Selling online involves a high volume of uncertainty about the ultimate success of the sale. More than 70% of all online shoppers do not complete their purchase resulting in shopping cart abandonment. This translates to nearly 60% of all items being removed from the shopping cart before they reach the checkout pages.
At a brick-and-mortar retail store, would you remove most of your products from your shopping cart at the checkout counter? Surely, the retail store would be completely dismayed with this sort of consumer behavior. One of the key reasons of dismal sales on many of the ecommerce sites is due to shopping cart abandonment. The main reasons why shopping cart abandonment happens are mentioned below:
- High shipping charges
- Slow and lengthy payment process
- Unavailability of preferred payment options
- Security concerns
- Lack of customer support
- Customers prefer to buy offline and are just checking the prices online
To avoid shopping cart abandonment due to the reasons mentioned above, ensure that you implement the following points:
Be honest about the overall costs and pricing
More than 45% of shoppers abandon their shopping cart because they discover that the shipping charges are too high. When the online business is already hypercompetitive, there is no sense in inflating the shipping charges for an additional profit. Big players in the market also offer competitive shipping process, so there is no meaning behind overstating your shipping charges.
Make sure that the customers are expected to pay only that price which is mentioned besides the ‘add to cart’ or the ‘buy’ button. If customers need to pay for shipping, then mention it clearly alongside the actual price of the product. Another reason why transactions fail is because customers discover they have to pay ‘handling charges’. Hidden charges such as these also are big reason why shopping cart abandonment takes place. Therefore make sure that customers do not have to face any surprises when they make the final decision to purchase the product
Make sure you don’t ask for more information than needed
To complete a transaction, you just need the name, delivery address and authorization for payment by credit card. So you do not need to ask for further information than this. Some merchants also request information such as date of birth or email details of your friends. This information is not required as customers may be reluctant to provide such information.
Present a wide range of payment options
If customers discover that their preferred payment option is not present, then they will abandon the shopping cart and leave. Therefore, offer a wide range of payment options, so that they feel comfortable making the payment. Additionally, promote your payment options throughout your site including the home page and landing pages so that customers are aware of right from the beginning about the payment options available.
The same applies to the website security option that you have selected. Transactions need to be safe and secure to avoid any hassles later on. Therefore choose a couple of secure transaction methods and highlight them prominently on your site. Therefore if you have signed up with security companies like VeriSign or Entrust, display their logos or seals very prominently on your site to assure your customers that you have the right security measures in place.
Provide comparative pricing on your website
To avoid the situation wherein shoppers come to your site only to check the prices, provide a system of price comparisons on your website. This system will provide comparative prices showing your prices vis-à-vis the competitor’s prices, so customers will be encouraged to make a quick decision to make a purchase.
Follow up with customers who have abandoned the shopping process
In case a customer has abandoned the shopping cart, initialize a system to follow up with the customer. In many cases, the shopper has abandoned the shopping cart only to come back later. In some cases, they are simply awaiting for their paychecks before they can proceed with the purchase.
To conclude, reducing shopping cart abandonment is a vital aspect of shopping cart development. Companies spend many hours studying consumer behavior and implement what they have learnt to develop the most efficient shopping carts for online business.
