10 best ways to decrease eCommerce cart abandonment and improve conversion

The eCommerce cart abandonment conundrum

eCommerce cart abandonment or shopping cart abandonment is an occurrence when customers drop their shopping in the middle of the checkout process.

When a product enters a cart but does not make it out of the checkout stage it is considered ‘abandoned’.

It is one of the most important Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that retailers are on the lookout for.

Table of Contents

 

Reduce shopping cart abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is a very serious issue. Losses add up to more than 260 billion dollars per year and are expected to grow more in the coming years.

10 best ways to decrease eCommerce cart abandonment and improve conversion

Source: factory.hr

 

10 best ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment

10 best ways to decrease eCommerce cart abandonment and improve conversionSource: simform.com

1. Free Shipping + Cost Transparency

It makes a huge psychological difference when customers get free shipping when they checkout. If you have certain shipping policies, it is good practice to let the customer know about them. The customer should also be made aware of what will make them eligible for free shipping. There should be no hidden costs.

 

2. Guest Checkout

Nobody likes filling out multiple forms and questionnaires. This is also true for your customers. Have guest checkouts with optional registration forms instead of trying to register them straight away. They will appreciate this step and might even register themselves when they become repeat customers.

 

3. Progress indicator on the checkout page

Having a progress bar or an indicator on the checkout page shows the customer where they are. It shows them how much time and effort they’ve invested in the transaction. They are much more inclined to carry through with the transaction when they see their progress visually.

 

4. Improving user experience within the site

A page that takes forever to load is a real downer, especially for your customers. Your site should have fast load times and be easily navigable to add to the positive experience for the user.

 

5. Thumbnails of items in the cart

Visuals play an important part in any person’s sensory stimulation. Therefore, seeing their items in the shopping cart at all times through thumbnails keeps the customer focused on the shopping experience.

 

6. Trust Signals

Trust doesn’t come easy…….it is earned. Adding trust signals go a long way in reassuring customers of the trustworthiness of the site. 

According to the Baymard Institute, the popular trust badges are:

  • Norton seal
  • McAfee seal
  • Google 
  • PayPal
  • Visa
  • MasterCard

 

7. Simplify the checkout process

Making it easy for the customers to shop and checkout is a win-win situation for everyone. The customer gets a very enjoyable shopping experience and the site will potentially get repeat or even new customers.

Optimizing the checkout experience through surveys or A/B tests then implementing the positives will only add value to the site.

 

8. Exit-intent popups

When it looks like your customer is about to leave the site, offer them deals or promos that will attract user interest right away to sign up or to keep on shopping.

It is a very subtle way to pique user interest to keep them shopping on your site.

 

9. Create an abandoned cart email

Sending personal emails to abandoned cart users has proven to be a good strategy. Reminding customers about their abandoned carts through email is a good weapon to have in your arsenal.

 

10. Multiple payment modes

As mentioned earlier, customers have their own preferred personal payment modes. Integrating all the different Unified Payment Interface’s (UPI’s) and payment modes into the site makes it easy for the customer which in turn makes it a hassle-free and streamlined experience for them.

 

How many carts are you losing?

There is a simple formula from which you can easily find out how many items people put in their carts but dropped during the checkout process:

  • First, choose the time period over which you want to measure your cart abandonment rate
  • Divide the total number of completed purchases by the number of shopping carts created
  • Finally, turn this into a percentage by subtracting the total from 1 and multiplying by 100

For example: if over a period of one month you have 500 shopping carts created and 370 purchases your calculation would be:

10 best ways to decrease eCommerce cart abandonment and improve conversion

Source: blogs.carts.guru

Therefore, your cart abandonment rate over this period would be 26%.

The universally accepted average cart abandonment rate for eCommerce is 68%. 

So, if your average is higher than this you will need to streamline your processes.

 

Shopping cart abandonment reasons

  • Complicated check out process

Customers want to complete their check out as fast as possible. Multiple stages and forms add to a negative shopping experience for the customer.

  • Hidden Costs

Customers do not want to be burdened with extra hidden costs which weren’t intimated beforehand.

  • Mandatory Account

Making customers create accounts to finish their shopping takes away the experience of hassle-free shopping.

  • Online payment concerns

Most customers are wary of online payments. They might abandon their cart if they feel insecure about the site.

  • Product quantity restrictions

A shopping cart abandonment reason is also true when customers aren’t told up front of product quantity restrictions due to limited inventories. Customers usually abandon their carts when this issue comes up.

  • Bargain hunting (Comparison shopping)

Due to ease of access, customers have many choices for shopping online. More often than not, they abandon their carts to purchase from another retailer who has a better offer.

  • Limited payment options

Most customers feel comfortable using their own payment methods. Be it Google pay, Phone Pe, debit cards or credit cards. If you are unable to support their preferred mode of payment, you might be looking at a lot of abandoned carts.

  • Unclear return & refund policies

Shoppers usually get information about warranties and returning procedures after they add an item into their cart. If this information is vague the customer will think twice about buying the product. Customers want peace of mind knowing that if anything goes wrong with their product they can easily return the product for another or get a refund.

  • Delivery Schedule

Delayed delivery is a surefire way to lose your customer. Deliveries should be done within a reasonable timeframe.

  • Glitchy and badly developed sites

A user-unfriendly eCommerce site or a badly designed one that is prone to crashes will not instill confidence in the customers. They will have second thoughts about entering their payment details into such sites.

  • No special offers or promotions

Shoppers get enticed by various retailers with promos and discounts. If you do not have these offerings your competitor might be able to poach your customers.

So, by reducing shopping cart abandonment, you can expect your site to grow along with some very happy shoppers. 

They will trust your site’s credibility and will do business with you, having full confidence in knowing that their private information will be secure. And finally, they will know that the benefits and offers they get will be at par if not more than from the other competitors.

Following these very tactics mentioned above will definitely go a long way in attracting more people to your site as well as make it a seamless and pleasurable shopping experience for your beloved customers.

We have tailor-made solutions to streamline your customer support portal which will save you time and resources. Kapture’s integrated dashboard and automated ticketing system can help ensure that your service agents are there for the customer and not for the process.

Book a demo with us here.

 

About the Author

Elvis Richard Cormuz
Elvis Richard Cormuz
Elvis hails from Darjeeling and has had vibrant work life experiences – a musician, social worker and freelance translator/transcriber, his hobbies include music, movies and reading.

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