How to set up an abandoned browse automation

Overview

Give your contacts a nudge when they view products on your store, but don't make a purchase with an abandoned browse automation! Read on to learn how to set up an abandoned browse automation.

In this guide

🚦 Before getting started

Ensure Beacon general tracking is installed on your store’s website.

1. Create an abandoned browse automation

Start your abandoned browse automation setup by creating an automation and selecting the Abandoned Product Viewed trigger:

  1. Click the Automations icon
  2. Click New Automation
  3. Click Start From Scratch
  4. Enter a name for your abandoned browse automation
  5. Click Start
  6. Click Add Trigger
  7. In the lefthand sidebar, click your eCommerce integration’s tab (if using a custom integration, click the custom integration tab)
  8. Click Abandoned Product Viewed (or, if using a custom integration, the name of your custom trigger)

2. Configure abandoned browse trigger settings

When you select the Abandoned Product Viewed trigger, you’ll see its settings in the left-hand sidebar. These settings are the criteria contacts need to meet to be sent through the automation.

  • Store - Select the store you’re creating an abandoned browse automation for
  • Limit Per Contact - Not in the last, Once per day, or Do not trigger when already in automation are recommended for abandoned browse automations.
  • Consider abandoned after - Select a time period of at least one hour. The 5 minute and 30 minute settings are intended for internal testing and may inundate contacts with messages if used in a live automation.

You can specify individual products that should trigger the automation by searching for and selecting products in the For Products section of the trigger settings. If you do not select any specific products, all products will trigger the automation.

Shopify, BigCommerce, and custom store users can apply a product tag of sl-exclude to products that should not trigger the automation. This process removes the product from Sendlane entirely. Read more about excluding products here.

3. Filter out contacts who purchased during the wait time

The first node of your abandoned browse automation should be a Conditional Split that checks to see whether contacts who met the trigger settings’ criteria have made a purchase during the wait time selected for the “consider abandoned after” setting. On some platforms, this check happens in the trigger settings and acts as a filter. The functionality is the same with a conditional split.

To add a conditional split to your automation:

  1. Click the + icon below the update automation node
  2. Click Conditional Split
  3. Set the conditional split's settings

When you select the conditional split node, its settings will appear in the left-hand sidebar:

These settings will check for orders placed by the contact during the day before they met the automation trigger’s criteria:

  • Condition - Select your eCommerce solution (or custom integration)
  • Store - Select the store you’re creating an abandoned browse automation for
  • Resource - Order
  • Order Status - Any
  • Filter - Order Date
  • Operator - In the last
  • Relative date range - 1 day

Add the rest of your automation’s nodes to the NO side so that you target contacts who have NOT placed an order in the last day.

4. Add abandoned browse automation content

Now that the logic for your abandoned browse automation is in place, you can add nodes for emails and SMS messages. For more information on optimizing your email and SMS nodes, check out our guide to automation nodes.

You can use the abandoned cart product block in email nodes to pull information about the browsed product.

We highly recommend placing a wait node between messages to prevent contacts from receiving too many messages too quickly.

5. Add a goal node to pull purchasers out of the automation

Depending on the number of message nodes and the length of wait nodes in between, contacts may complete their purchase before being sent through the entire automation. To prevent contacts from continuing to receive abandoned browse content with a goal:

  1. Click the + button under the last node of your automation
  2. Click Goal
  3. Add a name for your goal, like "Completed purchase"
  4. In the Select condition dropdown, select your eCommerce integration
  5. Select your store
  6. Select Order
  7. Select Unfulfilled
  8. Select Order Date
  9. Select in the last
  10. Enter the number of days that it takes to complete your automation
  11. Click Done

6. Test and activate your automation

You can test your abandoned browse automation with an email address that is opted in to your account and has been tracked by Beacon. To test your abandoned browse automation:

  1. In your trigger's settings, set the "consider abandoned after" setting to 5 minutes
  2. Activate your email nodes
  3. Activate your automation
  4. Log out of your Shopify store in all tabs
  5. Visit your website
  6. Click on a product page
  7. Wait at least five minutes
  8. Check your inbox to ensure you received the first email in your abandoned browse automation

If you successfully completed your automation, you're all set! If you didn't receive messages you expected to receive, or otherwise didn't experience your automation the way you want your contacts to, deactivate your automation while you troubleshoot.

Example of a completed abandoned browse automation

Troubleshooting

The abandoned cart block isn't available!

The abandoned cart block may not appear in your elements sidebar for two common reasons:

  1. Your eCommerce integration is not set up correctly. Review your eCommerce store's integration with Sendlane for possible connection issues.
  2. You already added an abandoned cart block to your email. Only one abandoned cart block is allowed per email.
A Contact abandoned a product view and didn’t move through the Automation!

The most common reason Contacts who view a product and do not move through your browse abandonment Automation is that they are browsing anonymously. Tracking requires non-anonymous browsing in order to trigger the Automation.

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