Cart Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment is what happens when a potential customer is attempting to make a purchase on your ecommerce site, but become so frustrated, distracted, or simply fed-up with technical glitches that they abandon their purchase before they check out.
The good news is that, unlike a brick-and-mortar store owner, you won’t have to pay an employee to physically put the merchandise back on the shelves. The bad news is that you lost the sale. And, odds are, that customer won’t be back. They may even badmouth your site to their friends and family.
Industry research reveals that a full 75% of attempted online sales result in shopping cart abandonment before a purchase is made.
However, there are steps that you can take to minimize shopping cart abandonment. And create more successful sales.
Too many steps in the checkout process is one of the largest single causes of shopping cart abandonment.
Include a progress indicator on each checkout page. No matter how many steps in your checkout process, let customers know where they are in the process. Number the steps, and label the task clearly for each step. Give shoppers an opportunity to review what they did in previous steps and a way to return to their current step if they go back. Confusion is a major cause of shopping cart abandonment.
Provide a link back to the product. When an item is placed in the shopping cart, include a link back to the product page. Shoppers can then easily jump back to make sure they selected the right item. I was shopping for a printer and wanted to know how many and what color cartridges come with the printer. It wasn’t obvious where I should click to review the product description. I had to navigate using my back button until I got my questions answered.
Add pictures inside the basket. Placing a thumbnail image of the product decreases shopping cart abandonment by as much as 10 percent.
Providing shipping costs early in the process greatly reduces shopping cart abandonment. If possible, provide an estimated cost while visitors browse. They want to buy but want the answers to all their questions when they want them. Total cost is one of those critical questions. Also, if the shipping information is the same as the billing information, include a checkbox to automatically fill in the same information.
Show stock availability on the product page also reduces shopping cart abandonment. Shoppers should not have to wait until checkout to learn if a product is out of stock. Also, give an estimated delivery date. Deal with the “I want it now” mentality, and let them know when they should expect to get their products.
Make it obvious what to click next. Include a prominent “Next Step” or “Continue With Checkout” button on each checkout page. Make the button you want them to click next the most obvious. One top 50 e-tailer mistakenly placed its “remove from cart” and checkout buttons next to each other. Neither stood out. Many people ended up clearing their carts. When they went to check out, they found nothing in there and the result was immediate shopping cart abandonment because of frustration.
Make editing the shopping cart easy. It should be simple to change quantities or options, or delete an item from the shopping cart. If a product comes in multiple sizes or colors, make it easy to select or change values in the shopping cart. And less likely to abandon the shopping cart.
Make it your fault. If information is missing or filled out incorrectly during checkout, give a meaningful error message that’s obvious to see. It should clearly tell visitors what needs to be corrected. The tone should be the system was unable to understand what was entered, not the visitor made a foolish mistake. If the consumer starts feeling dumb or intimidated, the result is likely to be shopping cart abandonment.
Show them you’re a real entity. People’s concerns start to flare up during checkout. Let them know you’re a real company by giving full contact info during the checkout process.
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Note: At Cresoft, we’ve been helping our clients grow their online presence and sales by reducing shopping cart abandonment since the very first day that we opened our doors. Let us demonstrate how our expertise can work for your company. Call us at 1-800-CRESOFT for a free shopping cart abandonment analysis.
