There are many reasons why a customer may ditch their virtual shopping cart before completing a purchase. Maybe the customer's kids needed help, and they decided the pickup location was too far away, or the customer got distracted by a text. Many unpredictable life variables could have factored in, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they did not want those products. While these and many other reasons may lead to a customer abandoning their shopping cart, dispensaries need more opportunities to remind these potential customers to complete their purchases.
Targeted marketing ads do this all the time. They analyze the length of time a shopper spent researching an item and remind them of that item and similar products in an advertisement. This type of messaging can increase that item's value in the eyes of a potential shopper. There is a more subtle and customizable way to get this point across with the customer’s consent for communication via text and email.
The method, known as a win-back campaign, involves reminding these shoppers of a previous purchase they were interested in with a more approachable format. This will create a natural push towards products you know they liked and may still be considering. When you notify them via private channels, you can even incentivize their purchase with an additional discount on one or more of those particular items.
This tactic is used in typical retail and is one of the best ways that a dispensary can re-engage shoppers and increase conversions. A win-back marketing campaign can be highly beneficial. This means leveraging the abandoned cart data with software that allows businesses to reach out to these lost customers with friendly and automatic reminders. For returning customers, it is the online equivalent of knowing a customer's "usual" and reminding them that they had an affinity for this product in the past. Discount incentives can go one step forward to nudge the shopper to finish their purchases.
Sailthru’s marketing blog analyzes a major makeup store’s marketing techniques and points out the benefits of a campaign based on abandoned cart data:
“If someone adds something to their cart, they’ve given you one really important piece of information: They’re interested. Maybe they’re on the fence or perhaps they just didn’t have their credit card handy. Either way, a strong personalized email can nurture a sale. In this case, Sephora shows pictures of the abandoned items to jog the customer’s memory, while using language that stresses urgency without being too pushy.”
Like Sephora has done via email campaigns, reach out and let the customer know you miss them. Compliment their taste and paint a picture of what it was like for them to shop within your visually pleasing site. Let them know you genuinely care about their needs. This campaign heightens the personal experience a shopper may feel and can consequently increase your online revenue.
A good tactic for win-back marketing campaigns is to utilize your e-commerce data. Noticing physical “go back” items left in the cart is much more challenging to track in the store, mainly because it's a fast-paced environment. Rather than attempting to gather this information manually, your e-commerce software can track this for you. Dutchie’s software can even automate win-back campaigns via text or email, so you don’t have to worry about manually creating a digital marketing campaign.
Alpine IQ has helped to make this possible. Our integration with their loyalty and rewards software has allowed us to sync a retailer’s abandoned cart data to an automated campaign. Based on your preference, you can choose whether you want this solution to trigger email reminders, text reminders, or both. Shoppers with an existing login will be able to revisit their carts and continue down the purchase path.
A medical patient that consumes cannabis daily could feel thankful that you nudged them to stock up before their medicine ran out. A recreational patient buying a product based on online research may be grateful that your campaign redirected their attention back to the cart after an unintended distraction. Regardless of the reason, our new integration with Alpine IQ gives you a user-friendly solution to reel back in those lost orders.
While dispensary owners and managers often have to be flexible in their roles and take on various tasks, online marketing doesn’t need to be one of those worries. Instead, the burden is lifted with new tools that automate high-value marketing activity. This program creates more than just loyalty rewards; it creates loyalty in your virtual store. Whether you are a vertically sourced dispensary or not, win-back campaigns like this naturally establish a brand presence for the items promoted within the cart. Much like the typical retail model, a quick image or reference to the cart's contents should spark inspiration among your customers.
