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7 Irresistible Abandoned Cart Email Templates For 2023

August 24, 2022

When it comes to abandoned cart email templates, you have a lot of different options to choose from. But not all templates are created equal – some will work better for your business than others.

Cart abandonment emails are proven to have average open-rates of 45%, but building successful email sequences starts with a strong email design. 

So how do you find the best email templates to recapture your customers? You turn to the experts! 

At CartStack, we’ve sent over 50 million cart recovery emails, and we know a thing or two about building a successful email campaign. 

In this post, we’ve rounded up the best abandoned cart email examples that you can (and should) copy. From email subject lines, to CTAs, it can be a lot of work to check every box needed for a successful email marketing campaign.

That’s why we’re doing more than simply sharing good email templates.

We’re using this week’s blog to explain why these email templates work so well and the specific techniques used to:

• Capture the customer’s attention. 
• Re-engage their interests. 
• Bring them back to your website. 

The guide below includes seven easy-to-use abandoned cart email templates that will help your business recover lost sales quickly.

By sharing these top-performing templates with you, you’ll be on the fast track to creating the best abandoned cart emails to get your customers back.

Best Abandoned Cart Email Templates That Work

Many online retailers struggle with cart abandonment, and 80% of customers who add items to their cart don’t complete their purchase. That’s a lot of potential sales you’re losing!

But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. There are a few different ways that you can go about building an abandoned cart email template. One way is to use a pre-existing template from an automated email marketing tool like Cartstack. 

Curious how pre-built templates work? Download our three best performing email templates for free!

That’s the beauty of email automation and cart abandonment tools — they come pre-loaded with templates that are easily customizable in drag and drop builders. 

This helps to speed up the creation of your cart abandonment campaigns, and your business will be recovering revenue in no time.

Are you interested in building multiple cart recovery campaigns? Perfect! 

In this guide, we’ll be looking at seven of the best abandoned cart email templates:

1. Friendly & Helpful Template – “Oops Did Something Go Wrong?”
2. Visitor Follow-Up Template – “Thank You For Visiting Our Site!”
3. Relevant Product Recommendations Template – “You Like What You See?” 
4. Special Offers & Discounts Template– “Exclusive Coupons & Promos Available For You”
5. The “Missing Out” Email Template – “Don’t Miss Out On This Item”
6. Personal & Quick Push Template  – “Hey Smiles Davis, Just a Reminder”
7. Comedic & Quirky Template – “Baby, Please Come Back”

1. The Helpful Abandoned Cart Email Template – “Oops Did Something Go Wrong?” 

The “Oops Did Something Go Wrong?” cart recovery email is incredibly popular, and you’ve most likely received one yourself.

This email template works so well because it is gentle and non-accusatory — a great way to “test the waters” of your email drip campaigns. 

An email like this does not come across as too salesy or pushy, and shifts the blame from the customers to another source (like an internet interruption etc.)

A big, bold “Oops!” along with a playful image uses humor to soften the message and connect with customers on a more casual level.

You’ll also want to be sure to include your logo, which will help customers immediately establish and recognize your brand. Next, the bright blue CTAs draw the customer’s attention to the instruction “Checkout Now.” 

And don’t forget the importance of the email subject line! Using “Oops, Did Something Go Wrong?” as an email subject line will pique customer curiosity, and lend to higher click rates.

If your creative juices need a kick, you can also check out our list of 17 Magnetic Email Subject Lines for more great examples.

How It Captures Attention	Re-Engagement Style	Key Driving Elements
Big Bold Letters – “Oops!” at the start of the design.	Tone – Helpful and attempts to reach out to the customer.	Urgency – Provides a limited amount of time for availability.
Trademarked Logo – The logo asserts familiarity right away	Useful Content –  Provides details on cart content, solutions, and a line or link of communication (telephone number or customer support).	Direction – Tells the customer what to do next through prominent CTA’s
Highlighted CTA – CTA is the prominent design on the last portion of the email to promote user action.	Evokes Emotions – Content targets the wants, needs, and desires of recipients.	Scarcity – Includes the remaining stock count in red to subtly push the sale

2. The “For Visitors” Abandoned Cart Email Template – “Thank You For Visiting Our Site!”

On its face, this abandoned cart template is so simple it shouldn’t work. But it does. It’s packed full of subtle tactics that come together to capture attention, re-engage, and convert customers successfully. 

