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Grow Online Ticket Sales with These Vital Customer Recovery Tools

March 9, 2023

Cart abandonment is an invisible revenue drain like no other, responsible for nearly $18B in lost revenue each year. For the travel and tourism industry, cart abandonment rates sit particularly high, at 85.22%.

Have you ever experienced visitors abandoning their ticket purchase on your website? Do you find it difficult to persuade them to complete their purchase and grow ticket sales? If so, you’re not alone. Losing potential customers can be frustrating and costly, but there’s a solution that can help.

Cart abandonment tools can help you recover lost sales and grow your ticket sales. By sending targeted emails or messages to customers who abandon their shopping carts, these tools can remind them of the items they left behind and incentivize them to complete their purchase.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to utilize cart abandonment tools to grow ticket sales and revenue. We’ll discuss the benefits of using these tools for your business and provide tips for optimizing your cart abandonment campaigns. Don’t let lost sales hold you back – let cart abandonment tools help you recover them!

Real-Time Tracking (Integration with Ticketing Engine)

There are many basic cart abandonment plugins out there, but when it comes to in-depth customer data collection and personalization, CartStack’s real-time tracking gives you a leg up on the competition.

With real-time data capture, you can gather customer information both during and before the checkout process. Real-time tracking works like an “invisible lead generation tool”, collecting any information entered on your site, such as an email or phone number, as it’s typed. 

How will this benefit your ticket sales? Campaign Monitor found that personalized emails increase open rates by 26%, and segmented email campaigns result in a 760% increase in revenue.

With in-depth customer data at your disposal, your cart abandonment emails can be hyper-personalized for increased conversions. Additionally, the data collected is easily exportable and can be utilized with any marketing software of your choice.

The best part is the ease of set-up: CartStack will generate a tracking code which you’ll insert into the global header of your site. Just like that, you’re primed to capture valuable leads!

By using Real-Time Tracking, you can capture:

• Dates
• Seat
• Times
• Locations
• Price
• Package Upgrades

Cart Abandonment Emails 

Cart abandonment emails are automated messages sent to customers who have added tickets to their online cart but left without completing the purchase. For a ticketed attraction, sending cart abandonment emails can help to recover lost sales by reminding customers to complete their purchase, sometimes offering incentives or discounts to encourage them to do so.

The Average Order Value (AOV) of purchases from cart abandonment emails is 14.2% higher than typical purchases. 

Many of our ticketing customers running a three-email cart abandonment campaign recover $40,000 or more in lost ticket revenue and generate a 50X+ return on investment every month.

To achieve results like this, it is best to:

• Send the email promptly after the cart is abandoned.
• Use personalized and engaging content with attention-grabbing subject lines.
• Include a strong and visible call-to-action (CTA).
• Offer incentives, such as discounts or limited-time offers.
• Use visually appealing designs and ensure emails are mobile-friendly.
• Test and segment your email campaigns.

Dynamic Personalization 

As mentioned above, real-time tracking gives you the ability to collect customer data both before and during the checkout process. But once collected, how do you ensure you’re using that data for all it’s worth?

Only 39% of online retailers include personalized recommendations in their emails, and they’re missing out on 6x higher transaction rates. The solution? CartStack’s dynamic personalization.

Real-time tracking and dynamic personalization work in tandem, with one collecting customer data and the other injecting it into your cart abandonment emails. 

With this, you can take data collected in real-time and dynamically update email content based on whatever a customer was interested in. While guest names and purchase dates are common personalized elements in recovery emails, with dynamic personalization you can go further and include:

• Attraction Name
• Image of the Attraction
• Purchase Total
• Visit Date
• Number of Tickets
• Special Offers

Subject Lines

Your subject line is your first impression, and it is crucial that you grab attention, create a sense of urgency and contain a personalized element. In fact, 64% of people say that the subject line is what influences their decision whether to open an email or not.

