E-commerce businesses continue to battle one of their most costly problems: abandoned shopping carts. With cart abandonment rates averaging over 70%, online retailers lose nearly $4 trillion in potential revenue every year. The solution, experts say, lies in strategic retargeting and remarketing — a combination that can re-engage shoppers and drive conversions without overspending on ads.
Retargeting uses paid advertising channels such as Google Shopping management, Facebook ads for online stores, and Instagram campaigns to re-engage visitors after they’ve left a site. While effective for visibility, it can become expensive as digital ad costs climb and cookies lose accuracy due to privacy restrictions. That’s where remarketing offers a more controlled and cost-efficient approach.
Personalized remarketing for conversions
Remarketing leverages owned channels like email, SMS, and on-site prompts to reconnect with customers in real time. These strategies include capturing email leads with incentives like free shipping, allowing shoppers to save carts for later, and triggering personalized popups for price drops or low-stock alerts before they leave the site.
Data platforms like Ako Marketing CRM and Klaviyo make it easy to segment audiences, sync real-time data, and automate follow-ups with tailored messages — significantly improving conversion rates.
Optimizing Ads for conversions
Dynamic ads across social platforms add another layer of personalization, showing customers exactly what they viewed earlier, while countdown timers create urgency and boost clicks. A/B testing of ad creatives, CTAs, and email subject lines provides the data needed to continually optimize campaigns.
Industry examples, such as Sony’s 21.3% lift in cart completions through testing, show how a well-run strategy can boost ROI. For online retailers, partnering with an experienced eCommerce PPC agency can align retargeting and remarketing into one cohesive system — reducing wasted ad spend, improving customer engagement, and turning abandoned carts into recovered revenue.
