Not only is getting attention for your product a huge challenge, maximizing conversions is vital for your ecommerce success. Unfortunately, many shoppers still make it to the checkout page only to bounce just before hitting the purchase button. According to Baymard, the average cart abandonment rate for many ecommerce stores hovers around 69%. But it doesn’t have to be that way!
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We know a lot about what causes last minute hesitation and what causes people to bounce before hitting the final checkout button. As the final step in the ecommerce sales funnel, your shopping cart can often either make or break the sale. While there is no secret formula that will work for every business and customer segment, most high-converting cart pages have a few things in common:
Most important, your cart page needs to have a clean, uncluttered design. This means including as few fields as possible to make it as easy as possible to pay. Items added to the cart should be clearly displayed with product descriptors and the final price (including shipping if applicable).
Though it’s tempting to get more information from shoppers so you can engage and/or retarget them, do not require them to create a profile to check out. Instead, offer that option after they have made their purchase. Another way to help shoppers along towards the purchase button is in-line validation and providing a progress bar so customers know where they are in the checkout process and can anticipate how much more time it will take.
To reach customers overseas, your cart needs to speak their language. Making sure your checkout instructions are localized, meaning that they are displayed in the prospect's native language, will reduce anxiety and frustration. The more languages you can display your cart in, the more customers you can effectively convert around the world.
Similarly, your cart also needs to display a price in their local currency and have the most widely used payment options available. It’s important to note that this means you need more than just credit cards accepted in your cart. Be fully prepared to process payments on a global scale.
People are no longer just buying on their desktop. Purchases made on mobile devices continue to increase so you have to make sure your cart is easy to use no matter what device your shoppers are using.
As the last step in the purchase journey, any remaining anxiety or hesitation about the purchase needs to be overcome. Security and privacy seals have been shown to help increase confidence with customers and improve cart conversion rates. But only 65% show these seals at some point in the checkout process. Other ways to enhance social proof and assure shoppers that they are making a good purchase include displaying customer ratings, testimonials and return options if they are not satisfied.
Even if a customer doesn’t purchase at first, they may reevaluate later. Make it easy for them by saving their cart information for when they return to your ecommerce store. If you have their email, you can also send their abandoned order to them to entice them to finish their purchase.
When it comes to encouraging conversions on your ecommerce site in 2017 and beyond, streamlined is in. Focus is on user experience and continue to keep up with tools and features that can remove barriers to purchase and boost your cart conversion rate. With fierce competition, it's more critical than ever for ecommerce companies to master the checkout experience.
To find out how Origins Ecommerce can help you grow and optimize your revenue, contact us today and we’ll get right back to you.
