Shopping Cart Abandonment: What You Need to Know
The dreaded shopping cart abandonment: it’s a source of frustration for eCommerce businesses and a huge source of lost revenue. Every online store has experienced it at one point or another, and the numbers don’t lie – an estimated $4.6 trillion worth of goods were abandoned in 2020 according to Baymard Institute.
But why does this happen? How can businesses prevent it, and what can be done to help recover some of those lost sales? Let’s dive into the topic and look at a few possible solutions for reducing shopping cart abandonment rates.
What Causes Shopping Cart Abandonment?
First, let’s examine what causes shoppers to put items in their cart but then leave without purchasing them. Some of the most common reasons shoppers abandon their carts include:
- Unexpected costs like shipping fees or taxes
- Complicated checkout processes that require too many steps or too much information
- Too few payment options available (or none at all!)
- Slow site speed or loading errors that make navigation difficult
- Poor product descriptions or lack of trust signals on the site
- Not being able to find answers to questions quickly on the site prior to purchase
Strategies for Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates
Now that we know some of the main reasons why customers are abandoning their carts, let’s talk about how businesses can reduce these rates. Here are a few strategies worth considering:
Offer Free Shipping
This is one of the most common requests from customers today. Offering free shipping (at least for orders over a certain amount) can be an important factor in getting shoppers to complete their purchase. It may feel scary at first, but it could result in more sales overall.
Streamline Checkout Processes
Simplifying your checkout process is key here. Keep forms short and easy. Only ask for necessary information like address and payment details, rather than lengthy personal histories or other redundant data points. Experiment with different page designs to find which version works best with your target audience. If you’re using Shopify, this can mean trying out different themes.
Give Customers More Payment Options
Offer multiple payment options (credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, etc.) to make it easier for customers to buy from you. Not everyone prefers to use the same type of payment option, so give customers flexibility to choose what works best for them.
Increase Website Speed
Site speed plays an important role in customer satisfaction; if your pages take too long to load, people may get frustrated and leave before they even reach checkout! Optimize images and scripts on your website to improve page speeds significantly. There are many tools available (like Google PageSpeed Insights) that allow you to run tests on your pages and determine where improvements can be made.
Build Trust to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment
Display customer reviews prominently on product pages to help boost confidence that others had good experiences buying from you in the past. Security seals such as SSL certificates also work by reassuring visitors that any personal data they enter into pages will remain secure during transmission over HTTPS connections. You should have a custom domain for your website to show you are serious and professional. Need a custom domain? Click here.
Offer incentives
Give customers incentives, such as discounts or rewards points, as a motivator to make purchases right away instead of abandoning their cart. Different types of promotions should be tested regularly so you can determine which ones give better results with your customers.
Conclusion
Shopping cart abandonment can have devastating effects on an eCommerce business’s bottom line—but there are things you can do to reduce these rates! Try out some of these strategies today and start seeing greater success with your online store tomorrow!
Want to work with me? Check out ECom Academy at https://onlineboutiquecoaching.com/ecom.
Read Why You Need an Ecommerce Business Plan at https://carinahatton.com/2022/12/30/ecommerce-business-plan/
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