Tips to Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment

Don’t let your customers leave! An average of 69% of shoppers abandon their carts. Shopping Cart Abandonment costs online retailers an estimated $260 billion in lost revenue. It’s a problem that plagues Ecommerce websites large and small, but there are ways to drive more customers to complete their purchase. In order to combat the problem, it’s important to understand the reasons why customers are abandoning their shopping cart.

Top 10 reasons for abandonment during checkout

Looking at these reasons customers don’t complete their purchase gives can help us understand how to create a complete shopping and checkout experience that customers will find simple, safe and easy to use. This will drives sales and increase customer satisfaction.

1. Unexpected shipping cost

Extra costs are the main reason potential customers are leaving without completing their purchase. Unexpected shipping costs are the primary reason customers are driven away. This surprise during checkout causes annoyance and irritation for customers.

SOLUTION: BE TRANSPARENT ABOUT SHIPPING COSTS
Let your customers know what the shipping costs are from the outset. Transparency of costs establishes trust and credibility with customers. Free shipping is always prefered by customers. Many retailers chose to bundle the extra cost of shipping into the product and offer “free” shipping to the customer. CPC strategy found that free shipping is critical for 73% of customers to make a purchase and encourages 93% of shoppers to buy more online. If you do offer free shipping, make sure to promote it across your website so customers are aware.

2. Having to create a new account

The checkout process needs to be simple and quick. Being required to create a new account can be a huge barrier for the checkout process. Approximately 14% of online shoppers indicated that forcing them to log in to complete a purchase was sufficient reason for them to abandon their cart.

SOLUTION: OFFER GUEST CHECKOUT
While requiring customers to create an account can be an opportunity to collect data about customers, you will make things significantly easier for your customers to complete their purchase. Those customers that have no issue creating an account will certainly do so, however those that would normally abandon cart, will simply complete checkout process as a guest. Both Shopify and WooCommerce offer this option and it’s as simple as checking a box.

3. Complicated and long checkout

Unnecessary forms to fill out, too many screens, or confusion on how much they have to fill out can all lead to an abandoned cart. A complicated or long checkout is the reason 28% of customers cited they didn’t complete their purchase.

SOLUTION: STREAMLINE CHECKOUT
Minimize form elements, asking for only the essential information. Reduce the number of screens in the checkout process and make sure to include a status bar to customers know where they are at in the process.

4. Researching to buy later

Sometimes customers are just browsing. 75% of people who abandon their carts usually plan to come back. Often they are shopping around or still deciding what they specifically want. Sometimes something just came up.

SOLUTIONS: ABANDONED CART EMAILS
Sending an abandoned cart email to jog their memory can convert a great deal of abandoned carts to sales. Salesforce data show that 60% of shoppers returned to make a purchase within 24 hours of receiving personalized emails after abandoning their shopping carts. This is simple to do through automation, making converting these abandoned carts to sales effortless.

5. Concerns about payment security

Handing over personal and payment information online can cause fear for many customers. Design flaws, outdated layouts, missing images, and no SSL certificate can all lead to distrust for customers.

SOLUTION: ESTABLISH TRUST WITH CHECKOUT SYSTEM
Include trust signals such as security logos in a obvious position when it comes time to enter payment information. Use a secure checkout system that utilizes up to date design such as Shopify, WooCommerce or Magento.

6. Couldn’t find a promo code

Customers want to feel like they are getting a deal. According to Statista, 8% of customers cited being unable to find a coupon code as the primary reason for abandoning their cart.

SOLUTION: AUTO APPLY COUPONS OR HIDE THE PROMO FIELD
Most carts have the ability to pass through parameters through the URL, and can be applied via emails or pop-ups. If you’ve sent an abandoned cart email, you can include a promo code to entice the customer to complete the purchase.

7. No express shipping option

Shipping is important to online shoppers. Cost is a huge factor, but the speed in which it can arrive at their door is also important. If there isn’t an option to get an item in time, customers will abandon their carts.

SOLUTION: CHARGE MORE FOR EXPRESS SHIPPING
If a customer needs an item soon, they will pay extra for it. Allowing this option may create extra work, but it will be a sale you would have missed.

8. Website errors or crashes

Besides interrupting the checkout process, errors or crashes on the website will lose the customers trust. Website errors, crashes, and load times are major deterrents to completing purchase.

SOLUTION: PERFORM REGULAR CHECKS AND KEEP THINGS UP TO DATE
Keeping your website up to date will increase security and help eliminate potential errors. You can check website speed through a number of free services, such as Google Pagespeed Insights.  If your website runs smoothly, customers can checkout with ease.

9. Return policy wasn’t satisfactory

Almost 66% of shoppers say that they would buy more if a better return policy was available. Shopping online means customers do not have the chance to see what they are purchasing in person. Therefore they can be concerned that what they are about to purchase may need to be returned. If the return policy costs too much or has too much of a restriction on time, they could simply forgo the transaction all together.

SOLUTION: FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER’S NEEDS
Try testing out a more generous return policy and see how it affects your sales. Or perhaps you already offer a great return policy, then you need to make sure customers are able to see it. Don’t hide in the terms and conditions, put it right in your checkout process to offset any hesitation.

10. Credit card was declined

If a customer’s card is declined, it may be that there’s nothing you can do. However if there are limited payment options for a customer to use, it might just be the didn’t have the right kind of card.

SOLUTION: OFFER MULTIPLE PAYMENT OPTIONS
Offering multiple payment options minimizes a potential barrier for a customer to abandon their cart and take their business elsewhere. Including multiple credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Wallet can all help to drive sales.

These best practices can significantly reduce the number of abandoned carts and maximize your revenue.  Contact us to see how we can help recover sales on your Ecommerce website – everything from setting up successful cart abandonment emails to streamlining the checkout process!