Simplicity can still be compelling, which is what makes this one of the best abandoned cart email templates. 

It doesn’t look like a typical marketing email – it feels like a personal email with something important to say. This immediately captures attention and draws the recipient in to find out more. 

This template places your store’s logo in a prominent position to pass the recipient’s “trust test,” establish relevance, and jog their memory. 

The CTA is bright and centered, making it clear and easy to click on. It uses the word “My,” which creates a sense of ownership that makes the email more personalized. 

How It Captures Attention	Re-Engagement Style	Key Driving Elements
Personalized – Personally thanks the customer, and uses “my” to create a sense of ownership	Tone – Polite, helpful, and no hard-selling tactics	Product Image – The cart encourages the customer to buy more by showing them what they might get.
Trademarked Logo – Logo is prominent and allows for immediate recognition	Customer Comes First – Phrases like “we noticed” and “want to offer help” put the customer first and builds trust	Direction – Has a clear CTA, and makes it easy to return to the website to complete purchase
Highlighted CTA – The CTA is highlighted to draw attention	Multiple Contact Methods – Gives the customer control over the relationship and methods of communication, which makes them feel special.	Useful Content – Provides cart contents, pricing, and multiple methods to complete purchase.

3. The “Relevant Product Interest” Abandoned Cart Email Template – “You Like What You See?”

This bright and bold template cleverly uses MyerFit’s brand colors to spark quick recognition and emotional connection to the email contents.

The brand logo stands out at the top of the email, and this helps customers recollect their abandoned items, and build brand awareness and loyalty.

Beyond the bright colors and branding, the headline “See anything you liked?” injects a little cheek into the messaging. This is a great way to make the customer smile and retain their attention, plus it establishes your brand as fun, friendly, and down-to-earth.

The second star of the show is the coupon code. Incentives are a great way to capture the subconscious’s attention, especially when used as your drip-feed campaign’s final email. 

You’ll also note the customer can view their cart’s contents, company contact information, visit social media sites, and unsubscribe. These alternative actions are important because they allow customers to continue their purchasing journey, even if they’re not ready to buy yet. 

How It Captures Attention	Re-Engagement Style	Key Driving Elements
Bold, Bright Lettering – Bright colors and bold lettering capture attention immediately	Provides Value – Offers them something in addition to their cart’s contents	Scarcity – Abandoned cart email incentives imply scarcity which triggers an immediate response.
Sparks Emotion – coupons create a fear of missing out that drives action – if the customer doesn’t use it, they lose out savings.	Tone – Casual and friendly tone softens the sell	Personalization – Coupon codes included in retargeting emails denote personalization which makes customers feel special and appreciated.
Cheeky Email Copy – Down-to-earth copy makes a strong personal connection and builds trust	Useful Content – The cart’s contents are included to recreate the purchase drivers they felt on your website.	Reciprocity – Money-off incentives trigger a human need to reciprocate, which leads to higher conversion rates.

4. The “Special Offers” Template – “Exclusive Coupons & Promos Available For You”

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As much as 48% of abandoned shopping carts are the result of high shipping costs, taxes or other hidden fees at checkout. 

Because of this, many brands use discount codes and free shipping as part of their abandoned cart email strategy. Including an exciting offer in your email helps to drive conversions and engagement, as we can see in the abandoned cart email example above.

Have you ever met a customer that hates saving money? I doubt it. 

This email makes the discounted offer clear, by placing “FREE SHIPPING” in capital letters both in the email copy, and on the highlighted CTA button. It also displays the coupon code front and center, which makes it simple and easy for the customer to retrieve their savings. 

A sense of urgency is created by only offering the discounted shipping for a limited time of 24 hours. This helps to drive action, and evoke an emotional response.

At the bottom of the email we see a large call to action in bold, and a button that leads back to the retailer’s online store. This is an effective sales tactic that can be used time and again to lead customers back to their shopping carts.

How It Captures Attention	Re-Engagement Style	Key Driving Elements
Personalization –  Uses the customer’s name to create personal connection	Urgency – The coupon code is only available for 24 hours, driving the customer to act now.	Direction – Tells the customer what to do next through CTA’s
Capitalized Letters – Placing “FREE SHIPPING” in capital letters draws attention and clearly states the promotion	Helpful Tone – Asks “are there any questions?” to encourage customer engagement	Coupon Code – The coupon code is front and center to immediately draw attention

5. The “Missing Out” Abandoned Cart Email Template – “Don’t Miss Out On This Item”

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Have you ever experienced FOMO? 

