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What is cart abandonment, and how can I prevent it?

Whether you knew it or not, you will have had a part to play in the mass statistics surrounding cart abandonment. Think back to a time you were online shopping, had a basket full of goodies and at the checkout you’ve had a moment of realisation that you don’t actually need these items, or maybe you’re just an online window shopper like me. It’s something we’ve all done, but not a lot of consumers know that by starting the checkout process, their information has already been sent to the store owners in the form of a missing order, otherwise known as Cart Abandonment.

​Where Does the Issue Stem From and What Can Be Done?

Issue: Spoilt For Shipping Options

In 2019, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to online shopping. It’s the norm now for big brands to offer next day or even same day delivery for free, so customers are starting to expect it across the board. If you can get the same item delivered within a few hours from one store, why would you wait 3 - 5 working days for delivery from another?

Solution: Be Flexible & Smart

There are more than enough options you are able to offer as a business when it comes to getting your product to the customer. Take into consideration every possible situation that a consumer might face when selecting their preferred options for shipping and payment. This way you’ll increase your availability and so all clients are accounted for.

  • Offer a range of shipping options, you’ll be surprised how many customers are selecting next day delivery as opposed to standard shipping, especially when 72% of UK consumers shop more if same-day delivery is possible.
  • Offer click and collect if possible. It's possible to take orders online and allow the customer to collect from your store, or in the UK, you can send the parcels to click and collect locations closer to the clients location so they can collect at their own convenience. Collectplus is a great option for businesses of all sizes.

Issue: Hidden Costs

Now that customers are more aware of the competition, they’re becoming less loyal to those who add costs in at the last minute - recent research has shown that a staggering 61% of consumers desert their online purchase when faced with extra, unexpected costs at the checkout.

Solution: Be Upfront

  • Allow customers to view the postage costs in the cart, rather than the checkout.
  • Have an “estimate shipping costs” feature on your website
  • Offer free delivery for orders over a certain amount, which can be displayed as a banner on your website. It's important to know that this will act as an incentive to buy as from the offset the customer knows there are no hidden fees, you will also build trust withe the customer.

Issue: Pricing Competition

25% of shoppers stated that the price of the products they’re shopping for is excessive, so they couldn’t justify spending their money. This is one of the biggest downfalls of online shopping, as looking around elsewhere is as easy as a few clicks of the mouse to find the best deal.

Solution: Give Them A Reason To Stay

You’re an independent business, you’ve poured your heart and soul into making your dreams a reality, so show your customers what makes you stand out from the crowd. With the recent “Shopping Local” trend taking over the high streets, give your customers a reason to support you.

  • Give them an insight into your process
  • Provide value to the customers before and after they make a purchase, as this will give them more incentive to make a payment. This could be done in the form of a free gift, which is another incentive for a customer to buy - who doesn't love a freebie?

Issue: Websites not responsive

In this day and age where 79% of people shop online on their mobile devices, if your website isn’t responsive you’ve lost a potential 75% of your customer base. With Google’s recent penalties being applied to non responsive websites, which is basically going to lower your site in the rankings if it's not compatible with mobile devices, it’s more important than ever to ensure that customers on the go can shop your website with ease by making it responsive.

Solution: Time for testing

  • All the interactive buttons on the website should be appropriately sized.
  • Pages should be mobile friendly so users don't have to pinch or zoom in order to read the content.
  • Content should be very easy to read, and organised in a suitable manor.

If you have any queries regarding if your website is mobile friendly or not, you can run a quick test using the Google mobile friendly test.

Issue: Concerns & Suspicions

With the public becoming more aware about digital security, hackers and fraud, customers are now increasingly concerned about how secure an online store actually is. If a customer has any doubts over whether their personal and sensitive data is being stored safely, they'll likely leave the website without making a purchase.

Solution: Show Your Creds

Thankfully, there are a million and one ways you can show customers that you’re a store worth trusting:

  • Work on keeping your social media active to let customers know you’re present and attentive.
  • Improve your product photography to give customers a better look at your products. Read our blog on how to improve your product photography and create a more trusted brand image.
  • Get an SSL certificate installed on your website to ensure that your customers' data is fully protected.
  • Display accepted payment logos in your website footer to show your customers that you work with highly trusted, recognisable companies.

Issue: Slow Checkout Processes

Imagine you’re a customer at a shop on the high street. You’ve got a basket full of goodies and you’re heading to the checkout to make your new purchases official, but you’re met with an enormous queue. There are two types of people in the world, those who hate queuing, and those who hate queuing but grin and bear it. Just like that you’ve lost 26% of customers on your site due to your long winded checkout process.

Solution: Cut the Queue

  • Make your checkout a quick and simple process by reducing the number of steps. Look at your checkout through the eyes of your customer and see which steps aren't vital - do you really need your customer's phone number? Often steps can be combined too, for example combining billing and shipping addresses and giving customers the option to use a single address for both.
  • Another great option is allowing customers to checkout with trusted payment gateways such as PayPal or Amazon, if they already have an account with these companies it’ll make checking out a breeze.

Issue: Forced Customer Accounts

35% of customers discard their online shopping carts if they’re forced to create an account in order to proceed with their purchase. That’s a hefty percentage of customers to be turned away from your site simply because they don’t want to have to go through the efforts of lengthy form filling.

Solution: Free Your Customers

  • Offering customers the choice to be able to checkout as a guest is a quick change to ensure that they’re able to proceed with purchasing products from you at their own terms.

Cart abandonment isn't something we can abolish completely, it's always going to be around, but there's a bunch of ways you can reduce the percentage of carts abandoned simply by following the steps above.

Read more:

https://ecommercenews.eu/72-uk-consumers-shop-day-delivery-possible/

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