An Econsultancy study found that overall online shopping cart abandonment rates are around 76.6%. That’s a huge number, and it translates into a lot of missed revenue opportunities for online companies - $4 trillion a year according to BI Intelligence. What makes this even more unpalatable is that it is thought that as much as 63% of that is recoverable.
Despite a good understanding of the primary causes of cart abandonment, many ecommerce companies are still missing opportunities to prevent it. Here are five ways you can optimize your checkout to avoid some of the most common reasons for cart abandonment.
The most cited reason for shoppers to abandon their online purchase is that the final price ends up being significantly higher than the original advertised price. This can be because of taxes, processing fees or shipping charges. Including these costs in the price you list on your website will significantly reduce hesitation by shoppers when they land on your checkout page.
Many shoppers don’t complete purchases because their favorite form of payment isn’t accepted. To avoid this pitfall, offer a variety of third-party online payment options like PayPal in addition to credit cards.
This is especially important for companies selling to customers overseas and growing globally. Credit cards are not the most popular payment method for many countries, especially those where is it is difficult to obtain one. Additionally, make sure your cart displays prices and accepts payments in local currencies. This will reduce anxiety from shoppers by making it clear what their final cost will be.
According to a Webcredible survey, 10% of respondents abandon their shopping cart because of a lengthy checkout process. It’s understandable you want to know as much about your customers as possible or sign them up for an account. But the longer your checkout is, the more potential sales you’ll lose.
This means that, to optimize your checkout, you need a form that is as short and simple as possible. It also needs to be responsive for mobile shoppers and inline form validation and progress indicators have also been shown to help shoppers complete the process. If you want customers to create a profile, give them the option after and not before.
Online businesses should be constantly building trust through the entire site experience - from branding and intuitive navigation to security logos, a privacy policy and testimonials. Reinforcing this trust at the checkout stage is just as critical. Ensure that your cart design matches the rest of your website and plainly displays the product(s) being purchased, all prices and costs, your privacy policy, any warranties or guarantees you may offer, and security badges.
For customers that don’t complete their purchase, don’t give up. Save their cart for when they return to your site. To get them to revisit your site and their abandoned cart, send an email if you’ve captured their address, or retarget them with ads that reinforce the value of your product or service offers.
When it comes to being successful in the ecommerce business, testing and optimization is key. You can’t always prevent cart abandonment, but you can take steps to make it as easy as possible for users to find what they need and successfully complete a purchase. Removing roadblocks, lowering shopper anxiety and having a convenient and seamless shopping portal will result in more completed checkouts, higher purchase rates and more revenue growth for you.
For more, check out our video on giving your users an excellent checkout experience.
