eCommerce Retargeting and Remarketing: 5 Ways To Keep Your Customers Coming Back

Did you know that most customers touch base with a brand seven times before they convert? The key to boosting your conversion rates is to keep giving your audience a reason to come back.

eCommerce retargeting plays a huge role in fostering consumer loyalty, maximizing conversion potential, and reducing cart abandonment. With one in five online brands now investing in their own eCommerce retargeting strategy, it could be time to work on your own targeted ad campaigns.

As 2023’s eCommerce trends push for hyper-personalization at every touch-point, it’s no wonder that online retailers are battling more competition for conversions than ever before. 

With this in mind, we’ve put together the ultimate guide on targeting your consumers from all angles. Stick with us as we delve into the benefits of eCommerce retargeting and reveal five ways to keep your customers coming back.

eCommerce Retargeting: What Is It? 

eCommerce retargeting is an online advertising method used to recapture the attention of users who have previously engaged with your site. Whether they made a purchase or abandoned their cart at the checkout, a retargeting strategy helps you promote your store and drive shoppers back to your online store once again.  

Also known as remarketing, eCommerce retargeting is an engagement-based advertising strategy. Taking into account the specific product page or landing page a consumer has engaged with, brands can retarget potential leads with personalized content in the form of paid search ads, sponsored social posts, and even email reminders of cart abandonment.

As a form of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, eCommerce retargeting does require a significant financial investment from your brand. However, 26% of customers will return to a site through retargeting, which increases your chances of conversion and sales.

“Retargeting ads typically yield a higher earnings-per-click (EPC) for e-commerce businesses than traditional search and display ads,” says Don Dodds, Founder of M16 Marketing.

“You can use (remarketing) to cross-sell products, recover abandoned carts, foster customer loyalty, connect with social users, and more. With their engagement-based method of targeting, retargeting ads are a powerful solution for maximizing e-commerce sales.” Adds Don.

How Does eCommerce Remarketing Differ from eCommerce Retargeting? 

While eCommerce retargeting is all about bringing your visitors back to your site, using a series of paid ads, remarketing focuses on maximizing your customer lifetime value by keeping your existing consumers involved and updated on the brand regularly.

Remarketing tends to focus on email campaigns, allowing for more personalized upselling and messaging. 

What Are the Benefits of eCommerce Retargeting?

eCommerce retargeting is one of the key strategies used by brands to attract and retain their consumers in a competitive online environment.

Aiding retailers in boosting conversion rates and bolstering brand awareness, retargeting campaigns raise your chances of being noticed cross-platform. Whether you’re popping up on an Instagram feed or a paid banner ad, the more targeted exposure you invest in, the more leads (and sales) you’ll generate.

If that’s not enough, here are the key benefits of eCommerce retargeting as an online retailer:

1. Cart Abandonment Recovery

The average cart abandonment rate is 70.19%, meaning only three in ten customers who place products or services into their shopping carts/baskets complete their purchase in the checkout section. 

One of the most potent ways to bring an existing customer back to their cart is by sending an abandoned cart email.

Abandoned cart emails have an impressive open rate of 45%, and of those who open them, 21% will click through to their cart, and half will buy the items they initially browsed. This shows people are more likely to reconsider their purchase if you remind them about it. 

To encourage customers back to your website, use an attention-grabbing abandoned cart subject line and their name - if you have it. 

2. Lower Acquisition Costs 

Acquiring new customers tends to be more expensive than working on the qualified leads you’ve already generated. 

One of the key benefits of eCommerce retargeting is lower acquisition costs. Did you know that retargeted users are a whopping eight times cheaper to acquire per click?

This makes sense: when you’re re-engaging an audience who’s displayed an interest in your brand, they’re more likely to convert than an audience who's never heard of you before.

3. Improve Customer Retention

Retargeting your existing customers also helps foster loyal brand relationships. 

Using a mixture of eCommerce retargeting and remarketing within your retainment strategy is an easy way to improve customer repeat rate and boost customer lifetime value.

