How to reduce shopping cart abandonment

Depending on the type of business, roughly 80% of online shopping cart orders end up abandoned. Visitors place items in their carts, browse a bit more, and then leave without completing the purchase. And this is equally affecting small businesses, startups, and large businesses as well. When you look at the longer period of time, this is a significant problem. However, even though it’s looking bad, it’s not impossible to change it and ConvertMore offers not only callback software that can help there but also other tips through this article. There are many ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment by taking a slightly different approach to your online retail process. And it’s quite effecting since even the smallest percentual change can mean a huge difference in revenues.

Strategies to reduce shopping cart abandonment

The shopping cart abandonment rate is one of the most concerning problems when you want to increase your conversion rate. In general, these rates on your eCommerce website will depend on numerous factors. We already mentioned the type of business. But, it can also depend on the type of product or service, and the targeted audience. Even with the carefully planned strategy, you will still get a high percentage of abandonments. The way to change it is to modify the shopping experience to further motivate your visitors to complete their orders. If you want to better understand how to make improvements, here are several methods you can use to decrease general shopping cart abandonment rates:

• Enhance your website performance
• Establish trust through data protection
• Make browsing and shopping easy to navigate
• Use progress indicators on your checkout pages
• Provide different payment options
• Make it easy to compare products
• Allow checkout without registration
• Provide your buyers with quality support

Enhance your website performance

This is one of the first and most essential factors people see when they visit a website. If your website is taking too much time to display its pages, people will quickly lose patience and leave. Imagine what impression will they have about the ordering procedure if a simple page fails to load fast. Today, visitors don’t want to waste time on underperforming websites. In general, this is one of the reasons why they might go directly to your competitors. However, if you provide them with fast experience, you will increase the chance of order completion by making them more satisfied.

Establish trust through data protection

Leaving personal information on unreliable websites is a serious concern among potential customers. Most of them would not even browse through the products if they feel their privacy is compromised. That’s why you need to reassure them of any doubts and prove you are to be trusted. To make them more certain about leaving their credit card numbers and other information, increase their confidence with security and safety compliances. They come in the shape of badges, seals, and similar identifications, and are easy to implement on your website.

You can also complement this step with social proof. Allow buyers to leave reviews and rate your service and products so that others can see. Business owners often underestimate this part, but people are more prone to complete the purchase when they see that others doing the same without problems.

Make browsing and shopping easy to navigate

Many potential and existing customers like to continue browsing once they add an item to the cart. Whether the reason for this is to compare or to search for another product, you have to make this process effortless. The fewer steps you have in between, the higher is the chance they won’t abandon the cart. Allow them to quickly add and remove items, and save their cart for a better user experience. Even if they don’t buy immediately, this type of engagement may ensure they come back later to complete the transaction.

Use progress indicators on your checkout pages

Another interesting factor that may influence abandonment is the fact that people want to know where they are in the process. If they are starting to input the information, have them clearly understand how many steps it will take. The faster they can go through the steps the more chance is that they will complete the purchase.

Provide different payment options

For many people that want to shop online, the lack of payment options can limit their buying potential. But, if you provide them with enough payment methods, you are increasing the chance they will buy in the first place. It’s important for them to have the possibility to choose from the most popular ways to pay. This also includes the entire philosophy about how to process the shipping. The more options they have, the greater is the chance they will choose to buy from you.

Also, one of the greatest reasons why people abandon their shopping carts is unclear costs. If they take the effort to choose the product, only to find there are additional costs at the last step, they will leave never to come back. To reduce shopping cart abandonment, always ensure the costs are transparent from the start.

Make it easy to compare products

As we mention above, people often want to compare similar products when shopping. You can make this more appealing if you include a product comparison on your website. While doing it, ensure there is enough useful information about products, followed by quality images. Maybe visitors are not sure about what they are looking for, so they need several items side by side. By making this possible, you are increasing the chance they will finally pick one of your products and complete the purchase.

Allow checkout without registration

While user registration may benefit you in several ways, limiting shopping only on registered members is wrong. If you do this, you are automatically excluding the significant number of guest shoppers from your buyers’ pool. Some people simply don’t want to bother with this and are only interested to place their order. Chances are, they know exactly what they need, and they won’t abandon their shopping cart. Obviously, you don’t want to lose this type of buyer so it’s necessary to provide means to place an order without registration.

Provide your buyers with quality support

You can reduce the abandonment rates if you provide potential buyers with proper support. While shopping, people might often want to ask questions about products, to reassure themselves of any doubts. If they don’t have the means to have their questions answered, they may abandon the shopping cart. If they are insecure, they definitely will. But, if you are there to answer all their questions, you may ensure a new buyer.

One of the ways to do this is to implement a call system or chat customer support. Including chat options on their checkout windows. Meanwhile, make sure to have them understand you have a firm refund and return policy. Since they don’t get to see the products in person, they want to be sure there is a possibility to send an item back in case it’s not suitable.

In the end, the entire point is to motivate your potential customers to complete the purchase. Buy only if you provide visitors with quality service, support, and transparency, you will reduce shopping cart abandonment. Even if the abandonment rates are high at the moment, you can use it as an opportunity to explore additional options to increase the profit in the future.