Marketing in a Minute – Episode 9 | Ahmed Moaaz

Customers who added products to the cart and then left are your most purchase-ready audience. Reminder messages, retargeting and a simpler checkout bring a good share of them back.

Why do customers abandon the cart in the first place?

Before chasing the customer who left, understand why they left. The same reasons repeat in most stores:

• The surprise extra cost: the customer reaches checkout and discovers shipping fees or taxes that were not clear from the start. This is the most common reason of all.
• Forced account creation: all they want is to buy a product, and you ask for a password and email confirmation first.
• Long, complicated steps: every extra page between cart and payment loses you a share of buyers.
• Lack of payment trust: an unknown site, an unclear return policy, or limited payment methods that do not suit them.
• They were not serious yet: many use the cart as a comparison wishlist, are waiting for payday, or are comparing your price with another store.

Notice that the last two reasons are completely different: the first is a problem in your store that you can fix, the second is natural behavior you can benefit from with a well-timed reminder.

What is a normal cart abandonment rate?

Large global studies analyzing thousands of stores put the average at around 70% – seven out of ten customers who add a product to the cart do not complete the purchase. The rate is higher on mobile phones than on computers, because entering data on a small screen is harder and distractions are greater.

Do not compare yourself only to the global average; compare yourself to yourself last month. If your rate is 78% and the average is 70%, the gap between them is your real opportunity. The formula: cart abandonment rate = (abandoned carts ÷ total carts with products added) × 100.

How do you win back the customer who abandoned the cart?

These customers are your closest audience to buying: they knew your product, chose it and added it themselves. Winning them back is far cheaper than acquiring a new customer, and you have three main tools:

• Automated reminder emails: a series of three messages usually gives the best results. The first about an hour later as a simple friendly reminder, the second after 24 hours recalling product benefits or adding customer testimonials, and the third after 48 to 72 hours possibly carrying an incentive like a small discount or free shipping.
• Retargeting ads: ads on social platforms showing the customer the exact product they left. The strongest version shows the product with its image and price, not a generic ad about your store.
• WhatsApp or SMS messages: in our Arab markets these sometimes beat email in open rates, especially if the customer left their number while entering their details.

An important rule: do not lead with a discount in the first message. Many customers will return with a simple reminder, and an early discount teaches your customers that abandoning the cart means a cheaper price, turning it into a habit that hurts your margin.

Better than recovery: prevention before it happens

Every customer you stop from abandoning the cart is one you never need to chase later. Review these points in your store:

• Show the full cost early: product price with shipping clearly on the product page itself – no surprises at checkout.
• Allow guest checkout: make account creation an option after purchase, not a requirement before it.
• Cut checkout steps: one page or two at most, with fields asking only for what you truly need for shipping and payment.
• Build trust: recognized payment logos, a clear and reassuring return policy, and a real contact number that answers.
• Offer the payment methods your audience prefers: in Egypt and the region, cash on delivery is not a luxury but a trust requirement for a large segment of customers.
• Site speed: every second of delay in loading the checkout page raises the escape rate, especially on weak internet plans.

How do you know you are improving?

Watch two numbers monthly: the cart abandonment rate itself, and the recovery rate – the share of abandoned carts whose owners returned and completed the purchase after your messages and ads. If the first falls and the second rises, you are treating the problem from both right directions: prevention and recovery.

Test one change at a time: adjust the checkout page this month and watch, then try reminder timing next month. That way you know exactly what moved the number.

A practical example with numbers

A store receives 1,000 carts with products added monthly, its average order value is 500 EGP, and its cart abandonment rate is 75%. That means 250 completed orders with 125,000 EGP in revenue, and 750 lost carts.

If it manages to cut the rate from 75% to just 70% – by improving the checkout page and showing shipping early – that is 50 extra orders a month, or 25,000 EGP in new revenue. And if it then adds reminder messages that recover 8% of the remaining abandoned carts (700 carts), that is another 56 orders worth 28,000 EGP.

The total: 53,000 EGP a month from the same visits and the same ad spend, without a single extra pound in the advertising budget. That is why working on cart abandonment is among the highest-return activities in e-commerce: the audience is already there, the intent is already there, and you are simply removing the obstacles.

Run the same calculation on your own store’s numbers: monthly carts, average order value and current abandonment rate. You will immediately see the value of every percentage point you cut from the abandonment rate, and you will know how much fixing it is worth investing in.

Summary

Cart abandonment is not failure; it is a natural part of the buying journey. The real competition is over who recovers these customers fastest and at the lowest cost. Make the full cost clear from the start, make checkout as easy as possible, then let smart reminder messages catch whoever remains. The customer who reached the cart already trusted you once; your job is simply to make returning easier than leaving.

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