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Even though you have the best intentions, people visit your site, start shopping, then close the tab to watch the latest Game of Thrones Season 6 trailer and never come back. This is what it means to abandon a shopping cart. Shopping cart abandonment is when Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment or items to a website’s shopping cart but leaves before completing the transaction.
Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest problems that online businesses have to deal with. Unfortunately, it’s also impossible to completely stop. Some people will always leave their carts behind before crossing the line and buying something.
9 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment
Give a choice of ways to deliver
Customers often decide whether or not to buy based on how long it takes to ship and how much it costs. One reason people don’t finish their purchases is that many sites don’t show the real shipping costs until the customer is ready to check out.
This means that some customers may add items to find out how much they really cost, or they may plan to buy before higher delivery costs stop them. Choice is also important. Some shoppers want delivery to be free or cheap, while others care more about how fast and easy it is.
Offer Guest Checkout
Having shoppers sign up and make an account before they can go to checkout can be a turnoff. It seems like extra work to shoppers, and because of that, it can be a point where customers decide it’s too much trouble to go ahead and finish the purchase.
When it’s not absolutely necessary (some sites, like grocery stores, have a stronger case for registration), it makes sense to avoid this barrier and offer guest checkout options instead.
Show a Constant Reminder of What’s in the Cart
Customers may have questions about prices or whether they picked the right size or product as they go through checkout. By showing a cart summary throughout the checkout, shoppers can make sure their order is correct before they finish, and they won’t have to leave the checkout to check anything. Here, Reebok lists all of the costs and contents. It also helps to show a picture to remind people quickly.
Checkout Forms That Work
Once a customer is ready to buy and is at checkout, forms that take too long to fill out or are hard to understand can turn them away. Well-designed forms help users spend less time filling them out and make the buying process seem easier (which is also very important).
On desktop, the whole checkout process for Nike can be seen above the fold, and on mobile, it can be seen without much scrolling. It looks easy to do, so people are less likely to give up at this point.
Give all the information about shipping
Shipping costs are another big reason why shopping carts aren’t so popular. Customers have learned to expect free shipping on almost everything in this day and age of Amazon Prime and holiday sales.
There’s a good chance that some of your competitors are doing better than you because they offer free shipping and you don’t. If you can afford to ship for free, that’s great. If you can’t afford to ship for free, make sure the customer knows everything about how much shipping will cost.
Make shopping easy with one click
With its one-click shopping button, Amazon has probably made a lot of money. It’s so easy to just click and buy something without even thinking about what’s good and bad about it.
You can take a page from Amazon’s book and make your own shopping cart system that is easy to use. Of course, it won’t work for people who haven’t signed up, but it can work for members.
Avoid any kind of surprise
“Bad surprises are one of the most common reasons why people leave their shopping carts,” says CPC Strategy. Don’t do anything to surprise your shoppers. Some people who shop online find it hard to relax while they’re shopping.
The customer is stressed out. They are getting their credit card out. They’re a little scared. What do you think will happen? Then BANG! A pop-up that is unclear. A discount code request. An “error” message. A blank space. Whatever.
Cross-selling on the check-out page should be limited
Trying to cross-sell or upsell customers at the last minute might just cause them to abandon their shopping carts instead of making them buy more. Cross-selling should stay on the product page, and the check out page should focus on getting people to buy.
Put reviews everywhere
Some people only put testimonials on a page that is just for them. I think you should put them everywhere, even in the way you check out. A simple callout or sidebar with one or two customer recommendations can keep the customer interested as they check out.