Does your abandoned cart email know who it's talking to?
Surreal’s abandoned cart email is the funniest one we’ve read, and it still leaves carts on the table.
Loud branding, a FEED ME button, a comparison chart that makes every other cereal look like dessert. It is a genuinely great email.
It also never says your name, never says what you left behind, and puts one button at the very bottom. Three fixes, block by block, on the flow that matters most between now and Black Friday. 👇
Surreal's abandoned cart email: all personality, half the mechanics
Surreal’s abandoned cart email is just as bold and quirky as the brand itself. Eye catching fonts and colors, witty one liners, plenty of personality in the inbox.
But fun alone doesn’t bring carts back, conversion does. Does this email have the right mix of charm, clarity and persuasion? Let’s break it down.
The header
What works: the branding is loud and clear, from the logo to the playful fonts, bold colors and photography. You know this is a Surreal email. “Grab breakfast by the bowls” is catchy, and the subheading balances humor with benefits: high protein, low carb, zero sugar. “FEED ME” is witty, high contrast and dead center, impossible to miss. The cereal boxes show flavor variety at a glance and nudge shoppers to explore.
What we’d change: the copy is fun but dense, and breaking it into two shorter paragraphs would make it skim. There is also no personalization anywhere, which is odd in an abandoned cart email: no first name, no mention of what they left behind. And where is the actual cereal? A close up in a bowl would sell the breakfast idea harder than the boxes do.
The body, and the chart doing the selling
What works: a big, high quality image of the exact product they left behind, so nobody has to remember what caught their eye. The comparison chart does the real work: 0g sugar against 5.1g, 14g protein against 1.9g, painfully obvious why Surreal wins. The humor holds, and the layout is clean with good contrast and plenty of white space.
What we’d change: the product sits there with no context, where a line like “here is what you liked” would carry the reader in. There is no button next to it either, just a price, so somebody can scroll past the thing they wanted without realising they could buy it right there. No review, no rating, nothing that answers hesitation, and almost nothing about the flavors themselves.
The footer
What works: short, on brand and centered, with the essentials and no fluff. Social icons and a website link give other ways to stay connected, and the opt out stays friendly.
What we’d change: nothing links anywhere useful. A shop all link, FAQs or shipping details would hold somebody who is not buying this particular box. And there are no trust signals, which work harder in an abandoned cart email than almost anywhere else: secure checkout, free shipping, easy returns.
The verdict
Energy, personality and strong branding, with the conversion mechanics missing. Personalization, a button beside the abandoned item, and a reason to act would turn a great looking email into a recovering one.
8 retention roles that went live this week
Skincare, supplements, denim, pajamas, and a meal subscription. Every one of them sells physical things online, so the work is the work you already know how to do.
→ Sr Manager, Lifecycle & Retention Marketing at Ursa Major Skincare, Remote
→ Director of Retention at Alpha Lion, Remote
→ Director of Lifecycle Marketing at Munchkin, Los Angeles, CA (Hybrid)
→ Digital Marketing Sr. Manager, Lifecycle & CRM at Ralph Lauren, New York, NY (On-site)
→ Senior Manager, Lifecycle Marketing at LAKE, Savannah, GA (On-site)
→ Manager, CRM & Campaigns at True Religion, El Segundo, CA (Hybrid)
→ Retention Manager, Curlsmith at Helen of Troy, Greater Boston (Hybrid)
→ Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager at CookUnity, New York, NY (On-site)
Our article today is about an abandoned cart email that has the personality and not the mechanics. This is the prompt we’d run on yours before Black Friday traffic starts.
Paste it into ChatGPT or Claude with your own cart email underneath:
Copy this prompt You are a retention marketer reviewing an abandoned cart email. I will paste the copy and describe the layout. Score it out of 10 on each of these, with the reason in one line: (1) does it name the shopper and the exact item they left behind, (2) is there a reason to act now, like a stock level, a review or a selling fast signal, (3) can the reader click back to the cart from every section rather than only the bottom, (4) are there trust signals near the CTA, such as shipping, returns or secure checkout. Then rewrite the email with the lowest two scores fixed, keeping my brand voice exactly as it reads in the original. Do not add a discount. |
The no discount line at the end matters. Ask any model to improve a cart email and it reaches for a percentage off first, which trains your list to abandon on purpose.
