14 Abandoned Cart Email Designs That’ll Bring Customers Back
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One of the best strategies for increasing conversions is grabbing would-be customers back onto your site. With abandoned cart emails you can send messages directly to folks who didn’t bother checking out with the hopes of getting that sale.
This technique is generally proven to work and it’s one of the simplest ways to increase your online revenue.
In this post I’ll cover 14 incredible abandoned cart emails you can use for design inspiration. These work well on all types of ecommerce shops and if you’re looking for cool ideas this post has plenty to work with.
1. Google Express
The Google Express store has its own unique email design that takes minimalism to a new level. This newsletter is short, sweet, and straight to the point.
It’s a great example of how basic design properties can work well over email. Most people want simple designs with basic copywriting. And this goes double for abandoned carts where your goal is to simply improve checkouts.
Google’s traditional branding and style is exactly what you’d hope to see in your inbox.
2. Pac Sun
This Pac Sun email gets right to the point with the headline “still interested?”. It lets the reader know what this email is about, or at least gives enough info to keep them reading.
You can see product photos in a clean organized fashion with “buy” buttons alongside each item. Definitely a great technique for getting visitors back onto your site and buying those goodies.
If you look at the full newsletter you’ll notice the top links also mimic the main site. These links work well to drive customers back to browsing and possibly buying something else too.
3. Bonobos
Bonobos follows a slightly different technique in this abandoned cart email. It doesn’t show any products from the cart, but rather a dark mysterious suitcase with the number of items abandoned.
Large bold text reads “forgot something?” which immediately grabs attention from the reader. It’s a very compelling feature and it uses contrast to encourage user interaction.
But this is a riskier strategy because you never know how many people will care to check their cart. It might be better to include a photo of the item rather than a mystery bag.
4. Casper
I really like the simple color scheme and soft design of this Casper newsletter. It’s made as a resource to pull people back to the site with the “return to cart” button.
This button doesn’t jump off the page, but it’s clearly visible and the call to browse the shopping cart is strong.
At the top you’ll notice a simple Casper logo along with a very symbolic icon of the moon placed inside a shopping cart. This small yet enticing visual is enough to sell the theme of the email at a glance.
5. Mack Weldon
In this Mack Weldon cart email you can see certain sales techniques pushed in the copy.
First is the use of scarcity stating that some items may sell out soon. Lower in the email you’ll notice a guarantee for first-time shoppers that can get refunds or an exchange without any additional fee.
This guarantee might be enough to convert apprehensive readers into first-time buyers. It’s a very simple email but it seems powerful enough to deliver a great message.
6. Worx
The interesting thing about this Worx email is that it doesn’t push the same abandoned cart angle. Instead it pushes products that the user may have looked at, or stuff they had in their cart but removed.
You won’t find a big call to action encouraging the user to finish their checkout. Instead it’s a series of recommendations for products they might like.
Definitely an interesting strategy if you have the means to track browsing history on your site. This way you can retarget potential customers with email marketing and ideally drive more sales over time.
7. Gilt
Most shopping carts work on cookies where the products only stay active for a limited time. This is the strategy behind Gilt's email which encourages the user to buy before their cookie expires.
It lists each product along with the official price and the revised/sale price. It also includes items the person may want to buy solely based on their previous purchases. This is always a great feature to include if you have the means to do so.
8. Asics
Asics does abandoned cart email right. This design uses a straightforward copywriting strategy with the Asics branding, identity, and color scheme.
The two CTA buttons offer two valuable options: continue shopping for more items or checkout immediately. This also includes links to each individual item in the person’s cart.
As you read through the email you might notice other smaller features like the “free shipping” notices. One thing that stands out to me is how busy the whole design looks. I usually prefer simplicity over this much detail, but this email matches the Asics website so it does work surprisingly well.
9. Huckberry
One example of a minimalist email is the Huckberry abandoned cart design. It’s incredibly small and focuses mainly on the checkout experience.
You’ll only find one CTA and it’s colored a very strong shade of orange/brown to jump out from the rest of the page.
Definitely a simple design but it gets the job done. People should know exactly what this email is as soon as they open it.
10. Ralph Lauren
Another example of minimalist design is this Ralph Lauren abandoned cart email. It does have far more features and it’s a little longer than most others in this post.
But it plainly lists the items in the user’s cart while encouraging them to complete their order. Beneath this you’ll find suggested items, a general staple of ecommerce emails.
Overall the simplicity of this newsletter should not come as a surprise. It’s an amazing product of clean design and if you’re looking for a very basic email template I’d recommend following this one. You can even browse the full HTML on the web if you’d like to study the source.
11. Dot & Bo
Dot & Bo uses a bright orange highlight for their identity and important elements. This abandoned cart email adds a splash of orange to highlight the CTA and the most important headers.
It’s a great example of using colors to draw attention to headlines like “it’s still available” near the top. This tells the reader why they’re getting the email, and also why they might want to act on it.
Plus this includes a bunch of related items and recommended items from current sales.
12. Canopy
Canopy is an Amazon product site for organizing products in a simple easy-to-browse manner. The Canopy email design mimics the site by pushing Amazon products in a neatly arranged grid.
You can see how much eat item costs and what the original price was. This is usually a big selling point for potential customers who are hesitant of spending their hard earned cash.
It’s a lengthy email but it sells the Canopy brand well. You can follow a lot of these same design trends to help build your brand recognition too!
13. J.Crew
The J.Crew email copy for this design is fantastic. It uses short phrases and larger pictures to grab the user’s attention fast.
It’s one of the cleanest emails you’ll find so you can easily replicate this grid template. Also note the red “on sale now” text beside each item. This gives the reader incentive to finish their purchase because they’ll save money doing it now rather than later.
14. MCM
Last but certainly not least is this very unique MCM abandoned cart email. It also relies on solid black & white contrast while interspersing photos along the way.
The headline text is classy and diverse enough to stand out from the button text. Unfortunately I think the product images are a bit too small, which is strange since these are really the focal point of the email.
But the overall layout and design are phenomenal. If you’re looking for an email layout with some pizazz then check out this one on CodePen.
So that’s my list! I hope all of these examples offer insight towards designing your own killer abandoned cart email.
As long as you design around the products and use sales techniques to encourage user actions you’ll definitely see positive results from your email campaigns.
