This week I got an email from an online retailer about a few items I’d put in a shopping cart but never actually purchased last week. While I wasn’t going to buy the items in the end, it was a pretty smart idea to send me that reminder. This is just one of the tactics e-commerce site owners use to decrease their shopping cart abandonment rates.
Listrak puts the average abandonment rate for the last six months at around 81%, which is pretty impressive. That means online retailers are losing a lot of sales for a variety of reasons:
- Your products cost too much.
- Shoppers were really just browsing, not ready to buy.
- Your checkout process was too complicated.
- The delivery options weren’t suitable.
These prospective buyers have done everything to let you know they’re interested, but just haven’t taken that last step and clicked “Buy”. So, how can you stop the bleeding and start earning back some of those sales on your site? Let’s take a look at a few ideas.
1 – Avoid registrations
Why do companies force visitors to register on the site before being able to purchase a product? It’s quite frustrating if I just want to buy the product. In fact, a study by User Interface Engineering showed a 45% increase in purchases when forced registration was removed from the checkout page.
2 – Make editing the shopping cart easy
Don’t lock in shoppers at the checkout page. Let them modify their order if they realize they wish to change something. Maybe they clicked the wrong size or color and need to go back to fix it.
3 – Show images of the products
This applies to your product pages, but also your checkout page. Show an image of the product so customers can verify that the product’s the one they wanted. (This is especially handy for products that come in different colors or styles).
4 – Display security logos on your site
Statistica found that 17% of shoppers don’t purchase from sites if they are concerned about security. Think about including security logos on your shopping cart to reduce your abandonment rates.
Note that there are studies out there that say these logos both increase AND decrease your sales, so be sure to test out logo placement and style to see which works best for you.
5 – Offer different payment methods
Shoppers today want the choice to pay how they like, so consider offering not only credit card options but also PayPal.
6 – Reassure buyers
Depending on what you’re selling, customers may be looking for specific information before they buy. Consider offering it before, rather than after, the sale. For example, allow them to see warranty information before they buy instead of after. It might just win you a bigger sale.
Prominently display all of your customer support contact information so customers can get in touch with you if they have a question on anything.
7- Follow up with prospective buyers
Much like the email in the introductory example, reminding visitors of an abandoned shopping cart can persuade them to buy. Perhaps they got busy when browsing your site, or something else scared them off. By sending them a gentle reminder email, they’ll be more likely to buy. Peak Design used this tactic to recover 12% of their abandoned carts.
There you are, seven ways you can decrease shopping cart abandonment on your site and recover some of that lost revenue. Enjoy the extra cash.
Once you have these steps in place to help save the sales, look for a customer support software package like HappyFox to keep your customer satisfaction at an all-time high. Schedule your one-on-one live demo today!
