For online businesses with their main goal of selling products, shopping
cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss.
But since recent surveys suggest that less than 50% of retailers know
their shopping cart abandonment rate, let's review what it is and why it
is important to know.
What is "shopping cart abandonment"?
Basically, shopping cart abandonment is when a visitor initiates your
checkout process but leaves before completing their purchase.
Why is it important to know?
Industry publications report a 70% average shopping cart abandonment rate
for the majority of retailers. Since, on average, websites convert
visitors-to-sales at a rate of 1% to 2% then 98% to 99% of the visitors to
your website leave without purchasing!
These percentages identify an enormous improvement opportunity for online
businesses.
A Traditional Retail Example of Shopping Cart Abandonment.
Let me illustrate shopping cart abandonment using a traditional department
store.
Imagine walking into your local department store to pick up a gift for a
friend's wedding.
You find the three items you want but together the price exceeds your
budget so you drop one of them and head with just two to the checkout
counter.
When you get close to the checkout counter, you grow frustrated with the
long lines ahead. After a ten minute wait in line, the cashier asks you to
complete a membership form before they will compete your purchase.
The membership form requires your driver's license information so you pull
out your wallet while people behind you start huffing impatiently.
As you register, you mind lingers about whether two items is just too much
for your friend's wedding gift. "I mean they only gave us one item for our
wedding" you think. So you ask the cashier to remove one of the items.
While ringing up your one item, the credit card reader fails. After the
fourth swap by the cashier, you panic wandering if your card has just been
charged four times.
At this point you give up and leave the store empty handed. While storming
out you wander if the department store up the street will make your
purchase any easier.
Know These Top Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment
This example is filled with some of the top reasons why visitors to your
website may abandon their shopping carts. A recent study by Vividence
Corporation, a Customer Experience Management company, reported the most
significant reasons for Internet shopping cart abandonment are:
? High shipping prices or long delivery times
? Comparison shopping and browsing
? Changed Mind
? Total cost of items is too high
? Checkout process is too long
? Checkout requires too much personal information
? Site requires registration before purchase
? Site is unstable or unreliable
? Checkout process is confusing
Seven Shopping Cart Abandonment Solutions for Your Online Business
Although some of these reasons may be outside your control such as a
visitor changing their minds, the majority is manageable and can be
reduced by incorporating seven improvements into your current shopping
cart process.
1. Remove Member Registration until AFTER the sale is completed.
Many checkout processes require a visitor to register as a new member
before they begin the actual checkout process. A principle of selling is
to never stall a visitor from buying once they make the decision to do so.
Instead support their decision by clearly and conveniently leading them
through your checkout process.
After the sale is complete then offer your customer the opportunity to
register. Since you have their personal information from the purchase, you
can pre-fill the information (or request less of it). This enhancement
removes the visitor's buying barriers and enables them to perceive the
registration as a value-added customer benefit.
2. Show shipping costs and other costs (i.e. applicable taxes)
Show the visitor all costs associated with their product purchase either
in the first step of the checkout process or even in the product
description. If you offer multiple shipping methods then default the
shipping cost to the most popular one. If you apply taxes for certain
States then communicate this early in the checkout process. Sometimes,
retailers it is relevant for their market to ask a visitor for their zip
code which can be used for calculating tax.
3. Build Confidence and Trust Throughout the Checkout Process
Place your guarantee, return, privacy, delivery, customer service and
security policies in visible and relevant areas throughout the entire
checkout process. Adding the policies at the very bottom of the web page
is not effective since you are causing your visitor to search for it. Add
the individual policies next to the information field or line item where
it is most relevant to the visitor.
For example, add the privacy policy next to the email address field in the
checkout process and add the delivery and return policy next to the
shipping cost line item. In addition, add your security policy next to the
"checkout" button.
Also, add your physical address and other contact information at the
bottom of every web page. Usability studies suggest adding an "About Us"
and "Contact Us" links to your navigational structure to build confidence
and trust as well.
4. Add a progress indicator on each checkout page
Is it important to let visitors know how many steps are in your checkout
process and to show progress as thy work through it. A progress indicator
is commonly located at the top of the checkout pages and is clearly
numbered with the current step highlighted.
Make sure that you provide visitors the opportunity to review what they
did in previous steps without erasing the information they had already
entered.
If a visitor enters information incorrectly or forgets a required field,
have your checkout process remember their correct information and identify
the missing information clearly. Do not make people repeat an entire step
because of a missing field.
Surprisingly, the number of steps in your checkout process may not have a
significant effect on your visitors' commitment to purchase. Although for
many businesses, a two to three step checkout process is ideal.
5. Provide purchase options
Offer your visitors the opportunity to call a 1-800 number for customer
support or online chat like LivePersonTM (www.liveperson.com) during your
checkout process.
Visitors may be uncomfortable with completing a purchase online or become
confused during checkout so clearly present your 1-800 number and/or
online chat support link on every page within your checkout process.
6. Clearly identify what your visitor should click nest to complete the
step
Clearly indicate the "continue checkout" button. Make it obvious where the
visitor should click to move forward in the checkout process and keep it
consistent for every step.
7. Use a readable and clear font size and color
The font size and color of your copy may influence your visitor's desire
to complete their purchase. If your font size is too small or the color is
too difficult to read forcing a visitor to strain then the potential for
abandonment will increase. This is especially serious for online
businesses marketing to older populations.
Get to know your shopping cart abandonment rate and start implementing the
above improvements. Most importantly, test different strategies and track
which ones produce the greatest increases to your sales conversion rate.
Kevin Gold is a Partner and Co-founder of Enhanced Concepts, Inc., which
specializes in turning website visitors into leads or sales through tested
website conversion strategies and performance-focused search engine
marketing. To learn how to generate greater performance from your search
engine marketing and to turn more website visitors into leads and sales go
to http://www.enhancedconcepts.com
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