Shopping Cart Abandonment

Customers abandon their shopping carts for a variety of reasons and recent industry reports put the rate of shopping cart abandonment somewhere anywhere between 20-50%. An unacceptably high rate of shopping cart abandonment can have a devastating impact on an ecommerce business.

Clearly some of the reasons for shopping cart abandonment won't be within an online retailer's control. For instance some of the reasons cited in research by online shoppers for shopping cart abandonment included a lack of funds and comparison shopping. However, there are a variety of reasons which were cited which clearly are within the control of an online merchant. Poor processes, excessive requests for information, limited or lack of contact information, confusing language and a concern about security were contributing factors to a high shopping cart abandonment rate.

Ecommerce merchants need to review their rates of shopping cart abandonment to ascertain whether they can revise some of their checkout practices and processes to improve their shopper conversion rates and profitability.

It is critical to firstly identify at what point and for what reason customers are abandoning their shopping carts. The checkout point and a shopper's overall checkout experience is widely considered as the most vulnerable point in the process for shopping cart abandonment. Streamlining checkout processes can provide a more seamless and enjoyable shopping experience leading to better conversion rates yielding increases in profitability.

One of the most common reasons shoppers have cited for shopping cart abandonment is that they are indecisive and not ready to buy. It is known that on average a customer will return to a website three times before completing their order. In some cases this lack of preparedness can be due to a lack of incentive. Providing an incentive to a customer upon checkout may move them to purchase. This might be in the form of offering promotional coupons or discounts, the offer of free shipping or providing information based on inventory stocks eg "last 3 left, selling quickly".

Where buyers aren't ready to commit to purchasing it is wise to provide a customer a feature to encouragement to return by notifying them of how long their items will remain to enable them to save their shopping carts or it's contents in the form of a 'wish list' for the future. Try to make it as easy as possible to enable your potential buyers to revisit your site and their shopping cart contents, and provide them with the cart.

Some customers respond to gift offers, either in the form of wrapping complemented by gift messaging services and delivery to the recipient. They may want the recipient to know the identity of the sender but may want reassurance that the cost of the order will remain unknown to the recipient.

Shipping and delivery dates are often a deterrent to customers at the checkout point so it is important to be very clear as to a product's availability in stock, order processing and transit times. Simply providing this information gives customers reassurance and enhances customer satisfaction. Another spinoff benefit is that it reduces communications and overhead associated with customer enquiries as customers are apprised of the delivery schedule and have realistic expectations as to time frames.

Most industry research reveals that shipping, product and other related costs such as taxation provided at the checkout point is a major reason for shopping cart abandonment. Visibility and transparency throughout the process from the inception to the checkout process is the key to addressing this problem. Your processes should be designed to reveal total order costs within the shopping cart and throughout checkout prior to requesting payment information from the customer. Wherever possible, emphasise promotional discounts within calculations in addition to taxation and shipping charges.

A lot of ecommerce merchants are focused on upselling and cross promoting their products and/or services, however studies using eyetracking technology reveal that a customer's focus is highly concentrated upon a certain portion of the screen. Trying to upsell and cross promote within the checkout process could prove costly as it adds to sensory overload and distraction instead of moving your customers to complete a purchase. Left hand navigational bars and menus may add to visual clutter and distract customers from completing checkout.

The information from surveys indicates that trust is still a major factor in purchasing online, therefore the prominent display of any seals of trust is a critical strategy. Secure payment systems and PCI certification may be an area which you may need to address where you are using payment processes that aren't compliant.

Similarly displaying your return policies and guarantees clearly and prominently will assist in allaying customer anxiety with respect to the return process.

Thirty eight percent of shoppers abandon their shopping carts and change their mind due to the requirement prior to purchase that they register with a website. Ensure you offer guest checkout as an alternative to customers to reduce shopping cart abandonment by more privacy conscious customers.

Part of enhancing customer trust is to provide contact information including alternative channels of communication for those customers who require it. Some of these channels might include interactive live chat, a phone number, business number registration and address.

Navigating through the phases of ordering, shipping, delivery and payment should be as painless and simple as possible for customers. Providing clear and simple order confirmation, the ability to opt out of receiving further promotional and other information might form part of your strategy. Surveys are useful to gain feedback and improve processes, however you may give consideration to providing non-obligatory surveys for customers to complete to provide you with feedback in relation to the quality of their shopping experience.

It is quite logical and simple and there is a veritable goldmine of information and intelligence in relation to abandoned shopping carts. This information should be analysed to give you insight into how to continually streamline and enhance the customer shopping experience.

Use the intelligence to diligently track user activity throughout the purchase or abandonment of purchase process. This will enable you to identify with more precision those potential problem areas over which you may have some control if you implemented some small changes to improve the user experience.

Closely scrutinise the exit point at checkout to see whether you can glean why customers are exiting your site. Exit links can provide a clue to why customers are abandoning their shopping carts at the checkout page. You may consider making some modifications to avoid the potential distraction that is impacting upon your customer's readiness to purchase to improve your online conversion rates.