Managing an online store can be stressful. Between adjusting your product offering, fulfilling orders, maintaining your website, and so much more, it's easy to lose sight of something as sad as reducing shopping cart abandonment.
If you've ever personally felt victimized by cart abandonment rates, don't. You're not alone. In fact, the Baymard Institute has estimated the current global cart abandonment rate to be approximately 69%. You can be sure that every successful online business has "bottom cart abandonment" on their business wish list.
There are many reasons why a shopper might abandon their cart. Perhaps they were distracted by a very cute dog outside their window. Probably not. Chances are they left items in your cart for one of the following reasons:
- There were unexpected shipping costs
- They had to create an account
- They were "sailing" the whole time
- They didn't trust the site enough to enter their credit card information
- The payment process was too complicated
Fortunately, for all the reasons customers abandon their carts, there is a solution (and sometimes more than one). Do not lose hope. Just read on to discover 10 proven ways to reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate.
Be transparent about fees, especially shipping
A few months ago, I was trying to buy office supplies online. But when I got to the checkout, the shipping fees to Canada would double the price of my order and I would have to pay additional duties. I didn't find out about this until I was halfway through the checkout process. How annoying. I abandoned my cart.
There is something about high shipping rates that deters customers like no other. According to Kissmetrics , "unexpected shipping costs" are the number one reason for cart abandonment. Try to provide as much information as you can, right away, about how much it will cost your customers to receive your products.
Also be transparent with taxes. Are they included in the list price? What percentage of the purchase is taxed? Will the customer have to pay duties for international shipments? These are all questions that customers like to know as soon as possible, as they can make or break a sale.
Being honest about costs, even if they are high, shows your integrity. Customers are more likely to return to stores they like and trust. And whatever you do, do n't try to sneak in additional costs at the end of the transaction. It makes you look sleazy and annoys or completely puts off your customers.
Make use of popups with exit intent
If you've never heard of them, exit-intent popups are those clever little popups that wait to display until the visitor moves their cursor to exit the page. Done right, they're a great way to increase conversions.
Before a potential customer leaves your site (thereby abandoning their cart), display an exit-intent popup that encourages them to complete their purchase by offering additional product information or a coupon code to use at checkout.
Include a persistent checkout/cart button
Can you imagine going to a grocery store and not being able to find the checkout or the outlet? What a nightmare that would be! Well, the same goes for an online store. If your customer can't easily find their shopping cart or checkout, how are they supposed to buy something?
Implementing a persistent cart and/or checkout button ensures that your customers won't get lost or overwhelmed trying to find their way out of your product pages. It is a nuanced call to action. You want to make it as simple as possible for your customer to add items to their cart and proceed to checkout.
Make it easy for customers to ask questions
No matter how many positive reviews you have, no matter how well you've done at writing great product descriptions , chances are your customers will have questions. Make it easy for them to contact you, so you can answer their questions and help them continue their lucrative shopping journey.
If you can, consider integrating an automated chatbot or something like LiveChat . Otherwise, make sure your contact information is readily available and that you're checking and responding to emails regularly.
Include security badges
Nobody wants to lose money. And no one likes to be cheated on. According to Shopify, 50% of online shoppers worry about being scammed by online businesses. Additionally, 66% of internet users are concerned about other people accessing their personal data. None of this is your fault, but you can ease their worries by reassuring customers that their purchases and personal data are safe.
You can reduce the worry by displaying SSL certificates or trust seals, but make sure the trust seals are trustworthy. It doesn't do much good if people distrust what they are supposed to trust. Do some research to discover the concerns of your core demographic and act accordingly.
We suggest making your website as secure as possible and sharing the actions you are taking to keep information safe with your customers.
Give the option to "save shopping cart"
People accidentally exit browsers all the time. Maybe your computer randomly decides to update or you just have to leave your device. This is not ideal for you or your customer if they have a cart's worth of products they intend to purchase. Giving shoppers the option to save their cart is a great way to lower your cart abandonment rate and ensure customers complete their purchase.
There are several ways to do it. You can give the shopper the option to sign up for an account that will automatically save their cart and recently viewed items. You can also have a save cart option or just automatically save the cart in your browser or cookies. There are a couple of apps that can do this for you. Remember My Cart is just one of many found in the Shopify App Store.
Additionally, you may want to include a wish list option that allows customers to easily add items to their cart when they are ready to purchase. Apps like Wishlist Plus can help you with this!
Send cart recovery emails
Cart recovery emails are exactly what they sound like: emails that let potential customers know that they have left items in their shopping cart. Done right, they are a super effective way to increase conversions.
The best part is that these emails can be fully automated, with the help of applications like Consistent Cart . So, with a little bit of setup, you can increase conversions and decrease cart abandonment in no time. Consider including a coupon code or even just product details and photos to remind them of the great products they're missing out on.
Optimize your payment
One of the best ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment rates is to streamline the checkout process. Customers don't need to click through six pages, sign up for an account, and give you their paternal grandmother's maiden name. Don't be Rowan Atkinson in Love Actually .
You want your payment to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible. There are many things you can do to speed up your checkout and make your customers excited about their purchase instead of frustrated.
Kissmetrics offers some great ways to reduce the number of steps in your checkout. First, make sure your checkout is consistent with the rest of your website. If it looks like a completely different website, the trust that has been established so far may not carry over to this new checkout page.
Second, Kissmetrics suggests that merchants request shipping information before billing information. You care about billing first, but your customer cares about where and when their products will arrive. Align your payment with what your customer wants. Show that you care.
Additionally, Shopify recommends reducing the number of pages in your checkout. The fewer pages, the less opportunity for frustration and cart abandonment.
Allow guest checkout
It seems we have a zillion accounts for a zillion different things. I can't even tell you how many different accounts I've created in the last week. Sometimes the last thing we want to do when we're about to buy that coveted water filter straw is create another account.
According to Invesp , 14% of online shoppers say being forced to create an account or log in with a social account was reason enough to abandon their cart. Giving customers a guest checkout option is a great way to reduce cart abandonment rates. The checkout process will be easier for the customer and that's great for you.
If shopping with you is easy, customers are more likely to return or recommend you to their friends.
Offer multiple payment options
It sucks when you go to a store, find something you like, and go to pay for it, only to find out that the retailer only accepts cash. Often you will end up buying the product somewhere else or waiting for it to come back another day. Either way, you effectively just abandoned your cart.
Frustration with a lack of payment options isn't an exclusive brick-and-mortar experience. It happens online all the time. According to comScore, 56% of buyers want a variety of payment options. And Invesp says that 7% of shoppers will abandon their cart altogether if there isn't a good variety.
Sure, adding more payment options might be a hassle for you, but with a platform like Shopify, things are a little easier. Not to mention, it's opening up to a broader demographic of buyers.
Thinking about your customer personas will help you determine which payment options to include. Of course, you'll want to support credit card purchases, but also consider PayPal, Apple Pay, Visa or Mastercard debit, and Google Pay.
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