Here are some examples of top performing subject lines from CartStack campaigns:

• “Oops, did something go wrong with your order?”
  • Best for the first abandonment email
  • Helpful, support-based tone 
• “Availability is limited. Buy today!”
  • Performs well for second abandonment email
  • Creates a sense of urgency
• “Your purchase is almost complete (and now includes 20% off) 💰”
  • 71.7% open-rate as final abandonment email
  • Uses discount to entice stubborn travelers

Check out our guide 17+ Magnetic Abandoned Cart Email Subject Lines for insights on why these subject lines have high open rates and more inspiration for your own subject lines.

Number of Emails

We’ve sent over 50 million abandoned cart emails in our time, and we’ve learned that multi-email campaigns improve performance by 25-30%. This can also be referred to as a drip campaign.

Here at CartStack, we believe “the magic is in the follow-up”  and you should always send more than one reminder.

Typical cart abandonment drip campaigns are constructed as follows:

• Email #1 – Friendly reminder. Contains images of the attraction and travel dates.
• Email #2 – Follow-up email. Builds a sense of urgency for travelers to secure their tickets.
• Email #3 – Final follow-up. Often contains a discount or deal to entice travelers on the fence.

Email Timing

Much of the reason why three email campaigns can have such a dramatic impact on conversion rate is due simply to timing. Timing not only plays an important role in how “spammy” your emails appear, but spacing your reminders out properly also gives your abandoners time to address whatever objections may have caused them to abandon in the first place.  

The optimal timing for a three-email campaign is as follows: 

• Email #1 – 20-30 minutes after abandonment.
• Email #2 – 1-2 days after abandonment.
• Email #3 – 2-4 days after abandonment.

Browse Abandonment 

When surveyed, 58.6% of shoppers said they abandoned their online purchase because they were “just looking.” This leads to a large percentage of web traffic that never makes it to the checkout process. 

However, these are still important leads for your attraction. With browse abandonment tools, you can retarget visitors that showed interest in visiting your attraction, but didn’t quite begin purchasing their tickets. 

While the primary goal of a cart abandonment campaign is recovery, the goal of browse abandonment is re-engagement first, and then recovery. Browse abandonment emails should take a softer, less “salesy” approach than booking reminders, because we don’t want to make any assumptions about the visitors’ intent. By taking a casual tone, you’re more likely to re-engage the shopper and ultimately lead to a recovered purchase. 

Conditional Content 

Conditional Content takes dynamic personalization a step further, by using abandoned booking data captured from your ticketing engine to swap out & display relevant offers and content in real-time! 

Conditional Content can be used to:

• Offer a discount to visitors who abandon bookings during your off-season.
• Display seasonal banners, based on the abandoned dates. 
• Upsell & cross-sell based on the total cost of the abandoned booking.
• Update logos & branding to reflect the property abandoned for multi-brand groups
• Offer a coupon to high-value abandoned bookings
• Offer upgrades, based on the type of room abandoned

In the example image below, you can see how conditional content blocks can be used to send interested visitors back to the location they abandoned.

Split Testing

A/B split testing is an important technique for improving the effectiveness of cart abandonment emails because it allows you to test different versions of the email and see which one performs better in terms of driving conversions. A/B split testing involves sending two versions of an email with one key difference to a sample group of customers, and comparing the real-time metrics for each version. 

The purpose is to test factors such as subject lines, call-to-action (CTA) copy, email copy, CTA button placement and color, discount codes and offers, personalization, images and design. 

To run an A/B test, select one factor to test and compare the results to improve the email campaign’s performance. You can also use tools like CartStack to initiate A/B testing in just a few clicks.

Want to learn how hotels are boosting their direct booking revenue? Check out our post on A/B split tests and start optimizing your own website today!

Additional Communication Channels 

The most successful cart abandonment campaigns use what is called a “multi-channel” approach. By using multiple communication channels to reach out to customers who abandoned their purchase, you increase your chances of reaching them and encouraging them to complete their purchase.

Cart Abandonment SMS

For your ticketed attraction, using SMS and push notifications can be highly effective in recovering lost revenue and improving customer engagement. SMS has an open rate of 98% and a response rate of 45%, making it an excellent channel to reach customers who have abandoned their cart. 

Cart Abandonment Web Push

In a cart abandonment context, web push notifications can be an effective way to remind visitors to complete their purchase. When a visitor abandons their cart, a web push notification can be sent to remind them of their abandoned items and encourage them to return to your website to complete their purchase. These notifications can be personalized with the visitor’s name, the items they left in their cart, and other relevant information.

