Unpaid orders? Why not send an automatic payment reminder?

By Martin Bay

Update 14 June 2022: The Danish Consumer Ombudsman has now confirmed in a decision that the below is correct and legal. See their decision and prerequisites here.

Last week I did a little test. I placed an order on five large Danish webshops, but I failed to complete the payment.

I put an item in the basket, went to the checkout, entered my details, selected the shipping method and payment method (card payment) and then clicked on "Complete order" or "Buy and proceed to payment". That is, the last button in the checkout, just before the payment.

Then, when I was taken to the payment window, I closed the tab in my browser. And then I waited.

I expected to get a message from each shop saying "your order was not paid - click here to try again". But that never happened.

This is very much a case of low-hanging fruit. You won't find a customer who is further down the sales funnel than the customer who has actually placed an order. So why not use a single little e-mail message to catch those who drop out at the moment of payment?

you can - most of the time

The answer is probably mostly marketing law and uncertainty about when this type of message is allowed.

But it IS allowed to send service messages after an agreement has been made between the webshop and the customer.

Therefore, you need to decide whether you consider placing an order (click on "Confirm and pay") as placing an order - and thus entering into an agreement between the online shop and the end customer.

If you do, then in reality the customer is obliged to pay for the order placed and you are obliged to deliver the goods at the price indicated.

At the same time, it is allowed to send a service message if the payment is not completed. (Please note that the e-mail message must not contain any commercial content whatsoever. Not even in any signature)

The Consumer Ombudsman considers that a contract is concluded when you press the "Buy" or "Order" button. See more: forbrugerombudsmanden.dk/.../under-salget/

The Consumer Ombudsman's "Nettjek" also mentions the wording of the last button in the basket. This is the button that the customer presses to place the order and enter into an agreement with the webshop.

forbrugerombudsmanden.dk/../nettjek.pdf

(at the bottom of page 6). Here is a saved version: forbrugerombudsmandens net-tjek.

Here is an extract from the document:

Is it a no-brainer?

Here at ideal.shop, we have always had a default setting in our customers' webshops, which ensures that a payment reminder is sent to end customers. The message is sent in cases where an end customer places an order, is sent to some form of online payment, and then does NOT complete payment.

It has so far saved around 15% of these orders. That's more than 1 in 7 end-customers successfully paying for an order after we remind them via email. A significant result when you consider the minimal effort involved.

Our setup is designed so that there is no doubt when an order is placed in the webshop. And at the same time, the email message is designed so that there is no doubt that it is a service message (only order details + link to payment).

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or a legal expert. I have researched the above to the best of my ability, and with good advice from the e-labelling lawyers. You should of course check with yourself (with the help of relevant professionals) whether your setup allows you to send this type of service message legally.