Shopping cart abandonment remains a major ecommerce concern. To help manage this problem, here are a few tips to significantly lower shopping cart abandonment.
Progress Indicator
Everyone likes to know how far along in a process they are. This includes your customers. Number the steps in the checkout process in order to track the progress throughout and highlight the current step that customers are on.
Call to Action
A call-to-action is an indicator that webmasters use to illicit certain responses out of their visitors and these are key. You want to keep your CtA’s concise, consistent, prominent and highly visible. There are certain elementary components to placement of a call-to-action such as never placing the “checkout” and “remove from cart” next to each other.
“Back” Links
You want to make sure you offer your customers a way to get back to the site easily. Including a link can help the customer feel free and not forcefully narrowed down into a single action or pathway.
Dedicated Toll-free Hotline
It’s inevitable, but even in this day and age, some customers are uncomfortable using credit cards online. Being an ecommerce site, this can be tricky. The best solution is to allow them the option to fax or phone in orders. Provide all of your contact information throughout the checkout process to alleviate any concerns the customer might have. Adding helpful, non-distracting hints can also create a more positive experience.
Cross-selling
Cross-selling can be a huge boon to your online sales. You’ll want to be mindful of where, how and when you cross-sell. A great tool for ecommerce websites is to be able to manually assign items that would be useful within a purchase. For example if a customer buys a printer online, offer them the USB cable, ink and paper to go along with it. These items all work hand-in-hand and are just small enough that a customer may have overlooked them.
Save the Cart
Customers use their shopping cart for a variety of reasons of which it was not necessarily designed. This can include a price calculator or a wish list. This accounts for a great deal of shopping cart abandonment. Allow customers the option of coming back into a shopping cart to review what they’ve placed in it or allow them the option of emailing themselves their selections.
Diversify Payment Options
The more options you allow customers to pay with, the bigger decrease in shopping cart abandonment you’ll see. Pretty simple.
Security
Studies have shown as high as a 50% increase in conversion when a third party reinforcement logos is used. Think of logos like VeriSign, McAfee Secure or Thawte and display them prominently throughout your site and shopping cart process.
Allow Changes
People are going to change their mind and you want to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Editing the quantity or color choice of a product are important and are made much more accessible if customers are able to do that from the shopping cart.
Thumbnails
Kind of a no-brainer, but make sure you include product thumbnails so customers know they are buying the right item.
Do’s and Don’ts of Online Checkout
By following these simple “do’s” and “don’ts” in your online checking, you’ll help your business avoid losing crucial sales.
DO: Customer Testimonials
Customers love to hear other customers’ feedback. On the path to checkout, feature strong testimonials that speak highly of your business or, better yet, the product that’s in the cart.
DO: Price Guarantees
With the saturation of many markets, nowadays it’s easy to find the lowest prices. If you already have your customer on your site, reaffirming them with rhetoric like a “Lowest Price Match” guarantee can keep them happy and decrease shopping cart abandonment.
DO: Prevent Errors
Make sure you have a team monitoring checkout errors at all times. Even the smallest of errors can void an entire sale. Infact, reasearch done by Teleaf showed a loss of over $44,000,000,000 in potential revenue because of minor mistakes.
DO: Be Up-front About Stock Availability
Inform your customers about an item’s availability well before checkout time. Always include item inventory on the product page to set expectations. If you’re out of a particular item offer some resolution to the customers about when they can expect it or give them the option to backorder.
DO: Reassure Customers
Don’t wait to let your customers know important info they may be looking for; it might drive them away. For example, allow customers to see their warranty information upfront. Provide this information at a time when you feel your customers will have the most anxiety towards a sale.
DO:Save the Cart and Follow-up
If your shoppers do abandon their cart, let them know you’re still storing their items for later. Next time they return to the site, remind them of the items they previously selected (preferably in a light box). If your shoppers abandon their carts, send a follow-up email when possible offering to help.
DON’T: Offer Coupon Codes Unnecessarily
If customers see a coupon code form during checkout, they will likely leave the site to search for a coupon code. Only present the coupon code entry form to customers who are offered a promotion on their way into the site. Otherwise it’s best to hide the field and replace it with some subtle text like “Do you have a promotion/coupon code? Click here…” One case study saw a 90% decrease in conversion because of faulty coupon code placement.
DON’T: Hide Shipping Costs
While marketers might want to wait until the last second to include shipping costs, this is a good way to aggravate customers, leading to shopping cart abandonment. Estimate shipping costs early or try to offer free or flat-rate shipping, if fiscally viable.
DON’T: Force Customers to Register
How many of us have gone shopping at any retail store when the clerk asks for your zip code. Annoying, but whatever. Now imagine before you can make your purchase you had to give them ALL you information… every time! Zip code, phone number, address? You don’t need to give the clerk any of this information to complete a transaction and it’s irritating to be asked. Similar rules apply online. Sure, you’ll need an address to get items delivered, but don’t create any more steps than necessary for your customers. It’s best to offer a guest checkout where they are not pressured into giving out too much information.
Really good article here! I am in the process of doing an eCommerce site and had to change a few things now for it’s benefit thanks to this.
Thanks! We really appreciate the kind words and are glad we could help!