Valentine’s Day e-commerce marketing is synonymous with pink-heavy, heart-shaped display ads, promotional emails and on-site messaging designed to catch the eyes of anyone who might be looking for a gift. Less noticed is the incredible amount of time and energy marketers put into creating personalized campaigns for re-engaging people who visit online retailers to buy a present for that special someone, but are indecisive or leave the site before making a purchase.

Ve Interactive has tracked abandonment rates as well as the effectiveness of marketing re-engagement campaigns for the 14 days leading up to Valentine’s Day in 2015 and 2016. This year, 72% of shoppers left retail sites before making a purchase, and 83% left travel sites, showing only nominal improvements from 2015. High abandonment rates mean one thing for Internet retailers: Winning back lost customers is a significant determining factor of Valentine’s Day e-commerce success.

E-commerce companies are increasingly aware of the importance of converting customers who hesitate before making a purchase. Ve’s study shows significant year-over-year improvements in re-engagement campaign effectiveness. According to the data, retail and travel conversion rates from onsite prompts improved by 14 and 18 percent, respectively. Email re-engagement conversion rates also showed 2015-2016 improvements in both retail (12 percent) and travel (11 percent).

These significant increases in onsite and email conversion rates are partly driven by economic conditions. Valentine’s Day 2016 was expected to bring in a record $19.7 billion in revenue according to the National Retail Federation, which cited the contributing factor of falling gas prices. This year we also saw the lowest unemployment rate since February 2008. Still, another important factor is marketers becoming more effective in creating highly personalized, targeted campaigns.

For onsite re-engagement, we saw more companies customize prompts based on the customer’s location, site visit duration, and actions that indicated she might abandon. When a customer did leave without purchasing, email re-engagement campaigns increasingly featured personalized subject lines and bodies with items the customer had been looking at or included in her basket. We also saw marketers pay greater attention to detail when it came to sending re-engagement emails at optimal times, and ensuring cascading campaigns included an appropriate level of follow-ups without over-saturating the customer.

While marketers showed significant gains in re-engagement effectiveness between 2015-2016, much can be done to ensure that Valentine Day 2017 is even more successful than 2016. One key area of opportunity is mitigating what have been the highest days for Valentine’s shopping cart abandonment over the last two years through additional incentives and promotions. Travel sites should pay particular attention to Feb. 2 and 3, while consumer retailers should watch Feb. 2 and 9.

You’ll find a complete summary of Ve’s 2015-2016 Valentine’s Day abandonment and re-engagement data below. What do you think e-commerce marketers should do to minimize abandonment rates and capture even more lost customers next year? 

Based in the United Kingdom, Ve Interactive is a provider of online marketing and advertising services.

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