There’s a reason why e-commerce stores should focus on their shopping cart abandonment rates. Experts estimate that stores lose about 75% of their sales because of shopping cart abandonment. This means there’s a chance that people want to buy your products but for some reason, when they get to the checkout process, they decide not to. This only proves that e-commerce stores need to improve their cart abandonment rate if they want to improve their profits as well.
If you’re in the business of selling visual aids for the sight impaired, you want everyone to have the chance of getting the gadgets and devices they need. Yet, for some reason, your customers are not checking out the items they put in their carts. Why is that? Why are they not going through with their purchases? You have a good product. You are a need and not a want and yet, your target market is abandoning their carts as fast as Lewis Hamilton flies on the race track.
Unexpected Shipping Cost
The number one reason why people are abandoning their carts is because of additional expenses. While they expect to pay the sales tax, what they are not expecting is the high cost of shipping. If they have to pay more than $15 for the shipping, that will put them off wanting to purchase the items. Why don’t you offer free shipping for a minimum order of $35? Depending on the cost of each of your items, the customers will likely buy more to get more value for their money than pay for the shipping cost.
Needing to Create a User Account
Some websites require customers to create an account before they can check out items. Customers don’t want to fill up forms to check out a dress from your store. They want the checkout process to be as easy as possible. Allow the customers to check out the items as guests. In the future, if they like your products, they will want to have an account with you.
Issues About Payment Security
This is where your web design and brand reputation will come into play. If your customers are not comfortable transacting on your e-commerce store, it’s because they had a bad experience before. Also, your online store is not giving them the confidence they need to transact digitally. Customers are wary about leaving their credit card information with e-commerce stores. You have to gain their trust first by ensuring that your site has the necessary security forms.
Confusing Checkout Process
How many steps does it take to get from adding the item into the cart to paying for it? If it takes more than three steps to get to the payment page, you may want to redesign your checkout process. Customers hate long and complicated checkout procedures. They want the option to check out the items as fast as they possibly can. Offer that to them and see your cart abandonment rate slow down.
A Lack of Customer Support
Who provides customer support on your e-commerce store? Is it you? Is it a chatbot? Make sure “someone” is available 24/7 to answer your customers’ queries. At the very least, make sure that you will answer their concerns as soon as you can. If they send an inquiry in the middle of the night, check them out first thing in the morning and address their concerns immediately.
No Offer of Coupon Codes
It’s okay for customers to spend on your site one, two, and even more times. But if they’ve been spending hundreds of dollars on your shop for the past three years, and they have not received one coupon code, wouldn’t that throw them off? You have to reward your customers who continue to patronize your shop even amidst this pandemic. Start thinking of ways to reward them with discount codes, free shipping offers, and many more.
Limited Payment Options
What are your payment options? You need to allow a variety of payment options so more customers will want to buy from you. Make sure you can accept debit and credit cards, wire transfer, cash, and various online payment systems such as PayPal. The more options you have, the more customers you will attract.
Focus on the customer experience to pull down your cart abandonment rate. The more you think about them and offer features that they will love, the more likely that they will be loyal to your online store. And really, it isn’t that hard to provide great customer service. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What do you want? Whatever you want, they want that, too.
