CP #63: The Cure for Cart Abandonment

Welcome to Conversion Party. This week, we’ve got…

• 🔥 Heatmap Update: IP blocking

• 🕳️ CRO Deep Dive: Proven Tactics to Fix Cart Abandonment

• 🗺️ Goings On: Not nothin’

• 🔦 Partner Spotlight: Rep AI

• 👾 CRO Hack: #22 (h/t Andrei Breha)

Let’s ride.

🔥 HEATMAP UPDATE
IP Blocking

Discover the strategies and tactics you need to optimize for more revenue in ecommerce. In this in-depth essay we explore data-driven approaches, real-world examples, and proven best practices to help you drive more sales and revenue.

We’re rolling out a wave of powerful new features - and this is just the beginning.

Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out weekly updates designed to make your on-site data more accurate, actionable, and revenue-driven.

First up: IP Blocking.

If you’re serious about optimizing your site, the last thing you want is skewed data from your team, developers, or agency partners messing with your heatmaps. That’s why we built IP Blocking—a simple but powerful way to filter out internal traffic so you can focus on what really matters: real customer behavior.

IP blocking helps maintain the accuracy and reliability of the data collected by the heatmp pixel(s).

Here's why it's important:

Heatmaps are meant to track real user behavior; one of the most valuable features of our platform is the ability to compare purchaser vs non-purchaser behavior. If employees, developers, or agency partners frequently visit the website, their interactions will skew the data. Blocking their IP addresses ensures that only genuine visitor behavior is recorded.

This feature ultimately helps businesses make data-driven website improvements without interference from non-customer interactions.

Best of all?

IP Blocking is built directly into our new onboarding process, making it ridiculously easy to implement. No complicated settings, no manual work—just pure, accurate insights from actual visitors.

This is just the first of many updates coming your way. We’re making it easier than ever to get high-quality heatmap data that drives real revenue impact. So go ahead, set up IP Blocking today, and get ready for the next week’s new feature drop 🚀 

🕳️ CRO DEEP DIVE
Proven Tactics to Fix Cart Abandonment

Discover the strategies and tactics you need to optimize for more revenue in ecommerce. In this in-depth essay we explore data-driven approaches, real-world examples, and proven best practices to help you drive more sales and revenue.

Cart abandonment is the silent killer of ecommerce profits.

You invest heavily in marketing, drive thousands of visitors to your store, and watch them add products to their carts—only to have a massive percentage of them drop off at the last moment. It’s frustrating, it’s costly, and, worst of all, it’s preventable.

In our recent webinar, four industry experts shared game-changing strategies for reducing cart abandonment across every touchpoint in the customer journey. The biggest takeaway?

Cart abandonment isn’t just a checkout problem—it’s a symptom of a deeper issue. 

If your website isn’t building enough purchase intent before checkout, customers will hesitate, doubt will creep in, and they’ll leave before hitting "Buy Now." Today, we’re breaking down the most powerful insights from the webinar, giving you a roadmap to fix cart abandonment before and after it happens.

Understanding Why Customers Abandon Carts In The First Place

The first key to fixing cart abandonment is understanding why it happens in the first place. Consumer decision-making isn’t logical—it’s emotional. Heatmap CEO Dylan Ander uses the "Gator & The Judge" framework to explain how purchase decisions are made.

The Gator is the subconscious, fast, and emotional part of the brain. It makes decisions quickly, based on instinct and gut feeling.

The Judge, on the other hand, is the rational, slow, and skeptical side. It looks for reasons to doubt, delay, or abandon the purchase.

Cart abandonment happens when The Gator isn’t fully convinced before checkout, and The Judge steps in to kill the sale. If a website doesn’t create enough urgency, trust, or clarity, the rational mind takes over, questioning whether to complete the purchase.

But there’s another key factor at play: Purchase Intent Velocity. 

This concept explains how fast a visitor moves from "just browsing" to making a purchase. When customers hesitate for too long, purchase intent loses momentum, and The Judge has more time to intervene and kill the sale.

Imagine a customer walking into a physical store. If they pick up a product, walk around with it, and then put it back on the shelf, their purchase intent has dropped. The same thing happens online. If a customer adds an item to their cart but leaves it sitting for too long, that hesitation signals lost momentum—which increases the likelihood of abandonment.

To combat this, your website must increase purchase intent velocity by removing friction and reinforcing urgency, trust, and desire at the right moments. Some proven tactics include:

1. Highlighting “best-seller” or “low stock” badges to trigger FOMO and speed up decision-making.

2. Displaying real-time customer purchases ("John from Miami just bought this 3 minutes ago!") to create a sense of movement and validation.

3. Using urgency timers for limited-time discounts or fast-shipping options, making the decision feel immediate.

These tactics prime The Gator to act before The Judge has a chance to interfere.

Personalization, The Pre-Abandonment Fix

Before a customer even reaches checkout, they’re making subconscious decisions about whether they trust your brand and whether the purchase is worth it.

Ashland Stansbury from Because shared how personalization can increase conversions by 23% by making the shopping experience feel more relevant and engaging.

Personalization isn’t just a buzzword—it’s about using the data you already collect to tailor the experience. Far too many brands gather customer insights without actually putting them to use. For example, simply welcoming loyal customers by name before they log in (instead of waiting until after) increased conversions by 9.3%.

