It can be frustrating for online retailers when a customer abandons their shopping carts before the checkout process. Most online businesses that sell anything use e-commerce platforms and landing pages to sell their products and services. The downside for e-commerce merchants is shopping cart abandonment. This occurs when a customer leaves the checkout process without making a purchase.
This is similar to when a customer walks into a brick-and-mortar store, is about to purchase an item, and leaves the store to do something else. E-commerce merchants are always looking for ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment. This problem proves that your customers aren’t happy with the features of your e-commerce site or mobile app.
When comparing Big Commerce Enterprise vs Shopify Plus, you’ll notice both have added new features and services to attract their customers. If you want to reduce shopping cart abandonment, then the following eight strategies should help.
Create a Mobile App
More people than ever are choosing to shop from their mobile phones. Consumers interact with 10 different apps on their mobile devices on a regular basis. Due to the rise of e-commerce, consumers prefer to shop on mobile apps due to the increasing complexity of websites. Your e-commerce mobile app should be user-friendly and easy to access.
Your app should have contents organized into different categories, the app should quick to load, and the categories and interface should look pleasing to your customers. The e-commerce platform that you choose can help you create an app for your e-commerce store.
Keep Your Cart Visible
Your shopping carts should not be inaccessible from your customer, whether they’re shopping from your e-commerce site or mobile app. Customers need to be aware of the items they added to their shopping carts including the costs. Many of the major retailers do a great job at including this information. The shopping cart is often seen in the top right-hand corner with the number of items in it.
Visible carts and transparent prices keep all of your customers informed until orders are placed. This helps them determine if they added enough items for free shipping and if they should continue the checkout process. Increasing shopping cart visibility reduces shopping cart abandonment since customers don’t have to consistently go back to their shopping cart. The information is right in front of them.
Indicate Shopping Progress
Those new to online shopping may feel overwhelmed and lost at first. It’s important to include a shopping indicator that guides customers through the buying journey until checkout. The customer can see how close they are to checkout so they don’t quit in the middle of the process.
The checkout process is made simple when you break it down into easy to understand steps. Shipping costs and the customer’s details can be included in the billing and shipping details. The basis behind this progress report is to give your customers a better idea of the finalized steps and actions to complete the checkout process.
Allow Guest Checkout
Most online retailers run digital campaigns to help increase sales. Most of this data is taken from customer behaviors and shopping habits, so registration is often required before the checkout process. This is one of the biggest factors of shopping cart abandonment. To resolve this problem, don’t make registration mandatory.
Instead, allow guest checkout. This allows customers to make a purchase without making a commitment to your website. If you require customers to register for an account, ask for it after checkout. Customers should be allowed to shop online and process their orders without making an account on the website. Or, they may just give up when you ask them to give personal information and create a password before they purchase anything.
Offer a Money-Back Guarantee
Most customers are afraid to shop online due to the fact that the products could be different from what they anticipated. There’s also the concern that the product could have a defect or be low quality. The best way to regain trust is to offer a money-back guarantee. Customers love to have the option to return items they weren’t happy with and receiving a refund or using store credit to purchase another product. A money-back guarantee is an ideal way to get customers to make a purchase.
Use a Secure Payment Gateway
Many customers are uncertain about making an online purchase in fear that their financial information could get stolen. They’re often reluctant to create an account and enter their credit card information. These concerns have made many customers shy away from making online purchases. Use trusted and secure payment gateways that don’t give access to customers’ details.
Collaborate with reputable payment gateways that process cross order transactions. Online retailers should not stick to just one payment gateway. Don’t forget to include verifications such as Verisign. Payment gateways vary upon customer preference and include payment options that suit your target audience.
Enable Shopping Cart Saving
Customers don’t want to spend their time surfing multiple shopping websites no matter what other people may tell you. Most customers will abandon their carts to see the latest social media post or new movie trailer. When they return to your website, they’ll get frustrated which prevents them from making an online purchase. One resolution is to allow them to save their shopping cart items.
Some customers browse the Internet, looking for the best deals and search between multiple websites to find the lowest prices. Allowing them to save their shopping carts and search histories allows them to go back and forth before making a purchasing decision. This option should only be available to registered users, but it can also include guests. Since guests don’t have an account, use cookies to allow access to their browsing history.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Customers usually abandon their orders since there’s no other competition on the Internet. You can create a sense of urgency to reduce the risk of shopping cart abandonment. Limiting the quantity on a product can increase the chances of getting a sale since the customer is scared that the item will run out if they don’t purchase it now.
Customers will abandon their orders for a multitude of reasons. Improve the shopping experience by incorporating each of these features is crucial to increasing sales. The checkout process is the sole component of every e-commerce store, so you want to make sure yours provides a positive shopping experience so it’ll prompt them to click the order button.
