Many ecommerce companies face the issue of shopping cart abandonment.
Many ecommerce companies face the issue of shopping cart abandonment.
Online customers are known for their short attention spans. Frequently, customers add product to their carts but do not complete the purchase process. This constitutes missed sales for the merchant and unfilled need or want for the customer.
Abandonment rates can be as high as 67%. Rates are influenced by factors like cost of shipping, change of mind, comparison shopping or browsing, total cost too high, saving items for later, too long checkout process and products that are out of stock. Abandonment also goes up in situations where checkout requires too much personal information, site navigation is poor and download times too long, etc.
By understanding why people abandon their shopping carts and registration pages, proper actions can be taken to counter this kind of behaviour and improve your sales. Here are some things to consider.
Consumers don’t like to register on websites. If you require customers to register on your B2C ecommerce site before they can purchase something, you have a good chance that they will leave and not come back!
Still you need to collect emails. You need to find a way to collect customers email addresses during the checkout process. Do it as early as possible! No email means you have no chance to reclaim the lost sale.
Send reminders. One efficient counter-measure for cart abandonment is sending automated reminders to visitors.
In the first reminder email you might ask the customers if they need any help completing the order. The second email could be, for instance, a simple reminder that their products are waiting for them at the shop.
The third email could include special offers which encourage to shopper to finish the transaction. This could be a discount, additional product, free shipping, or something else.
Whatever messages your store sends to customers, avoid appearing pushy or sending meaningless spam to people.
As always, track your performance and adapt to changing situations. If something works and boosts your conversion, do more of it!