This simple tweak reinforces trust and familiarity, making customers feel valued before they even start shopping.

Another high-impact strategy is placing relevant customer reviews above the fold. Instead of burying testimonials at the bottom of the page, surfacing them early reassures potential buyers that others have had a great experience.

Recovering High-Value Abandoned Carts With… The Phone?

Ecommerce and phone sales might seem like an unlikely pairing, but Phil Roireau from Consio made a compelling case for why brands should rethink this channel. Phone outreach is one of the most effective ways to recover high-value abandoned carts—especially for businesses with high-ticket products, subscriptions, or repeat buyers.

Phil shared that 30% of customers answer calls from brands, and of those, 10% convert to sales. 

When done correctly, phone sales can increase topline GMV by 6-8%. 

The key is targeting the right customers—not blasting your entire customer base with cold calls.

Industries that see the best results include home goods, electronics, supplements, and beauty subscriptions. These customers often need an extra nudge or human interaction before committing to a purchase. The best-performing brands structure their call strategy carefully, with targeted scripts that focus on customer needs rather than hard-selling.

One of the most surprising insights? The best times to call aren’t random—they follow a pattern.

The sweet spot for customer engagement is between 11 AM and 7 PM local time. Brands that optimize their outreach around these hours see significantly higher connection rates and conversions.

Checkout Is Just The Beginning

The checkout process doesn’t have to be the last step in the journey. David Yorke from Aftersell outlined how post-purchase optimization can significantly boost revenue by capitalizing on the momentum of a completed purchase.

One of the most powerful tactics? One-click upsells before the thank-you page. 

Instead of immediately closing the sale, brands that offer bundled deals or complementary products right after checkout see an increase in Average Order Value (AOV). 

A/B testing is another critical element of post-purchase optimization. Brands that experiment with different discount levels, urgency messaging, and product bundles are able to fine-tune their upsell strategy for maximum impact.

The Bigger Picture: Fixing Cart Abandonment at Every Stage

tl;dr… Cart abandonment isn’t just a checkout problem—it’s a symptom of a broken purchase journey.

By implementing pre-abandonment personalization, high-touch phone outreach, and post-purchase monetization strategies, brands can turn lost sales into additional revenue. Each of these elements contributes to keeping The Gator engaged and The Judge quiet, ensuring a frictionless buying experience.

🗺️ GOINGS ON
Not Nothin’

Stay in the loop with our latest partner activations—from webinars and in-person meetups to fresh content collaborations. We’ll highlight upcoming events, share key takeaways from recent gatherings, and give you an inside look at what’s brewing in our network.

🔓️ Unlocking Smarter Marketing: Overcoming Wasted Spend and Attribution Gaps

Wasted spend is so 2024. In 2025, we're unlocking smarter marketing, and overcoming wasted spend AND attribution gaps. If you want to take your marketing to the next level, you can't afford to miss this webinar!

On March 6th at 1 PM EST, we'll be joining Triple Whale, PostPilot, Justuno, and more for an un-missable webinar all about making the most of data-driven insights.

🤖 AI-Powered eCommerce: The 2025 Guide to Smarter Marketing & Sales

Discover 11 proven strategies that today’s leading eCommerce brands are using to enable AI, drive traffic, optimize conversions, and boost revenue in 2025. Sections include:

• Driving High-Intent Traffic with AI

• AI-Powered Website Optimization for Higher Conversions

• AI-Driven Checkout and Post-purchase Strategies

🛰️ Optimize messages at superhuman speed and complexity

Stop running one A/B test after the other, without ever actually knowing if you’re sending the best possible message. With Infinity Testing, you can test hundreds of on-brand variants in a fraction of the time—and drive incredible results.

📚️ Unlock Growth with the AfterSell's New Playbook

Want to boost your eCommerce revenue? Our partner has an exclusive Upsell Playbook designed to help you elevate your strategy and drive more sales. Inside, you'll find data-backed insights, real-world examples, and actionable tips to improve your upselling tactics.

Key Takeaways:

• Boost your Average Order Value (AOV) by up to 35%

• Avoid the #1 mistake 70% of online stores make

• Personalize upsells for a 20% higher conversion rate

Ready to level up your eCommerce game?

🔦 PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Rep AI

Each week, we shine a light on an outstanding partner—be it an innovative tech platform or an agency doing game-changing work. Learn about their expertise, what sets them apart, and how they can help take your ecommerce strategy to the next level.

Rep AI is changing the way Shopify brands drive growth.

It’s all about boosting revenue and simplifying your operations through conversation. With cutting-edge behavioral and conversational AI, Rep AI engages disengaged visitors at scale, helping you understand your customers, resolve support inquiries swiftly, and drive sales with every interaction.

With Rep’s AI concierge, brands are seeing up to a 20% increase in website sales and cutting down support tickets by over 90%.

Ready to unlock untapped revenue and achieve unparalleled results? Let’s make it happen with Rep AI!

🎟️ Try before you buy with a 30-day free trial + 10% discount on a first year subscription.

👾 CRO HACK
CRO Hack #22 (h/t Andrei Breha)

Our featured tweet of the week, where we share bite-sized insights or a quick tip that’s making waves in the world of e-commerce. Consider it your fast track to staying updated on what’s trending.