If you own an ecommerce business, it’s likely that you’ve experienced shopping cart abandonment rates of 50% or higher. In fact, these rates have been reported to be as high as 70% by some online retailers. If you haven’t been tracking your shopping cart abandonment rates, now is the time to do so, as there are many ways to reduce these high numbers and increase your overall sales volume.
Abandonment rates are the number of times shoppers have left your website or shopping cart before finishing their purchase. You’ll want to keep these rates as low as possible, especially if you’re selling products with higher price tags, since lost revenue can quickly add up. In this article we will look at 10 ways to prevent shopping cart abandonment rates, so you can focus on increasing your bottom line!
What is Shopping Cart Abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is a term that is used when someone puts an item in their shopping cart on a website, but leaves before completing their purchase. This phenomenon is especially common on e-commerce websites and can be seen as a negative indicator of business health. In many cases, it’s due to confusing pricing or shipping information. In other cases, it’s because of competitors offering promotions or discounts.
Shopping Cart Abandonment Stats
E Commerce is a tough business. If you want to be successful, you have to do everything in your power to keep customers happy and coming back for more. Here are some stats by fundera showing gravity of the problem of shopping cart abandonment:
- 35.26% increase in conversion rate through better checkout design.
- 69.57% is the average documented eCommerce cart abandonment rate.
- 85.6% is the average mobile eCommerce cart abandonment rate.
- $260 billion are recoverable through checkout improvements.
- At 87.87%, airline cart abandonment rates are the highest.
- 55% of online shoppers abandon their cart because extra costs were too high.
10 Tips to Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment
1) Start with your checkout process
The checkout process is a good place to start if you want to see your abandonment rates drop. If you have an e-commerce site, there are a couple of ways you can improve your checkout process.
You could present customers with one clear, simple way of checking out so they’re less likely to go back and change their minds. Another option is showing shoppers how many products they’ve added or putting them on auto-checkout mode, which adds one product at a time—this helps people stay focused on their shopping journey without getting distracted by all sorts of options.
Either way, it means people will be more likely to finish what they started and leave with exactly what they came for—and that saves both time and money!
2) Show shipping costs
One reason shoppers abandon carts is that they don’t see shipping costs until after they fill up their shopping cart and start checking out. Make sure you present shipping and handling costs early in the checkout so your customers can see those costs right away.
Some experts recommend adding those fees to your product prices so shoppers won’t know if they’re spending more than they expect. This way, you can still provide low prices, but also avoid losing customers who might be put off by higher than expected totals.
Whatever you decide, it’s important that customers see your total price upfront; otherwise, you risk them leaving without buying at all.
3) Encourage multiple items per transaction
Although many users are okay with checking out with just one item per transaction, some are less inclined. If you have a shopping cart that allows multiple items, don’t force people into checking out with just one item (unless you want them to) because not everyone feels comfortable purchasing multiple items in a single transaction.
Instead, let them continue shopping until they’re ready to check out, or let them buy all of their items together at once. The main point is that everyone has different preferences; cater your checkout process to each user’s preferences rather than forcing them into something they’re uncomfortable with.
4) Offer free shipping if total amount exceeds a certain value
Free shipping is a great way to get people interested in your product or service, but it’s also one of the easiest ways for potential customers to lose interest. It’s easier than ever before for shoppers to compare prices between sellers, and free shipping offers can make even small differences feel like large sums.
For example, if you were about to purchase an item that cost $40 from a seller who didn’t offer free shipping and a seller who offered free shipping above $25, a few dollars may make all of the difference. When you look at how easy it is for price discrepancies like these could affect your shopping cart abandonment rates, it’s clear why offering free shipping can come with risks.
5) Use product recommendations on the purchase confirmation page
When customers come back to your site after adding products to their shopping cart, they often see a “You May Also Like” section. The next time they return, increase your chances of making a sale by including product recommendations on your purchase confirmation page.
If customers have added items in their carts within 30 days but haven’t made a purchase, you can use their recent activity and buying patterns in order to recommend additional products that are likely related.
By offering product recommendations on your ecommerce site’s purchase confirmation page (especially when it comes to products that are very similar or complementary), you can turn shopping cart abandonment into new sales.
6) Offer discounts on related products
When you give people a discount for something they’re already interested in, their brain will think: Wow! I’m really getting a deal here. I love saving money and there’s plenty of it in my shopping cart already. It’s also related to what I’m buying so it makes perfect sense that it would be part of my purchase.
7) Send reminder if the product is in the cart
If your customers don’t finish their purchase, you can let them know how many other shoppers have left reviews. For example, if only 30% of visitors who added an item to their cart actually purchased it, pop-up a notice that says only X% of shoppers who added X item(s) to their cart actually purchased it.
It also could encourage you customers by showing them how many others are enjoying what they are interested in buying. This can help reduce shopping cart abandonment rates by reminding your customers that there are people just like them who bought and loved what they’re looking at now.
8) Make signing up for an account easy
Visitors want to get through checkout as quickly as possible. When they’re forced to jump through hoops or go through multiple steps, it increases their chances of dropping off before completing their purchase. Making it easy for users to sign up for an account will ensure that they complete their purchases more often than not.
Make sure all users have easy access to your company’s contact information but don’t require customers who are already signed up for an account to enter login information every time they visit.
Instead, take advantage of APIs like Facebook Connect and Google Sign-In; both platforms make it simple for existing customers (who are used to signing in with their credentials) to access your website without re-entering info.
9) Show reviews from other customers on checkout page
One way to keep customers from abandoning their shopping carts is by including reviews from other customers right on your checkout page. This lets people see exactly what others think of your product, its features, and how it compares with competing products.
If you’re not sure where to find these reviews, check out review aggregators like Trustpilot or Yotpo; each aggregates customer feedback from around social media and gives you a centralized place to learn more about your audience and respond accordingly. Review aggregators also help streamline and improve search engine optimization (SEO) efforts as well as bolster those all-important metrics.
You can even use them as an opportunity for future email marketing campaigns—letting users know that there are other shoppers just like them who already made a purchase decision.
10) Give customers time to change their mind at any point during the buying process.
If you’re selling a product online, make sure your customers don’t feel rushed. Give them time to browse and think before they’re committed. Let them leave their shopping cart and return another day if they decide it isn’t for them.
You should also give your customers time to change their minds after they have made a purchase. If they aren’t completely satisfied with their purchase, ask them how you can help fix or resolve any issues so that they are happy with their overall experience.
Then, try offering some sort of incentive for them to go back and complete a review about your business so other consumers can benefit from that feedback as well.
Conclusion
Every time a customer leaves your website due to an abandoned shopping cart, it is costing you money in lost revenue. I hope the above mentioned tips help you reduce the cart abandonment rate for your eCommerce site. There are also many good eCommerce website development companies in India providing advanced features in online stores that help them reduce the abandoned rate. You can take help from these companies.
