When running a sales-driven business, every transaction counts. For retail stores, seeing customers leave without making a purchase was the last thing they wanted. For those that own an e-commerce website, it’s cart abandonment that is of the greatest concern.
What exactly is cart abonnement, why does it matter, and how can you solve it? We’ll explore all of this and more in this guide, so keep reading to find out.
Cart abandonment is when a customer doesn’t complete the purchase of an item they’ve added to a cart. In other words, they’ve decided to add something to the cart but changed their mind before making a payment.
Cart abandonment, in short, means a loss of sales. As an e-commerce site, you live and die by your conversions. A drop in revenue is never good for any business, so looking for ways to reduce your cart abandonment rates is essential. It’s hard to know why each customer does this, however, so there isn’t one magical solution that will remove this problem entirely.
Some people will check their bank balance and think better of a purchase, others get distracted, and others could abandon their cart for any other reason. The trick is to take as many steps as possible to reduce the number of people that aren’t converting. Here are some strategies that you can try.
Even though postage costs have been around for a while, no one likes to see a surprise shipping charge appear at checkout. Shipping costs are one of the most common reasons why a customer will abandon a purchase.
Think about it, when buying an item, you make peace with the money that you’re about to spend. Then, another charge appears, and you’re forced to reconsider the purchase. This is where free postage can help.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to offer free shipping to every customer as this can eat into your revenue. Instead, you can use it as an opportunity to upsell. For example, you can offer free shipping with a minimum spend. Then, you can use this to prompt customers to add another item to their cart to save on shipping.
Cyber attacks are a very real threat in today’s digital world. Online shoppers are wary of falling into traps and using their card information on websites – especially when making a purchase. If you don’t offer a secure checkout for your customers, you’ll see more people abandoning carts instead of completing a purchase.
If you haven’t done so already, ensure that your checkout is secure. This will help you to reduce the number of people that aren’t completing purchases.
Have you ever taken a second to think about how many accounts you have with various brands and businesses? We’re willing to bet it’s a lot. Now, with that in mind, put yourself in the shoes of customers. Would you really want to create an account with yet another business for a one-off purchase? There are plenty of people out there who would prefer not to make an account to make a purchase, so you need to keep this in mind. Although having people make accounts may be helpful for you, it could be putting off potential new customers.
Offering a guest check-out option can help to solve this problem. It allows new customers or those making a one-off purchase to make their way through your checkout process quickly.
If you’ve implemented the above strategies already and are still seeing cart abandonments, don’t worry. Just because a customer may have left once, this doesn’t mean they’re gone forever. Retargeting through mobile ads and emails can help to bring these potential customers back.
One example of this strategy is sending an email to your customers. Something personal along the lines of “Did you forget to check out?” or “We see you scrolling, here’s a one-off code” can help to encourage customers to come back and complete their purchase.
Another strategy is to use targeted ads with these items that the customer had in their cart – especially if that item goes on sale.
Do you offer flexible payments at checkout? If not, some customers may not make a purchase. There are plenty of flexible payment providers out there that offer payment plans broken into smaller chunks over time. Offering these at checkout can help to increase your sales.
Knowing the returns policy of a business is a big factor in the buying process. If something is the wrong size or not right, customers today expect to be able to return an item with ease. Make sure that your returns policy is clear and easily found. A good place to have it is at checkout so customers can read it if they wish before making a purchase.
Showcasing your reviews at checkout, along with your product page, can help to give confidence in the purchases that they make.
Another tip is to create a sense of urgency. There are simple ways to do this, like having prompts that they things like “selling fast”, “100 other people bought this in the last 24 hours” or “only 10 left”. First, don’t be dishonest with these or you can get into a lot of trouble. Second, use them to create a buy now or miss out feeling that will help you to encourage more sales.
By employing the strategies that we’ve outlined in this piece, you’ll be able to better manage your cart abandonment rates. If you’re looking for support with development, Zudu has you covered. Get in touch to find out more.
