The current rate of shopping cart abandonment is 79%. That is 79% of shoppers abandon their purchase at checkout for one reason or another.
There are four emotions that trigger cart abandonment: impatience, confusion, caution and indecision. These four emotions can occur at several stages through the buying process. If you can convert these negative emotions into confidence, security and excitement, you’ll be sure to reduce your checkout abandonment percentage and increase your bottom line.
Here are some examples of factors that may increase your cart abandonment rate and ways to counteract.
Trustworthiness
There are several important trust symbols you can activate easily on your store checkout page that will reassure your customers. It’s imperative you acquire trust symbols from reputable suppliers and brands the consumer recognizes like VISA or VeriSign.
SSL certificates will encode your customer’s data using public key cryptography and activate a secure session offering peace of mind and security during the transaction process. 13% of all cart abandonment is due to payment security concerns. Simply by making you store secure, you could increase your conversions by 13%.
Also, hidden charges, such as VAT or delivery amounts, poor customer service or misleading descriptions can deter customers. Be open and honest with your customers; this can be anything from a pricing calculator, an open-ended returns policy, free delivery or a cast iron money back guarantee.
Simplify checkout
No doubt you are already using strong call to actions throughout the rest of your e-commerce store, don’t stop at checkout! Reduce any confusion and continue to guide your customer. This page should be clearly laid out, preferably with a “breadcrumb trail” to show users how many steps are left. By seeing the steps needed to complete, it can make the journey easier, especially if it’s a long process. A checkout that’s no longer than 3 steps minimizes frustration and stops customers dropping out along the way.
Only make your customers fill out their information once, simplify your forms and try not to trap your customers at the checkout. You could miss out on valuable business. Customers might need to change the size or color of your product or even they may want to order more to qualify for a free delivery over purchase amount offer.
Speed is Essential
A slow load time anywhere on your website will affect your customer experience, page ranking and ultimately your revenue.
Little touches like auto-filling forms or automatically applying any first-time user discounts can make the shopping process faster and appear more tailored. By automatically applying a discount, and lowering the total cost, you help solidify their commitment to purchase and consumers feel like they have a great deal.
Also, guest checkout is essential. We know how important data is to your marketing strategy, however by giving a little you stand to gain much, much more. 23% of cart abandonment is due to no guest checkout function availability/having to create an account.
This way, if these customers return, they are more than likely to sign up for an account on the second, or even third order. Especially if you entice customers to sign up with special offers or member benefits.
Did you forget something?
Sometimes customers are just browsing. Allowing customers to save their carts, or even automatically doing it for them and allowing them to pick up where they left off, not only increases the chance of a purchase, but also opens a communication channel for your to email them with items they’ve forgotten.
Accept all payment possible
The digital wallet is the way of future shopping. Customers who embrace online wallets are the customers of tomorrow, relying less on traditional payment methods. Don’t alienate them by offering outdated payment methods, it’s can only benefit your business in the long run.
Delivery charges
Hiding delivery charges until the end of checkout is likely to annoy your customers, and current statistics show about 28% of abandonment is down to expensive shipping costs. Hiding this information to the end is likely to result in a closed window or a quick search for your competitor.
Where possible offer free delivery or an increased order value will result in free shipping. Where this is not possible, be transparent about your costs.