15 Must-Use Methods For Killing Shopping Cart Abandonment
What if shopping in the real world is the same as shopping online? You enter a store, stuff your shopping cart with your favorite things, only to be distracted by a cute puppy playing outside the store with the kittens. You leave your cart as it is, watch the puppy for a while, and leave the store to meet with your friend living in the nearby building. Too dramatic and unreal, right? But this happens in the digital world every day. Despite your feature-rich website, customers enter your store, fill their carts with products, and leave your site without completing the transaction so they can watch the last episode of their favorite Netflix season. Shopping cart abandonment is real and one of the biggest enemies of the ecommerce conversion optimization process. Did you know 7 out of 10 customers leave without buying anything from your store? Although shopping cart abandonment sucks, it’s also the fact that almost every business experiences it at some point. In this post, we’re going to highlight 15 proven strategies to reduce abandoned carts for your ecommerce store. The purpose of these strategies is to help you win back customers and grow your bottom line. But before we dive into details, first, have a quick look at what cart abandonment is and why reducing abandoned checkouts is unavoidable for your success. What Is Cart Abandonment?
Cart abandonment refers to the process where a buyer visits your store, checks in different product pages, add things to their carts, and leaves the store at the last step without making any purchase. CartAbandonment–Statistics According to Listrak’s research, the average cart abandonment rate for ecommerce stores is 72% on average. It means 4 in every 5 customers abandon their carts before purchasing anything. The travel sector observes the highest shopping cart abandonment rate of 85%, which is more than any other ecommerce niche. Research also suggests that mobile completion rates (8.5%) are lower than desktop/tablet abandonment rates (13%). Now that you know almost every ecommerce sector confronts shopping cart abandonment at some point, it is time to see why this happens in the first place. Why Do Customers Abandon Their Carts? According to Baymard’s research, up to 58.6% of cart abandonment is done by buyers who have no shopping intention, and they were only browsing to see different options and compare prices. Some other reasons for cart abandonment include:
Hidden delivery costs/taxes
Requirement to create a dedicated user account
Limited payment/delivery choices
Multi-step checkout process So you see, small mistakes can cost ecommerce businesses a lot. The good news is you can avoid these mistakes by creating a foolproof strategy to reduce cart abandonment and improve user experience. If you’re unsure where to start from, the below section will clear all your doubts about cart abandonment and help you get this step right without any professional help.
15 Must-Use Methods For Killing Shopping Cart Abandonment 1.ImproveYourSite’sUsabilityFeatures The usability of your website is the biggest contributor to shopping cart abandonment. Let’s suppose you enter a store where every item is scattered on the floor, and the shopkeep is busy playing Pubg on his mobile with zero interest in helping you out. If you choose to leave that store in an instant, you’re not alone. Customers only spend time on websites they believe are organized and offering them good value for money. So the first thing you may want to do to reduce abandoned carts is to improve your site’s usability features. Here are a few things you can do to improve your website’s usability.
Create a responsive website
Choose a theme that offers fast load times
Keep it simple
Create user-friendly and informative product pages
Add action-driven CTAs 2.EstablishTrustByShowcasingTestimonials Some online sellers create a separate page to display reviews. But why stick to a single page when you can showcase reviews everywhere? Customer testimonials act as social proofs that persuade customers to trust your brand and invest their hard-earned money into your offers. 3.SimplifyYourCheckoutProcess Did you know more than 10% of cart abandonments are an outcome of complicated checkout processes? As a general rule, if your checkout process includes more than 6-steps, you need to work on it right away as it is too complicated. We’d suggest a linear checkout process that moves in a straight direction from start to end. In simple words, your goal is to simplify your checkout process so that your customers can complete a transaction without the hassle. Experts also recommend that your checkout process should not be more than 5.08 steps. So keep things simple as customers crave simplicity in every aspect of life. 4.HighlightYourReturnAndRefundPolicy It’s natural if you don’t want to talk about returns and refunds. After all, nobody puts so much effort only to face such a disappointing situation in the end. But, returns and refunds are a part of the process. No matter how much you hate this ecommerce facet, you have to deal with it sooner or later.
