- Automated: the Trigger runs every hour.
- Scheduled: the Trigger will run at a specific time. The schedule is custom, and can be customized to whenever you want the Trigger to fire.
💡 Example: A classic way to set up your Abandoned Basket is by firing it immediately after the user leaves the site. Another way to catch the user's attention is by using Raptor's schedule feature, where the Trigger fires at a specific time. For instance, it could be one hour before the warehouse closes with a message like: 'Order before 4:00 PM and get your items shipped today'. This case is commonly used in B2B companies where being too pushy with an Abandoned Basket e-mail is not desired, but the e-mail is intended more as a service.
2. Waiting time
Define the delay that should pass before the user receives the Trigger e-mail. It is recommended that the Trigger fires shortly after the user has left the website, to ensure conversion. We recommend that the Trigger fires between 1-2 hours after the basked is abandoned.
💡 Example: The Trigger e-mail should be send 1 hour after the user abandoned their basket
3. Limit
Choose how many Triggers the users receive within a specific period. To avoid spamming the user, a limit can be set. Raptor recommends a limit where the user can receive a maximum of one Trigger per 24 hours. The limit can be combined with other Triggers such as Category Interest, Product Interest and Price Drop Product Interest.
💡 Example: The user may receive a maximum of 1 Abandoned Basket Trigger within 24 hours
This is what the Trigger with the above mentioned settings will look like in the e-commerce funnel. Remember that all these settings are customizable (When the Trigger that runs every hour catches an Abandoned Basket event, an e-mail will be send after one hour. After this, the limit period will not send any other Abandoned Basket e-mails for 24 hours):
Organizing your Triggers
1. Execution order: When you've activated multiple Triggers, you can set a priority to determine the order of them. The Trigger with the lowest index set in the execution order will activate first. For this to work, the Triggers set with execution order must activate simultaneously.
💡 Example: If you've set up a Product Interest, Category Interest and an Abandoned Basket Trigger, you need to set all Triggers with the same latency to utilize execution order functionality.
2. Trigger grouping: Using the limit, you can ensure that the user receives only a specific number of Triggers within a certain period. With "Trigger group," you can choose which Triggers should disqualify each other. In some cases, you may want a Trigger to always activate, regardless of what the user has received previously. For example, a Price-drop Trigger that only activates then there is sale on your website.
💡 Example: Suppose you have 4 Raptor Triggers in your setup: Product Interest, Abandoned Basket, Category Interest and Price Drop Product Interest. The Trigger groups are set up, named 'Group 1' and 'Group 2':
Group 1: Contains Product Interest, Category Interest and Abandoned Basket. These Triggers can disqualify each other. So the user only receives on Trigger from this group within a specific period.
Group 2: Contains only the Price Drop Product Interest Trigger. This Trigger will always activate regardless of other Triggers the user has received, since it is in it's own group. The Trigger may disqualify itself, depending on the limit settings if there are multiple price drops within a short interval.
Trigger filters
If certain products need to be excluded from Trigger communications, filters can be set up in Raptor's Data Manager. Filters can be created based on all product information's in your Product Catalog.
Examples:
- Do not include items priced below €10,-.
- Avoid products with a minimal contribution margin.
- Exclude products belonging to a designated brand.
- Establish a feed that only activates triggers for items within a specified category.
Although filtering is possible, we do not recommend using this functionality, as one often wants to send precisely the products that are in the basket.
Data Enrichment
Raptor's Trigger events are enriched with data that can be used to provide a more personalized experience in your e-mail marketing tool.
Raptor Product Interest Triggers always include:
| Data | Description |
RecommendedId |
The product the user has visited |
Productname |
The name of a product fetched from the product feed |
Timestamp |
The time the Trigger was fired |
Eventname |
The name of the event fired to the last-mile system |
EmailmarketingId |
E-mail or ID used in the e-mail marketing system |
If additional data from your Product Catalog is desired to be included in the Trigger, this can easily be done, for example:
• RetailPrice
• Discount
• OriginalPrice
• OnsalePrice
• ProductCategory
• ProductDescription
• BrandName
• Stockstatus
• Producturl
• Imageurl
Also custom fields can be populated with any relevant information you wish to include to enhance the trigger data:
• Customfield1
• Customfield2
• Customfield3
• Customfield4
• Customfield5
Technical requirements
The technical requirements are categorized into two sets to correspond with the two types of setups available: 'Abandoned Basket redirect to basket' and 'Abandoned Basket redirect to products'.
