Abandoned Cart Recovery: Boost Revenue with Smart Reminders

Abandoned sessions play a significant role in marketing communications. All those carts, categories, and product views are crucial — converting a warm lead faster is more cost-effective than acquiring a new customer from scratch.

An abandoned cart is a prime opportunity for CRM marketing. After all, 69% of customers abandon carts (Garcia 2018; Statista 2020). That’s why nearly all our agency’s clients use triggered campaigns targeting abandoned carts, aiming to remind customers about left-behind items and drive purchases. Naturally, we want to create the most effective friendly reminders. To do this, we constantly monitor the latest marketing research to leverage new data for boosting our clients’ profits. And here’s what we found!

A forthcoming study in the Journal of Marketing by Jing Li, Xueming Luo, Xianghua Lu, and Takeshi Moriguchi titled The Double-Edged Effects of E-Commerce Cart Retargeting: Does Too Early Retargeting Backfire? reveals critical insights. The gist is: reminding too early harms conversion, while delayed reminders help.

What and Who Was Studied

Researchers conducted two studies across different companies from various countries. The total sample size exceeded 64,000 participants. Behavioral analytics were collected for 6 months prior to the experiment and continued for 1 month afterward.

The goal of the field experiment was to demonstrate how the purchase of items left in the cart is influenced by:

– Early marketing reminders

– Late marketing reminders

– No reminders at all

Defining Early and Late Reminders

So, what qualifies as early or late reminders?

Early reminders in the experiment were sent between 0.5 to 1 hour after cart abandonment, medium reminders between 3 to 12 hours, and late reminders between 24 to 72 hours.

To confirm the universal applicability of the data, the analysis included three channels: email, mobile app notifications, and SMS.

Why This Study Is Groundbreaking

1. The researchers distinguished the general concept of “cart abandonment reminder” into early and late categories.
2. They conducted an hourly (!) analysis from the moment the cart session was abandoned — splitting into 8 time blocks: 0.5, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, and 72 hours.
3. Each time window was compared not just against other reminder timings but also against its own control group with no reminders, enabling measurement of the true causal effect.

Key Marketing Insights

– Too early reminders (0.5–1 hour) actually reduce purchases even compared to no reminder at all, due to irritation: “too pushy, too soon.”

– In the early window (0.5–1 hour), the highest number of purchases occur naturally without reminders, linked to memory and attention retention—people tend to buy anyway, making marketing spend here inefficient.

– Medium windows (3–12 hours) show approximately zero uplift: irritation and reminder benefit cancel each other out.

– Late windows (24–72 hours) yield positive uplift: the memory of the product cools down, so the reminder serves as a gentle trigger to return without irritation.

– Cart content impacts reminder effectiveness: for expensive and large carts, early reminders reduce purchase likelihood to zero, but late reminders become even more valuable.

– This illustrates the “dual effect” of remarketing: early reminders irritate, late reminders gently nudge and help convert.

Practical Recommendations for Cart Abandonment Scenarios

– Sending reminders within the first hour typically wastes marketing budget. Those motivated will purchase on their own, while undecided customers perceive early reminders as pressure.

– This rule applies consistently across all channels studied (email, SMS, app notifications).

– Late reminders in the 24–72 hour window work well; beyond 72 hours, they lose effectiveness due to staleness.

– Scenario design for expensive vs. inexpensive carts should focus not only on discounts or promo codes but importantly on smart timing, since expensive purchases require contemplation rather than pressure-driven decisions.

A Practical, No‑Annoyance Playbook

1) Timing

1. Disable reminders in the first 60 minutes (unless using strong incentives/urgency framing).
2. First wave at 24h, second wave at 72h.
3. Avoid going beyond a week: impact decays fast.

2) Basket‑Aware Segmentation

1.  High‑value/multi‑item → emphasize risk‑reduction: reviews, guarantees, comparison guides.
2. Low‑value/single‑item → keep copy short and pressure‑free.

3) Copy That Helps (Not Pushes)

1. Tone: helpful reminder, not a hard sell.
2.  Provide decision aids: specs, fit, video, UGC reviews, FAQs.
3. Reduce annoyance triggers: no aggressive subject lines or repeated pings.

4) Frequency & Channels

1. Cap at 2–3 touches per basket (e.g., Email 24h → App/SMS 72h).
2. Mix channels without copy‑pasting the same message.

5) Testing & Measurement

1. Measure INCREMENTAL lift vs. a no‑reminder control, not absolute sales.
2. Slice results by basket value/size and by channel.
3. Track negatives too: unsubscribes, complaints, blocks.

Ready‑to‑Use Message Starters

Email (24h)

Subject: Still deciding? We saved your picks

Body: You left items in your cart — we’ll hold them a bit longer. Compare options, check reviews and details. We’re here if you need help.

CTA: Return to cart

SMS/App (72h)

Reminder: you have saved items waiting. Prefer to check out now or keep them for later? We can help you wrap things up.

CTA: Open cart

FAQ

What if we add a discount right away?

Incentives can offset annoyance, but overuse trains customers to wait. Use sparingly and test for incremental lift.

What about high‑consideration products?

The higher the stakes, the more a brief delay and helpful tone matter. Give space to think, then return with value.

To sum up

Don’t confuse what tech CAN do with how people WILL react. A slightly delayed reminder respects attention and converts better, while ultra‑early nudges risk pushing customers away.