On-Site Targeting

With on-site targeting, your attraction can also improve on-site conversion rates by 5-10% by preventing abandonment in the first place. Travelers that receive a last minute discount or offer are more likely to complete their booking, thus mitigating the need for further recovery efforts.

Exit Intent Offers

Exit intent pop-ups are a useful way to capture customer information before they leave your website. When done correctly, they have an average conversion rate of 43% and can help hotels recover 20-80% more emails from interested travelers.

Five popular use cases for exit-intent pop-ups on hotel websites include offering discounts and special offers, promoting newsletter and loyalty club sign-ups, hosting contests and giveaways, displaying payment and financing options, and guaranteeing direct booking prices.

Welcome Offers

By using welcome offers in on-site retargeting, you can encourage visitors to make a purchase by providing them with an incentive. For example, you could offer a discount code for first-time visitors or a free gift with their first purchase. This can be displayed in a pop-up or banner on the website.

Additionally, welcome offers can help to reduce cart abandonment by providing an incentive for visitors to make a purchase. If a visitor is on the fence about making a purchase, a welcome offer can be the push they need to complete the transaction.

Other Tips for Growing Online Ticket Sales

As a marketer, you’re always looking for ways to boost your numbers and get more people through the gates. While cart abandonment strategies are our favorite method, there are other tactics you can use to increase ticket sales as well. 

Improve lead generation targeting

One of the biggest reasons for ticket abandonment is when potential visitors are not yet ready to make a purchase. They may be researching or comparing prices with other attractions. To encourage visitors to return and purchase tickets, it’s important to capture their information and continue to engage with them.

To do this, adjust your lead generation strategy to target qualified leads. Create content and offers that are relevant to your target audience, such as discounts on their first visit or a limited-time promotion. Make it easy for them to sign up for your email list or loyalty program.

Offer a frictionless online booking process

A streamlined ticket purchase process can increase customer satisfaction and the likelihood of completing the purchase, reducing ticket abandonment. A quick and efficient process can also set your attraction apart from competitors.

To streamline the process and reduce abandonment, consider the following steps:

• Keep the purchase journey short by reducing pages and fields to fill out
• Offer all necessary information and forms on just one or two pages
• Provide multiple payment options to make the purchase process more convenient for a wider range of customers
• Clearly communicate any fees or additional charges upfront to avoid surprises
• Provide clear and concise instructions to make it easy for customers to complete the purchase process.

By implementing these steps, you can create a more convenient and efficient purchase process, leading to higher customer satisfaction and increased ticket sales.

Promote benefits of online bookings vs. on-site

Promoting the benefits of online bookings over on-site bookings can be an effective way for ticketed attractions to increase ticket sales. Online bookings offer several advantages that can be highlighted to potential customers:

• Convenience: Online bookings allow customers to buy tickets at any time, from anywhere, without the need to physically go to the attraction or stand in line to purchase tickets on-site.
• Time-saving: Customers can skip the ticket counter and go straight to the entrance gate with their online ticket, saving time and avoiding long lines.
• Cost-effective: Many attractions offer discounts or special deals for online bookings, which can save customers money and incentivize them to buy tickets in advance.
• Guaranteed entry: Online bookings can ensure customers that they’ll have a spot at the attraction, which is particularly important for popular events or attractions that tend to sell out quickly.

Leverage social proof and word-of-mouth marketing

Social proof is the idea that people are more likely to trust and follow the actions of others, especially if those others are similar to themselves. You can use customer reviews on your ticketed attraction’s website to provide valuable social proof, showing potential customers what other people who have visited the attraction have experienced. This can help to build trust and confidence in the attraction, leading to higher levels of ticket sales.

Conclusion

Understanding why customers abandon their carts is crucial for ticketed attractions looking to increase sales and provide a better customer experience. By implementing cart abandonment tools and retargeting strategies, you can recover lost sales and drive revenue growth.
If you’re interested in exploring how cart abandonment tools like CartStack can support your business, sign up for a free trial today and experience the benefits firsthand.