How To Avoid Shopping Cart Abandonment On Your Business Website

How To Avoid Shopping Cart Abandonment On Your Business Website

Shopping cart abandonment remains a big concern for merchants across all industries. According to the latest research, an average of 75% of all online purchases ends up being abandoned; a statistic that is up from 68% in previous years.

There will always be customers who change their mind, but there are a few strategies that you can employ to lower your cart’s abandonment rate.

By taking the right actions, you can take steps to ensure more customers adding items to your merchant cart will make the purchase.

 

What Can You Do?

#1. One of the first things that you should do is ensure that your entire e-commerce site functions correctly, especially the checkout pages. According to Secure Net Shop, 404 pages are a major contributing factor to a failed conversion. It’s best to create some kind of system that checks for a broken link or dead page on a routine basis. It might be several hours, or potentially days of lost revenue, before you determine there is a problem.

By using quality ecommerce shopping cart software, you can prevent these situations.

 

#2. Prominently displaying a phone number or a live chat customer service button on the checkout page can reassure your customers that you care about them. Either of these options can also reduce the likelihood of them leaving your online shop if they encounter any problem or have a quick question.

 

#3. Allow guest-checkout whenever possible instead of full registration. This alone can significantly reduce your abandonment rate. People do not like feeling forced to join a site and often don’t have time. If they hope to click and buy quickly, guest checkout will get them there. Many consumers also hope to avoid the barrage of emails they receive after registering on a site so guest checkout is a great option.

 

#4. Always be upfront about your prices and don’t hide them until the checkout page. Offer as many payment methods as possible including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, PayPal, Apple Pay and so on.

 

#5. Watch your shipping costs – it is reported that almost 50% of the reason customers abandon a cart is due to shipping charges.

 

In order to be competitive, watch what sellers are doing on sites like Amazon.com – assuming they sell your type of products. Offer free shipping if you can. Be creative and perhaps offer free shipping with orders over $50. This gets the customer thinking about spending $50 instead of $30, all the things they need and can get from you and/or if they perhaps need a second one as a gift. It’s a win-win for both merchant and customer.

 

#6. Make sure your site is secure. You can check with your merchant card provider ensure you are using up to date and state of the art software to protect your customers information. You should do this regularly.

 

#7. Show your availability of items. Customers want to ensure you have the item in stock when they are purchasing. This works in the merchants favor as well as it lets the customer know, if only 1 item is left in stock for example, they better buy it now.

 

Making subtle changes to your site such as adding Live Chat if a customer has a quick question or  PayPal at checkout so they can check out lightning fast, can really help reduce your shopping cart abandonment rates; leading to better sales and profitability.

source http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2016/10/07/avoid-shopping-cart-abandonment-business-website/