Sending emails to existing customers offering personalized discounts or finding new ways to connect with a loyal following on social media can help- encourage consumers to stick with your brand and purchase over and over again.  

eCommerce Retargeting Strategy: 5 Proven Tactics For Conversion Success 

It’s no secret that eCommerce retargeting isn't a walk in the park. Your campaigns must be calculated, personalized, and relevant to each and every consumer you target.

“With the ever-changing landscape of digital advertising, the fight for your audience’s attention has to be won with not just quantity but also quality,” claims Jason Fishman, SVP of Digital Strategy at Digital Niche Agency. 

“While you should assume that your customers should experience numerous touch points with your brand before they’re ready to convert, each digital encounter should feel relevant to them.” adds Jason.

With this in mind, here are five eCommerce retargeting and remarketing strategies to get you started.

1. Segment Your Audience 

Your first step to achieving retargeted success is to segment your audience. Each visitor interacts with your site in a different way. The key here is to leverage this data and use it to your advantage when curating a retargeting campaign.

Take elements such as shopper behavior, first-time vs returning purchasers, and seasonal vs year-round customers into account when splitting your leads into groups, as you’ll want to target each one with an ad that appeals to their specific needs.

Better still, if you want to get even more specific, why not try out URL-based tracking? This strategy segments retargeting ads based on the last pages a shopper visited on your site. 

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Therefore, you’ll be able to craft the best ad copy surrounding a specific product or service your lead was looking at. For example above, you can see how clothing brand Stance is leveraging Google retargeting ads to display products I had previously been browsing.

2. Create A Sense Of Urgency 

Creating a sense of scarcity and urgency is a good strategy for retargeting users who have abandoned carts. Increasing urgency means you can motivate potential customers to take immediate action. Use engaging language, countdowns, and time-sensitive incentives such as discounts or upcoming price hikes in your emails. 

Also, your email campaign could highlight limited-time deals or low stocks on products the customers had in their basket. This will make them feel like they are missing out if they don’t buy it now.

For example, this cart abandonment email from budget airline Ryanair convinces undecided consumers to book flights to Copenhagen before their prices rise.

3. Offer Personalized Discounts

After devising your target consumers into segments, the next stage of a successful eCommerce retargeting strategy is offering a personalized incentive to head over to your online store. 

Personalized ads are extremely important as they remind consumers that your online store has exactly the product/service they were looking for. 

Personalized ads are there to catch the attention of busy browsers who don’t have time to search for your site online. By simply clicking a personalized ad, they are redirected straight to the product page they’re interested in, increasing the chances of a sale. 

Why not also offer a discount, especially if you’re aiming to retarget those who have abandoned their cart?

When customers abandon their carts, they often hesitate due to various reasons such as price concerns or comparison shopping. By offering a discount or incentive via email, you address these concerns and provide an appealing offer that can motivate your customers to complete their purchases for a lower price.

After abandoning your cart on Vision Direct, for example, the brand sends a follow-up email with a 10% discount code and a CTA button.

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You can also simplify the decision-making process and add value to the customer’s buying experience by offering a personalized group of relevant items based on what they left in their abandoned cart. 

When offering bundles, incorporate a sense of urgency and consider offering a discount if they buy the bundle of products. This method improves cart recovery, promotes upselling, and raises average order value.

4. Retarget Your Consumers Via Email 

Any eCommerce retargeting strategy isn't complete without an email campaign. Email remarketing is a great complement to your targeted search ads and sponsored social content.

With more space to draft a personalized message, email campaigns are often more successful than other forms of eCommerce retargeting as the consumer has to actively engage with the content in their inbox, rather than simply scroll past it on their social feed.

Better still, email retargeting is a great opportunity to help improve trust, especially when encouraging first-time purchasers to return to their abandoned carts.

It is essential to gain a potential customer’s trust if you want them to return to your site and purchase your products. You can improve the reputation of your company and develop consumer loyalty by displaying your brand’s trust badges in your cart abandonment email. 

Trust badges include security certifications, payment logos, and customer ratings. Celebrity, influencer, or industry expert reviews can also be a helpful thing to include.

For example, PhD Nutrition and Laptops Direct include their impressive Trustpilot ratings in their emails, whilst Morphe Cosmetics have a ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ tick in theirs, which is a promise to assure the buyer that a refund will be issued if they are not satisfied with a product or service within a specific timeframe.

