HubSpot Abandoned Cart: Creating A Workflow

Have you ever walked into a room and asked yourself, “What did I come in here for again?” You’re not alone.

One minute you’re shopping for a baseball jersey online, the next minute you’re scrolling through your Twitter feed. Before you know it, it’s time for bed and that lonely jersey is still sitting in your cart.

We've partnered with HubSpot to create an integration to capture and recover those abandoned carts.

We created an extension to integrate HubSpot with BigCommerce, Shopify and Magento. With the integration, you can automatically sync your eCommerce customer and order data with your HubSpot account.

In addition, you can capture cart abandonments in a HubSpot smart list. From there, you can recover these carts with automated and fully customizable email workflows. Cart recovery emails include product images and session restore links, allowing customers to revisit pre-filled shopping carts with just one click.

The integration is easy to install and can help you cash in on potentially lost revenue. Among other benefits, clients who use this integration have experienced an 18% increase in overall revenue, a 21% decrease in abandoned carts and a 10% increase in repeat purchases.

Overall, it can significantly improve abandoned cart email strategy and help convert website visitors into customers. 

Although shopping cart abandonment varies by industry, HubSpot reports that an average of 73.9% carts remain un-purchased. The good news? Abandoned cart workflows present a great opportunity to recover potential lost sales.

If you want to get started, we've outlined the steps below to help you craft the perfect abandoned cart with HubSpot.

1. Integrate Your eCommerce Platform With HubSpot

To create the perfect abandoned cart workflow, you first need to make sure that your HubSpot account integrates with your eCommerce platform. This blog focuses on using the extension to integrate with BigCommerce, Magento and Shopify.

2. Create Your Abandoned Cart Smart List Recipes

Start by creating a list for your contacts who do not have an item in their cart. Let’s call the list Abandoned Cart = No. Set your criteria as Contact Property -> Abandoned Cart Indicator -> is equal to -> No.

Next, you'll want to create a list for any contact who has left an item in his/her cart. Let’s call this list Abandoned Cart = Yes. Set your criteria as Contact Property -> Abandoned Cart Indicator -> is equal to -> Yes.

Finally, create a goal list for your workflow. Let’s call this list name Abandoned Cart Goal List. Set your criteria as Contact Property -> Abandoned Cart Indicator -> has ever been equal to -> Yes. Create another requirement and set your criteria as Contact Property -> Abandoned Cart Indicator -> is equal to -> No.

Nice job! Now let’s move onto the next phase of this project.

3. Create Your Abandoned Cart Emails

Emails are the most important part of your workflow. Make sure they’re enticing enough to motivate your users to revisit their shopping carts and complete their purchases. We recommend having 4 emails in total for your workflow.

Quick tip: don’t send a discount offer in the first email. Save it for your second or third email. We also suggest the following:

• Make your excellent return policy explicit
• If you’re able to offer free shipping, do so
• Call out the abandoned item or category specifically in the email subject line
• Show the abandoned item clearly in the message
• Add a link to go directly back to the cart

4. Create Your Abandoned Cart Workflow

This is the easy part. You’ve already done the heavy lifting with the emails, now you just need to get these bad boys rolling. As I mentioned above, you’ll have 4 emails you need to send out (maybe less depending on whether or not the user makes a purchase at some point throughout the workflow).

Based on our research and testing, we’ve found a formula to capture sales from an abandoned cart email. For most products, we trigger the first email 1–2 hours after abandonment, the second email 12–24 hours after abandonment, the third email 48–72 hours after abandonment and finally one last email 3 days after the third email was sent. Follow the structure setup below when creating your workflow:

When active, this workflow will enroll contacts that join the list Cart: Abandoned Cart = Yes.

Delay the next action for 1 hour.

Send them an email Abandoned Cart – Email #1.

Delay the next action for 1 day.

Send them an email Abandoned Cart – Email #2.

Delay the next action for 20 hours.

Send them an email Abandoned Cart – Email #3.

Delay the next action for 3 days.

Send them an email Abandoned Cart – Email #4.

End the workflow and make sure the goal list is set to Cart: Lifetime Carts Saved.

In addition to the statistics mentioned above, there are many reasons why consumers abandon their carts. Maybe they’re looking to compare your price with a competitor’s price, maybe the consumer is uncertain about your store since he/she has never purchased from you before or maybe they aren’t quite ready to purchase.

Whatever the reason is, by following the HubSpot abandoned cart workflow above you’ll be sure to start capturing some of these potential lost sales! 

Want to take the integration for a spin? Just click the link below to choose your platform and get started.