This post will assume that you have an understanding of how Direct Update works and how to implement it on your site. If you have questions on the basics or usage of Direct Update, please check out the help topic called Enabling Direct Update in the Bronto application.

Getting this set up is as simple as setting up a couple of fields, creating two separate Direct Update strings, and placing them in the right location on your site. Let’s get started…

The Fields

First, the easy part, creating two fields. We’ll use these fields to monitor when a contact has placed something in their cart, and when they complete a purchase.  We’ll call our first field ItemInCart. This can be pretty much any type of field you’d like. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll leave it as a text field.  The next field we’ll call CompletedPurchase. Again, this can be any type of field. I would recommend a date type field so that you can use this field data in multiple ways to target contacts.

The First Direct Update Statement

Next, we’ll need to set up the first of our two Direct Update code snippets.  The base code can be found by going to Home->Settings->Analytics, and then scrolling down to the Direct Update section.  In addition to grabbing the code, make sure that the check box under Direct Update is checked. Doing so will activate the feature.

Let’s take a look at a sample of the base code first.

<img src="http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=direct_update&fn=Public_DirectUpdateForm&id=cdagfvzjskjuipnbbdjdvbiwgfkdbbb" border="0" alt="" width="0" height="0" />

The goal of the first snippet is to let us know that someone has placed an item in their shopping cart. We’ll need to add an operator to the end of the snippet that sets the ItemInCart field to a positive value. To do this, we’ll use the following code:

field1=ItemInCart,set,Yes

The completed Direct Update code snippet would look like this:

Once you’ve got this first snippet, it will need to be placed on your website. Preferably, you should place it on a confirmation page that comes up after a contact adds an item or items to their shopping cart. That way, when they reach this page, the Direct Update code snippet will activate and update their ItemInCart field to ‘Yes’.

The Second Direct Update Statement

Now we’re ready to set up the second and final piece of Direct Update code. We’ll start with the base code again and build from there. This time around, we need to add an operator that sets a contact’s CompletedPurchase field to a certain value. I recommend using the current date. This will allow you to use this data for other segmenting purposes.

field1=CompletedPurchase,set,10/27/2009

In order to set to the current date, you will need to use some simple javascript that will be run from your own server. Click here and check out Example 1 for a simple script to call the current date. It is important to note that the date must be specified in the format you have designated for date fields on the Formatting page located at Home->Settings->Formatting. In addition, we need to remove the positive value from the ItemInCart field so that we don’t accidentally pull in people that have completed a purchase.  We’ll use the following to do so:

field2=ItemInCart,set,No

The completed Direct Update code snippet would look like this:

This second code snippet will also need to be placed on your website. This one should be placed on the order confirmation screen, after the purchase has been completed. It will set the contact’s CompletedPurchase field to the date defined, and will set their ItemInCart field to No.

Segmenting with Reckless Abandon

All that remains is to find the people in your contact list that have abandoned their shopping cart and give them a little incentive to complete the purchase! This can be very easily done by creating a simple segment that searches for contacts in your account that have a value of Yes in the ItemInCart field. Once that segment is created, all you have to do is send your message to it.

Careful Considerations

One small caveat to this post is that the whole thing will only work if a couple of conditions are met. First, the contact must have clicked on a link in an email sent via Bronto, which will open a tracking cookie on their computer. The cookie will allow the Direct Update code to work. Second, they must have cookies enabled in their web browser.

There you have it, a relatively simple way to set up an abandoned shopping cart tracking mechanism for your Bronto contacts. Keeping track of when your contacts do not complete a purchase can be just as important as keeping track of when they do. Are you currently using this method to increase conversions? Are you using a different method? Let us know in the comments.

Lucas Weber
Bronto Client Services

Related posts:

1. DIY Integrations II: Updating Contact Field Information With Direct Update Integrating your website or database with a third party...
2. Direct Unsubscribe Grows Up In the beginning, our Direct Unsubscribe feature was tucked away...
3. Two step signup using Direct Add and a Welcome Message We have several clients who are interested in doing a...