1. Abandoned Basket redirect to basket:
Tracking:
Event (P1): Basket
Basket Content (P10): A comma-separated list of all ProductId's in the basket, must be fired at every basket event, when a product is added or removed from the basket.
BasketId (P11): The unique ID of a basket.
EmailmarketingId (RuId): E-mail or other user identifiers for the e-mail marketing system, must be set under Ruid. Read more about setting up tracking in the Tracking documentation in Raptor’s Help Center.
Product Catalog:
The Product Catalog be set up with the following parameters at a minimum:
• ProductNumber
• ProductUrl
• ImageUrl
Read more about the Product Catalog setup in the Product Catalog documentation Raptor’s Help Center.
🔍 Note: Ensure that the ProductId send in BasketContent in the tracking matches the ProductNumber in the ProductCatalog.
Generic URL:
Your webshop needs a generic URL such as: https://www.mywebshop.com/basketid. The combination of the generic URL combined with the basketId, will redirect the client to the basket.
💡 Example:
Generic URL: https://www.mywebshop.com/basketid=
BasketId: 45056e39-d048-4841-b3dd-f1629aaaab3e9
The user will be redirected to: https://www.mywebshop.com/basketid=4.5056E43
2. Abandoned Basket redirect to product:
Tracking:
Basket Content (P10): A comma-separated list of all ProductId's in the basket, must be fired at every basket event, when a product is added or removed from the basket.
E-mail or other user identifier for the e-mail marketing system must be set under Ruid. Read more about setting up tracking in the Tracking documentation in Raptor’s Help Center.
Product Catalog:
The Product Catalog be set up with the following parameters at a minimum:
• ProductNumber
• ProductUrl
• ImageUrl
Read more about the Product Catalog setup in the Product Catalog documentation Raptor’s Help Center.
🔍 Note: Ensure that the ProductId send in BasketContent in the tracking matches the ProductNumber in the Product Catalog.
Combine the Trigger with e-mail personalization modules
Combination 1
Abandoned Basket x Personal recommendations (The personal shopping assistant)
Let's make shopping feel like it's tailored just for the user. With our personalized recommendations, we're all about enhancing the shopping experience. If the user already got some goodies the basket, why not present some other items that complement their choices perfectly? It's like having your own personal shopper, suggesting items that go hand in hand with what you already love. So go ahead, explore our cross-sell recommendations, and discover even more treasures to add to your basket. Look for the module 'The personal shopping assistant (additional sales)' in Raptors Control Panel.
E-mail example:
Combination 2
Abandoned Basket x Customized Recommendations
Gain control of your recommendations by utilizing the Merchandising items strategy. This strategy is based on items selected by you in the Merchandising tool and then sorted by the users' personal preferences or general popularity. Build a query of products such as "new arrivals," "products on sale," or accessory products that you wish to push to all users who receive an abandoned cart e-mail.
The module maintains itself, automatically removing products that go out of stock or no longer meet your query. Additionally, all selected products are sorted according to each individual's preferences. Look for the module 'Items of Customized Feeds sorted by personal preferences and popularity'.
🔍 Note: In order to use the Merchandising module, access to Merchandising is required.
E-mail example:
Combination 3
Abandoned Basket x Look Alike Products
Ever noticed those 'You may also like' sections while shopping online? That's the power of 'Look Alike Products' recommendations. They're like the rock stars of ecommerce, appearing on every good product page carousel. You can bring that magic to your e-mails too. Spruce up your Abandoned Basket e-mails with AI-generated look alike products. Give your users top-notch alternatives to what they've already added to the basket. Look for the module 'Other customers have also seen' in the Raptors Control Panel.
E-mail example:
Abandoned Basket reminder
Ever wondered why some online stores send you reminders when you leave items in your shopping cart without completing the purchase? It's not just a random act of kindness—it's a smart business strategy. These reminders, known as abandoned basket reminders, are like gentle taps on the shoulder, reminding you about those items you were interested in.
Not only does this help you recover potentially lost sales, but it also shows your customers that you care about their shopping experience. It's a win-win situation! So, if you haven't already set up abandoned basket reminders for your online store, now's the time to do it. You'll be amazed at the impact it can have on your sales and customer satisfaction levels.
When you have your first abandoned basket set up, it's easy to set up an Abandoned Basket reminder. The requirements for the triggers are the same, you only have to change the latency, and then you are good to go.