There are many reasons why a customer may abandon browsing without adding to their cart including:

• Just looking for now
• The price is too high
• Price-checking against a competitor
• A distraction called the customer away from their device
• Another product is better suited (either one of yours or a competitor’s)

As you know, this expression of customer interest in an item is a vital piece of data that opens the door to future sales opportunities.

But if you force each customer who abandons their browsing down the same pathway, will each customer be won over by the same strategy?

Taking a more intuitive approach will give you traction against your competitors who, chances are, are still treating all abandonment in the same way.

First, tune in to the complex back-story behind abandoned browsing that’s often ignored. For example, are there shades of probability behind which segments of customers are more likely to go on and buy? Does the product line make a difference? How about the brand, the time of year, the location of the customer, or the devices that they use? When is there a gender difference? Or, do you have any additional CRM data about customers that could be integrated into an extended customer profile?

Once you understand this you need to have the flexibility to cope with any or all of these scenarios.

For example, imagine that you know that the further through the customer lifecycle a customer the less likely they are to purchase after browse abandonment on products “Coats” and “Boots” , but that lifecycle doesn’t have any effect on “Jackets”, “Shorts” and “Tees”. Use this information to craft your offer, for example, 20% off on abandoned “Coats” and “Boots” and 10% off on the other categories.

And don’t deliver this offer in the same way for each customer. You may know that some customers are more likely to purchase from a desktop rather than a mobile device, so prioritise email over text (as texts will only be read on mobile devices), whilst reserving text as a follow-up option.

And don’t forget those you don’t have an email address for. Why not flash a banner when they next visit your site reminding them of their browsing during their last visit? And embed the offer relevant to those items in your site for the duration of their visit?

So, in summary, improve conversions by picking up on abandonment signals, and use the right approach to lead to a sale.