It is better to be transparent about your conditions instead of hiding this valuable information from your customers. According to Mark Hayes, a popular Shopify author, “Having a solid return policy inspires confidence in buyers and shows you’re committed to customer service. Even though the customer isn’t satisfied with the returned purchase, handling the return professionally will ensure their continued patronage.” Create an explicit return policy that helps build trust and encourage your customers to complete the checkout process without any doubts. 5.OfferMultiplePaymentOptions It’s every ecommerce store owner’s ultimate dream to create an online store that provides their customers with a memorable and seamless buying journey. But if you’re offering limited payment options, you’re already limiting your chance of having customers who want to make payments using different (read: lesser-known) payment channels. Credit cards, Paypal, Apple Pay, or Google Wallet, make sure you give your users enough payment options to complete the checkout process. Similarly, you must not limit yourself to one or a few delivery options only. Present-day customers are more informed than ever. Some of them would prefer COD, while others might want to pay using their debit cards or bank transfers. It’s your job to accommodate your customer’s requests so that they can complete the checkout process the way they like. 6.AddTrustSeals If you have trust badges, seals, or quality certifications, displaying them on your checkout pages will build trust and improve your business repo. Some of the trust seals you can display on your site include:
Verisign Trusted – Highlights encryption and data security
McAfee SECURE – Security against malware and hacking attacks
TRUSTe – Reputation protection
PayPal VERIFIED – Fraud Prevention In addition to these, you can also have Google trusted store seals. Better Business Bureau and SiteLock are additional options that improve your business’s trustworthiness in front of your customers and help reduce your shopping cart abandonment ratio. 7.SendAnEmailImmediatelyAfterTheUserAbandons If a customer has abandoned their cart, you can forward a reminder email within a few hours of abandoning a cart to reel them back in. Invest in efficient retargeting and email marketing technologies to help you identify and connect with customers who have abandoned their carts in, say, the past hour. 8.DisplayAllCostsUpfront Online customers hate surprises, specifically if they are related to hidden delivery costs or taxes. Most customers prefer to abandon their carts instead of acknowledging these new charges.
The best way to deal with this situation is to be open about your costs upfront. Statistics suggest that customers all around the world hate paying for delivery charges. That goes without saying that many people abandon their carts due to this reason. Therefore, you must not hide shipping costs and tell your customers about all delivery charges and taxes they may have to bear during the final delivery process. The idea is to help your buyers make up their minds and know in advance what they should expect. 9.CreateEngagingProductPages Your product pages can significantly impact your shopping cart abandonment rate. People love to spend their time and money on websites that include powerful product pages containing information about product features, specifications, delivery info, and more. Do not copy/paste the manufacturer’s descriptions. Create optimized and unique product descriptions that hook your customer’s interest and help them complete the checkout process. 10.OfferLiveChatSupport Another strategy to reduce abandoned carts is an active live chat support team that can assist your customers at every step of their buying journey. Train your agents to clear your customer’s doubts about shipping costs, surcharges, available product options, and more. Don’t limit yourself to chatbots only, as customers prefer human responses over robotic replies, and usually convert better when you have live chat support in place. 11.OfferSeamlessNavigationBetweenCartAndProductPages Your goal as an online seller is to streamline your customer’s buying journey. That’s not possible without creating continuity between your store and shopping cart. To create that continuity, you have to incorporate thumbnail images of products in the shopping cart. Doing so will help your customers confirm they’re paying for the products they have selected in the first place. Also, it reflects the professional nature of your business and encourages your customers to complete the checkout process and become your loyal customers. 12.IncludeCompellingCTAsOnCheckoutPages CTAs are another proven strategy to reduce abandoned carts that streamlines your buyer’s journey and persuades them to take your desired action. Customers want to know what to do next. Without having clear CTAs, your customers will feel overwhelmed and confused about where to go next. Include headline-like phrases to provide your customers with a seamless buying experience. It’s also critical to conduct split testing to see which specific CTAs work best for your business. 13.OfferGuestCheckoutOption
Perhaps one of the biggest hurdles to checkout completion is needing your customer to sign up as a registered user. The bottom line is if you’re asking your customers to create an account before they purchase anything from your store, you’re racking up your shopping cart abandonment ratio. Instead of asking your customers to fill up a form and create an account, you can process their orders on guest accounts. Even it would be better if you stick to the basic information (things you need to complete the delivery process) rather than collecting lots of personal or confidential information. 14.OptimizeYourPageLoadTimes
A one-second delay in your page load time can drop your conversions by a whopping 7%. Many customers abandon their carts last minute because they feel the checkout pages are taking forever to load. So one thing you need to do right away is to optimize your page load times so that your customers can complete the checkout process in their expected timeframes. Here are a few things you can do to optimize your page load times:
Optimize and compress images
Limit the use of ad network trackers
Keep your checkout pages simple
Remove poorly implemented tags 15.ConductAudits The best strategy to reduce abandoned carts is to conduct regular site audits. Regular site audits will help you keep an eye on your site’s overall performance, including your shopping cart abandonment ratio. You can either take help from a professional or conduct a website audit on your own using different tools available online. The key here is to remain consistent and test everything in your store from time to time to pinpoint weaknesses and improve returns.
Final Verdict Reducing abandoned checkouts is critical for the success and growth of your ecommerce store. Especially if your goal is to increase sales, you have to create and implement the right set of strategies to reduce abandoned carts so that you can enjoy more conversions and better ROI