Cart abandonment happens all the time in the world of eCommerce. Users visit your site, start shopping and then close the tab before checkout. Shopping cart abandonment is one of the most crucial problems for online business to overcome. The average rate at which the average consumer abandons their cart before making a purchase is 81%.
Unfortunately, it’s also impossible to mitigate against entirely-some people will just inevitably abandon their carts before finishing their purchase. That said, it is not impossible to improve your eCommerce experience to reduce shopping cart abandonment.
How to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment
Build Trust in Your Transaction Forms
To offset hesitation of handing over money online, use your transaction forms to establish trust. Include trust badges and seals, usually available through your credit card processor, on checkout forms in a prominent position. Ensure that your checkout forms look professional, that there are no spelling errors or other mistakes on forms.
Include Images of Products Throughout the Purchasing Phase
Most people aren’t going to forget what is in their shopping cart, however including images of the products they have placed in their cart can be a “grounding” technique that reassures the customer of what they are buying. It eliminates the possibility of distracting and hesitation when buying.
Ensure that Navigation to Cart is Seamless
Consumers rarely decide on a purchase, select it and check out in a single streamlined experience. You want to make it easy to move between cart and store to reduce any friction during checkout. If you force your visitor to click “back” or commit any other crimes against web navigation, you need to re-think the navigational flow.
Offer Multiple Payment Options
Credit card options are a no-brainer, but today, consumers have more choices than ever before of how to pay for good online. PayPal is still going strong, and mobile payment systems such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet are becoming increasingly popular.
Include a Strong Call to Action on Checkout Pages
You absolutely must have a strong, clear call to action that strengthen the resolve of a prospect to complete their purchase. While it’s important to include strong CTAs on your checkout pages, it’s equally important to ensure that the messaging of these CTAs is consistent with others across your site and marketing materials.
Make Saving Carts Effortless
Consumers expect to take advantage of the benefits of shopping online, including the ability to return to an ongoing order – sometimes repeatedly. To improve your conversion rates, make it effortless for users to return to carts-in-progress. Saving a shopping cart should be as easy as clicking a single button.
Offer Guest Checkout Options
Failing to offer a guest checkout option is one of the leading causes of shopping cart abandonment. Approximately 14% of online shoppers indicated that forcing them to log in to complete a purchase was enough reason for them to abandon the process – a more serious obstacle than asking for too much information and an overly complex checkout experience.
Be Clear About Shipping Costs
There are few things more frustrating about shopping online than expecting to pay one price, only to discover you’re being stung with a whole mess of hidden costs, fees, and surcharges – and one of the worst costs to discover after you’ve begun the checkout process is outrageous shipping charges.
Utilize Google Analytics
You can use tools in Google Analytics to examine your conversion pathways to identify the “leakiest” parts of your process. Are your conversion rates being affected by traffic from foreign countries dropping off due to your shipping options? Is there a bottleneck you weren’t aware of in some of your product pages? Is your site navigation more confusing to visitors than you thought? These are all questions that can help you refine your eCommerce experience.