FOMO, or fear of missing out, is something many of us feel when we are afraid to miss out on something great. Now, how does that apply to abandoned carts? 

Many ecommerce businesses capitalize on the strong emotional response of FOMO. 

In this example from Google, we see a sense of urgency created through the lens of missing out on a product. This helps to stimulate a strong emotional response, and will drive the customer to purchase rather than missing out.

The goal of this email is to persuade customers to come back and finish their purchase, and Google uses casual and funny copywriting to establish this tone. You don’t want to sound pushy, aggressive or too “salesy”.

Some other tips for sending an effective “Don’t Miss Out on This Item” email:

• Make sure the email is personalized, and includes the customer’s name.
• Highlight the benefits of completing their purchase.
• Utilize back in stock notifications to capture attention
• Create a sense of urgency 
• Make it easy to return and complete the checkout process

How It Captures Attention	Re-Engagement Style	Key Driving Elements
Clever Email Copy – “Going, going (almost) gone”	Evokes Emotions- Capitalizes on FOMO	Urgency – Provides a limited amount of time for availability.
Highlighted CTA – The call to action is front and center in the middle of the email	Tone – The tone is helpful and friendly, and the customer service contact info is included	Free Shipping – A discount is mentioned to make the sale more enticing
Provides Social Proof – Mentions that this is a “popular” item	Useful Content – Shows the contents of the abandoned cart, and its current price	Human Connection – A phone line to speak to a team member is included, for those customers seeking a human connection

6. The Personal & Friendly Abandoned Cart Email Template – “Hey John Doe, just a reminder!”

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Talk about strong simplicity! 

This email template puts the entire focus on the customer, without any mention of products or sales. 

This might seem counterintuitive, because the goal is to drive customers back to your ecommerce store, isn’t it?

That’s correct, and Beardbrand achieves this by connecting with the viewer’s emotions in two ways. First, the copy compliments the customer in big bold letters. This captures attention and immediately makes the reader feel good. 

Secondly, the email subject line is personally addressed to the customer.

People are more likely to be impressed by an email that feels like it was written specifically for them, rather than one that seems like it was sent en masse to everyone on the mailing list. In fact, research has shown that personalization can increase open rates by as much as 26%.

And while it may not look like it, the menu positioned at the top of the email is the call to action, so curious customers can easily return to your homepage, products page, or blog.

How It Captures Attention	Re-Engagement Style	Key Driving Elements
Big Bold Letters – Email copy is bold and centered to capture interest	Customer Comes First – Compliment the customer, rather than pushing products	Soft CTA – The menu bar at the top is a soft call to action that works without being too sales forward
Contrasting Colors – White font set on a black background helps the message stand out	Connects Emotionally – Invokes curiosity without being pushy	Builds Brand Awareness – Sets the tone for the brand and connects with the customer

7. The Comedic Abandoned Cart Email Template – “Baby, Please Come Back”

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Humor is a powerful tool, and if used correctly, it can really help to increase engagement and encourage people to act on your message.

Here we can see Casper’s cart abandonment email starts off with a comedic opening “Come Back to Bed”, which helps to capture our attention. The copywriting sets a casual and funny tone for the email, which makes it feel more human and less transactional. 

Just be careful to consider your target audience when including humor in your cart reminders, because you want to stay consistent with your brand tone. But, when used correctly, humor helps to break the ice and make people feel more relaxed about engaging with your email. 

What else makes this a good email? It includes a real customer testimonial! 

Social proof, like testimonials, is a fantastic way to drive conversions and build trust with your customers. The best part of the review we see in Casper’s email, is that it is funny and relatable, which connects with the overall tone of the email copy.

