Table of Contents:
What Is Shopping Cart Abandonment?
Be upfront about shipping costs
Hey there, stranger! Allow guest checkouts
We’re making progress - Use a progress bar
Social media: Your new best friend
This is a guest post by Patrick Foster, an e-commerce entrepreneur & writer at EcommerceTips. Patrick is a freelance writer and contributor to multiple marketing and e-commerce blogs. He is passionate about business, start-ups and all things social. Find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
It’s tough for e-commerce merchants out in the big bad online world. In the increasingly digital age, customers are spoilt for choice and shopping carts are often abandoned if their online shopping experience is not up to scratch. Let’s explore why this happens, what you can do to combat it, and how you can turn those pesky cart abandonments into increased conversions and profit.
What Is Shopping Cart Abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is a term that is widely used in the e-commerce world. It describes when a customer visits an online store, considers purchasing an item, but leaves the page before completing the transaction. The item sits in the shopping cart, abandoned.
In order to maximize your chances of making sales, you need to ensure that your customers can complete their buyer’s journey without a single hitch.
credit: kissmetrics
This graph by Kissmetrics shows us the main reasons why customers decide not to complete their purchase. It reveals that most of the key issues contributing to shopping cart abandonment can be rectified with a little TLC and some tweaks to your e-commerce store’s design.
The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.23%, which is a staggering amount of missed sales. There is a real opportunity here to boost your revenue if you counteract this abandonment. Without further ado, let’s explore how you could fine-tune your store.
Be upfront about shipping costs
These days, online shopping is all about transparency. Picture this: your customer excitedly browses, selects and adds your items to their shopping basket. They fill out their billing and shipping details. But then, suddenly, an additional $20 charge gets slapped on the order. This happens all the time, and it’s no wonder that many customers are put off by it. Chances are, they will purchase the item from another online store for a lower cost.
To avoid nasty surprises for your customers, you should be transparent about your shipping costs when you build your shopping cart. One way of doing this could be by using an online store builder like Shopify, which includes automatically calculated shipping rates from services such FedEx and UPS. This will calculate the rate for your customer at the checkout.
Alternatively, you could offer a ‘Shipping Information’ page on your online store. This is a great idea for international shipping in particular, where more detailed information is required.
credit: macy’s
Macy’s online store is a brilliant example of an International Shipping information page. It includes very simple answers to frequently asked questions on the topic. Dedicating a whole page to this information will reduce the chances of any international customers being put off by hidden shipping fees.
Hey there, stranger! Allow guest checkouts
credit: pixabay
Let’s face it, customers can be lazy these days. Purchases are often made as a spur-of-the-moment decision, and it is easier and faster than ever before to
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