[intro]When you have installed the Abandoned Cart Statistics feature, the next step is to edit the Abandoned Cart Emails, which are sent automatically to your customers. In this Guide, you will learn how to switch on and configure these emails to suit your EKM online shop. 

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[summary]

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The Abandoned Cart allows your EKM online shop to automatically send reminder emails to customers who have begun to process a transaction but who have not completed it.  When a customer visits your EKM online shop and places an item in their cart, this begins to create the order within the back end. If the customer clicks Checkout Securely on the Shopping Cart page but does not add any of their details to the first page of the Checkout Flow before leaving your EKM online shop, this becomes an abandoned order. The system has been given no email address in order to contact the customer, so the order that was begun will be hidden from the Orders page as a matter of good housekeeping. 

This is why sometimes you’ll notice that some of the order numbers may be ‘missing’ - there was an order placed but it was abandoned before the customer could add an email address in order for your EKM online shop to contact them with a reminder to complete the transaction. However, if the customer adds their email address to the first page of the Checkout Flow, this gives the system a method of contact for the customer and the Abandoned Cart emails will be sent to them in an attempt to retrieve the customer to complete the sale. 

1. You now need to check that the Abandoned Cart functionality is turned on. To do this, click the Settings tab:

2. Then click Cart: 

3. On this page, you need to ensure that the checkboxes beneath the Abandoned Cart Saver header have been checked. For your EKM online shop to automatically send Abandoned Cart emails, you need to tick to Enable Abandoned Cart Saver, and then at least one of the boxes below that need to be checked before clicking Save. You can choose whether to only email the customer one hour after the cart was abandoned or to send up to three emails over the course of 48 hours:

Editing the Abandoned Cart Emails

We recommend that you edit the content of the email templates in order to personalise the content to your brand. 

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Dos

  1. Test the format by abandoning orders yourself;
  2. Double-check the content for correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. 

Don’ts

  1. Add any kind of ‘sales’ content - to do so would mean that the emails would not be GDPR compliant;
  2. Use CAPITAL LETTERS within the text of your email - online, this translates as SHOUTING.

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4. To edit the Abandoned Cart Emails, click Outgoing Emails: 

5. Scroll down this page until you see the Abandoned Cart Saver header and click the arrow to reveal the email templates:

This is where you can edit the content of the emails which are sent out automatically to customers who have abandoned their orders. Click Edit for the Abandoned Cart Email after One Hour (or One Day, or Two Days, dependent on the boxes you ticked in step 3 above: 

6. In the Edit Customer Template, you can see the default text used in an Abandoned Cart Email:

7. The default text on the Abandoned Cart Email, when received by the customer, looks like this:

8. You now need to edit the text. Be careful not to delete any square brackets or EKM Tags during this process! When you have finished, your email should look something like this:

9. Click Save & Close:

[caution] In order to ensure that your Abandoned Cart emails are GDPR compliant, you must not add any content which promotes Products, discounts, sales or similar on your EKM online shop. No 'salesy' content is allowed in Abandoned Cart emails. [/caution]

Testing your Abandoned Cart Emails

1. When you are happy with the content in your Abandoned Cart after One Hour email template, you need to test it out to ensure that the formatting is correct. To do this, you need to visit the front end of your EKM online shop as if you were a customer, place a product into the cart, add your email address to the Checkout Flow and then abandon the order. To do this, you will need to use an incognito/in-private browser tab. This is because your usual browser will already have your details stored in it, so you will be unable to replicate the customer’s experience, especially when the browser remembers any previous cart sessions that you’ve created on your EKM online shop. How to open an incognito/in-private browser tab depends on what browser you are using:

Firefox

Right-click the icon as it appears on your Windows Taskbar and select New Private Window:

Your Private Window will look like this:

Google Chrome

Right-click the icon as it appears on your Windows Taskbar and select New Incognito Window:

Your Incognito browsing window will look like this:

Edge

Right-click the icon as it appears on your Windows Taskbar and select New InPrivate Window:

Your InPrivate Window will look like this:

Safari

Click File, and then from the drop-down menu, select New Private Window:

Your Private Browser Window will look like this:

When you have opened an Incognito/In-Private browser tab, visit your EKM online shop via the domain name as a customer would, and place the items in the basket before visiting the Cart page. Continue the process as if you were a customer and add your email address in the Checkout Flow before clicking the Delivery Details button (or if you have not yet installed the Customer Login feature, click the Order Summary button at the bottom of the page instead):

2. Then you need to close that browser tab down or go and visit another website entirely to abandon the order. Make a note of the time, as you need to wait over an hour for that email to arrive at your personal email address. If the email arrives and you still need to make some changes, simply repeat the process by editing the content of the Abandoned Cart after the 'One Hour’ email before creating and abandoning another order and waiting for the last edit to be sent to your email address.

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in EKM Community. If you need some inspiration for your EKM online shop, listen to our podcast on iTunes and Spotify.[/contact]