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In addition, Jet2 emails show potential and returning customers that they are Trip Advisor’s best airline, Which?’s recommended provider, and are ABTA protected, which means you are eligible for refunds if the travel company goes out of business.

5. Don’t Forget About Social Retargeting 

Last but not least, let’s not forget about social media. Any successful eCommerce retargeting strategy will include social retargeting. In fact, a whopping 77% of marketers use Facebook and Instagram alone for their retargeting efforts. 

The chances are that a large proportion of your target audience also interacts with social media. As social commerce trends continue to encourage modern-day consumers to buy directly off of platforms like TikTok shop, online retailers must make it as simple as possible for leads to get from a paid ad to the checkout.

Airbnb does this well with its own Facebook-powered retargeting strategy. After browsing their site for accommodation, the travel company takes the last area or listing a consumer was looking at and directly inserts their ‘book now’ link into the lead’s Facebook feed.

With a direct call to action, this eCommerce retargeting strategy encourages consumers to convert in just a few simple clicks.

Implement an eCommerce Retargeting Strategy Today

In this guide, we explore the pivotal role of eCommerce retargeting in 2023, emphasizing its impact on consumer loyalty and conversion rates. 

As online competition intensifies, understanding and implementing effective retargeting strategies becomes imperative. Here’s a quick recap of what we covered:

Key Benefits of eCommerce Retargeting:

• Cart Abandonment Recovery: Utilize attention-grabbing abandoned cart emails with personalized subject lines, boasting an impressive 45% open rate.
• Lower Acquisition Costs: Targeting retargeted users proves eight times more cost-effective per click than acquiring new customers.
• Improving Customer Retention: Combine eCommerce retargeting and remarketing to foster brand loyalty, enhancing overall customer lifetime value.

Best Practices for your eCommerce Retargeting Strategy:

• Segment Your Audience: Tailor retargeting campaigns by considering user behavior and preferences.
• Create a Sense of Urgency: Motivate customers with language, countdowns, and time-sensitive incentives.
• Offer Personalized Discounts: Provide tailored incentives and discounts, addressing specific customer needs.
• Retarget via Email: Leverage personalized email campaigns to complement other retargeting efforts.
• Social Retargeting: Integrate social media, with a focus on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, streamlining the journey from ad to checkout.

So, embrace these tactics to not only recover potential sales but also to build enduring relationships with your audience, ensuring sustained success in the dynamic online landscape.

As we move forward, a new era of automated retargeting is on the horizon. With 88% of businesses already using or planning to use AI within their retargeting strategy, it has never been easier to reconnect with your customers online. 

The question is, where will eCommerce retargeting go next, only time will tell.

eCommerce Retargeting FAQ

Let’s quickly cover some of the most commonly asked questions related to eCommerce retargeting.

What is ecommerce retargeting?

Ecommerce retargeting is a digital marketing strategy aimed at re-engaging potential customers who have previously visited your online store but did not make a purchase. It involves displaying targeted ads to these visitors across various online platforms, encouraging them to return and complete a desired action, such as making a purchase.

What is retargeting in online marketing?

Retargeting in online marketing is a tactic that involves displaying ads to users who have interacted with your website or online content. By using cookies or other tracking methods, advertisers can specifically target users who have shown interest in their products or services but have not yet converted. This helps to rekindle their interest and drive them back to the website to take the desired action.

How do I retarget customers online?

To retarget customers online, start by implementing a tracking pixel on your website to gather data on visitor behavior. Set up retargeting ads on platforms like Google Ads or social media channels, targeting users who have visited specific pages or shown interest in your products. Craft compelling ad creatives and use enticing offers to encourage them to revisit your site and complete the desired action.

What is remarketing audiences for ecommerce?

Remarketing audiences for ecommerce are specific groups of users who have interacted with your online store but have not made a purchase. These audiences are created based on user behavior, such as pages viewed or products added to the cart. By segmenting these audiences, you can tailor your retargeting efforts, delivering personalized ads to encourage these potential customers to return and convert on your ecommerce site.