3 Abandoned Cart Coupon Ideas for Your Online Store

Wondering how effective this might be?

Our data shows that such coupons can save up to 13.5% of sales.

If this sounds like something you’d like to try in your store, read on.

In this article, we’ll review 3 examples of abandoned cart discounts from real stores. Then, we’ll show you how you can implement this tactic on your website by using smart exit-intent popups and follow-up emails fueled with urgency.

Let’s dive right in.

How does an abandoned cart discount work?

An abandoned cart coupon pops up when a customer who was about to checkout, changes their mind and starts heading to exit from the shopping cart page. This popup category uses exit-intent detection as a launch trigger.

Sometimes, it’s a discount code customers can copy from the popup and apply right away. Other times, it’s an email opt-in form that reveals the coupon after a customer fills it out 👇

In the latter case, you also get a chance to send automated follow-up emails that will remind customers about the coupon and encourage them to act fast:

3 Abandoned cart coupon examples

Now that we’ve covered the main concept, let’s look at how retailers use these coupons to save sales. Below, we’ll share three real-life examples you can learn from.

1. Don’t leave us – get 10% off now

When you know that the primary reason for abandonment in your store is the final price or unexpected shipping fee, the easiest way to overcome this objection is by offering an immediate discount.

Catget, an online pet shop, does exactly that. They offer a 10% discount to customers who start heading to exit too soon:

Here is what you can learn from this popup:

• Clear title – adding the discount percentage to the title is a great idea because it instantly communicates the value of the offer
• Clever image – the image is eye-catching and evokes the desire to have a second look at whatever a customer is about to leave in the cart

💡 While this pop-up offer does the job, if we could suggest one improvement here, it would be adding a click-to-copy button to make it easier for customers to copy the discount code to the clipboard without having to select it first.

2. Wait! Get 5% off your next purchase

If you want to double down on email list building, cart abandonment provides a great opportunity to do so.

Pop-up signup forms can convert up to 7% of abandoning customers into email subscribers — as long as there’s a discount offer.

Instead of showing the discount code right away, you can invite customers to join your newsletter and reveal the code at the next step. Watch Rapport, a luxury watch retailer does exactly that when a customer changes their mind about the purchase:

Here is what you can learn from this popup:

• Copy – words like “Wait!” and “now” are attention grabbers; they increase the chances to stop abandonment on its tracks
• Opt-out button – it’s always a good practice to provide a second button that helps customers decline the offer
• Microcopy – by adding a note with the offer details, Watch Rapport makes the deal more transparent and therefore, trustworthy

3. Tell us why you’re leaving or get a discount

If you want to make things right, we always recommend running an exit-intent survey first — to find out the reasons for abandonment in your store before even offering a discount.

Some retailers manage to do both with a single popup. Take Cap Point’s offer as an example. If you’re abandoning a shopping cart in their store, you can either share the reason why you’re leaving or request a discount that will be revealed upon a button click:

Although the percentage of the discount remains a surprise to the customer until they apply it to the cart, this is an interesting approach you may want to consider for your store.

What else you can learn from this popup:

• Title – using a question in the title is a great idea to engage visitors
• Pre-filled responses – when you’re trying to survey a customer who is determined to exit, it’s important to make form submission effortless by using radio buttons and checkboxes

Now that you’ve seen examples of abandoned cart discount offers, and you understand the main principles, let’s see how you can implement this tactic in your online store.

How to start offering abandoned cart coupons in your store

Whether you’re using Shopify, WooCommerce, or any other platform, you can add exit-intent popups to your store within minutes, using Getsitecontrol. There’s no need to understand coding or have any technical knowledge for that.

Here is how to do it 👇

Step 1. Select a template

Log into your Getsitecontrol account and click Create widget. Then proceed to the Premade widget gallery and select a template to your taste. We recommend using either a pop-up coupon box or an email opt-in form:

Regardless of the template you select, the setup process will be identical. For this tutorial, we’ll continue with the email form.

Step 2. Adjust the appearance of the popup

On the first screen, you can customize the design of the popup and type your offer.

Edit the default text

For starters, adjust the copy to make it more contextual. Click on the piece of text you’d like to edit and use your own title and description. For example, you can type “Wait!”, “Would you like 15% off?” or “Before you go…” to make it clear that you want to make a last-minute offer:

Feel free to edit the title, description, and text on the button. You can also remove or add new fields at your discretion.