How It Captures Attention	Re-Engagement Style	Key Driving Elements
Comedic Heading – The witty “Come Back to Bed” sets a friendly and funny tone	Multiple CTAs – Gives the customer multiple chances to engage with the email	Clean Design – This design is clean, simple and delivers a clear message
Strong Email Copy – Clever copy keeps the reader engaged and curious	Drives Emotion – The casual and humorous tone adds a human element that connects with customer emotions	Testimonials – Product reviews are included to strengthen the sale
Quirky Subject Line – The subject line “Baby, please come back” entices customers to open the email	Product Image – Visuals of the customer’s cart drive the need for purchase	Sets Brand Voice –  Comedic copy makes the brand memorable and sticks with customers

Design Elements That Matter In Abandoned Cart Emails

When it comes to abandoned cart emails, design is everything. Even when using pre-made email templates, there are some important elements to consider.

You want your design to match the style of your website, and it should be consistent with the other emails in your campaign. The tone of your copy, your subject line, and personalization and audience segmentation all have their role to play. 

Let’s break down each of these design elements, because we want to be sure you’re ready to design the absolute emails for lowering your cart abandonment rate.

Subject Lines Are Key

Abandoned cart emails have a high open rate, but that doesn’t mean you can slap any subject line on your email and expect it to be successful. You need to carefully craft your copy to grab people’s attention and encourage them to open your email.

Subject lines for abandoned cart emails should be personalized, specific, and enticing. They should remind customers of the items they left behind and encourage them to come back and finish their purchase.

Here are a few examples of effective subject lines for abandoned cart emails:

• “We Missed You! Your Items Are Waiting”
• “Don’t Lose These Deals – Last Chance to Complete Your Purchase”
• “In Case You Missed It: Your Shopping Cart”
• “We Saved the Best for Last: Don’t Miss Out on These Deals”

Content Copy Matters

Copy remains an important part of any email campaign, and it’s especially important when trying to recover lost sales from shopping cart abandonment. Customizing templated content to suit the specific needs of each audience segment is still more effective than using static, stale, and generalized copy.

This is what ecommerce marketers refer to as “Dynamic Content.”

Dynamic content can be tailored to match the interests and needs of each individual recipient, making it more likely that they will respond to the email and complete their purchase. Static content, on the other hand, is less likely to engage recipients and may even cause them to ignore or delete the email.

At the end of the day, the goal is for your content to be useful and provide value. This can be done in a number of ways, such as including discount codes, contact information, updates on return policies, or any relevant information for your target audience.

Always Highlight CTAs

Call-to-action buttons are essential in any form of digital marketing. They provide the primary access for receivers to proceed with their purchase and a highlighted and clear CTA makes it much easier to get clicks.

Including a CTA button in your shopping cart abandonment email is one of the best ways to increase your conversion rates. CTAs that are relevant to your content will help to strengthen your message and encourage people to take action.

Make sure that your CTA button is easy to see and easy to click. Use a clear and concise label so that receivers know what they’re clicking on.

Personalization Helps

Did you know, Ecommerce businesses with personalized email marketing campaigns can grow their revenue 5.7 times? That’s the power of audience segmentation!

By segmenting your customers, you can target them with specific messages that are the most relevant to their needs. This increases the chance that they will act on your message and return to your store to complete their purchase.

There are a number of different market segments that can be used in ecommerce marketing, including:

• Demographic Segmentation: This refers to demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income level, education level, and marital status.
• Behavioral Segmentation: This refers to how customers behave when they interact with a brand or product. For example, are they price-sensitive or do they place a high value on quality?
• Geographic Segmentation: This refers to dividing a market into different regions based on factors such as climate, culture, and population density.
• Psychographic Segmentation: This refers to the psychological characteristics of customers, such as their attitudes, values, and lifestyles.

Each of these market segments can be useful for ecommerce businesses, but it is important to tailor your marketing strategy to the specific segment you are targeting.

Conclusion

Abandoned carts are a common occurrence in online shopping, but with the right tools and email campaigns you can combat them. By following the design tips and tricks used in the abandoned cart email templates above, you’ll be able to recover lost sales in no time.

Remember to consider the three top goals of a successful cart recovery email:

• Capture attention
• Re-engage the customer
• Drive action

This can be done with many techniques, like highlighting your calls to action, considering your target audience with your copy, and using brand colors and clever design. 

By using the right design elements and personalization techniques, you can increase your open rates, conversions and recover lost revenue. 

If you’re ready to start recovering sales, download our 5 Free Abandoned Cart Email Templates and to get a head-start! You can either download them in HTML, or customize them first using our drag & drop builder.