Add a consent checkbox (optional)

To comply with the GDPR requirements, we recommend adding a mandatory consent box: your new subscribers will need to check it to submit the form and get the discount. To add a checkbox to the popup, click +Add field and select Consent checkbox; then type the text of the consent.

Feature the discount code on the second page

Even though you’ll send the discount code to the subscriber’s email, it might be a good idea to reveal it on the second page of the form – in case they decide to apply it right away.

You can embed the discount code into the button, so when a customer clicks it, they automatically copy the code to the clipboard

If you’re using the same popup as in our example, the buttons on the second page already have the correct settings by default. All you need to do is select the first button and paste your discount code into the corresponding field:

When the customer clicks the button, a brief message saying “Copied!” will pop up. From there, they can use the second button to close the popup.

💡 Make sure that you first create and activate the discount code in your ecommerce platform first, be it Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, or any other platform.

Replace the default image

Now that we’re done with the copy and button settings, you may want to replace the image on the popup as well. To do that, click on the image and proceed to change it. You can upload your own image, use a stock photo or an eye-catching GIF:

Keep in mind that you’ll need to replace the default image on the second page as well. You can pick a new image or use the same one.

Step 3. Set the exit-intent trigger and paste your shopping cart URL

Since we’re creating an abandoned cart discount offer, it should only pop up under the following conditions:

If a customer is in the shopping cart

and

If a customer is heading to exit before checking out

To apply these conditions, open the Targeting tab and use the corresponding controls, as illustrated below:

Additionally, you can set conditions for when to stop displaying the offer, and whether to display it to everyone or just a certain type of audience, such as people coming from your Google Ads, visitors from certain locations, or first-time/returning visitors.

Step 4. Create a follow-up email

A follow-up email is an email that will be automatically sent to your new subscribers. You can use it to thank them for subscribing, deliver the discount code, and create a sense of urgency. You don’t need to have any experience crafting email newsletters – just start with a template text and adjust it in the editor:

Premade popups already have default email templates. However, feel free to delete them and start from scratch or explore the gallery, as illustrated above. You can change the text, upload images and GIFs, set up the countdown timer, and stylize the email to make it match your branding.

When you save the email, you can choose to send it to new subscribers right away or delay it by a number of days or hours.

You can create an entire sequence of welcome emails and use it to introduce new subscribers to your brand. No need to use 3^rd party email marketing software!

Step 5. Activate the popup on your website

Once ready, save the popup and activate it in your dashboard. As soon as it starts receiving views and submissions, you’ll see it on the card:

To dive deeper into the popup performance, use the Statistics report on the left. You’ll be able to see if performance varies for visitors coming from different countries, traffic channels, and so on.

Why you should consider offering abandoned cart discounts

Whether you should offer coupons or not, depends on your margins. Not every business can afford discounts, and that’s okay.

That being said, it’s a good idea to at least test this tactic for two reasons:

1. See if pricing is one of your customers’ objections

Unexpected shipping costs and taxes are the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment, according to recent studies.

But is it the case with your store?

With abandonment coupons, you’ll be able to make data-based assumptions on how often pricing actually prevents people from completing purchases in your store. For example, if you discover that the immediate discount prevents a large percentage of abandonments, consider revising your UVP (unique value proposition), offering free shipping, or trying other tactics to overcome this objection.

2. Add those interested in your products to your email list

By definition, people abandoning products in the cart are your target audience. Why? Because they haven’t just visited your store to look around.

These customers selected products they liked, added them to the cart, and went all the way to the beginning of checkout before changing their minds.

Turning these people into email subscribers gives you a chance to reach them using follow-ups and promo newsletters, convert some of them into customers, and probably even repeat buyers. For this reason, many businesses are willing to offer discounts and lose a little during the first sale. They know they’ll regain their profit later via email marketing.

Try offering abandoned cart coupons with Getsitecontrol

Last-minute coupons aren’t the only way to prevent cart abandonment, but they are proven to work. Ready to try them in your store? Then consider Getsitecontrol for adding an exit-intent popup to your shopping cart. The app is completely free for a week, and you can also use it to promote sales, recommend products, survey your customers, and more.