Have you ever gone to a shop to buy things, filled up your trolley with stuff to purchase but end up not getting anything at all? You could have gotten distracted with other things, confused with the pricing or frustrated, felt insecure about the product features or frustrated with the purchasing process. The same thing happens with online shopping…And this is what we call shopping cart abandonment! So if you have an eCommerce store, you could be missing out on a lot of sales when your potential customers abandon their shopping carts.

That’s why in this post, I’ll be sharing 10 Ways To Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment.

Below are my top tips on reducing shopping cart abandonment:-

Provide Clear Product Descriptions and Images

When people purchase stuff online, they cannot physically touch, examine and look at the products closely before buying. So when you do not give them sufficient information on the product and good quality images of the product, they will be hesitant to buy it from you.

By providing clear product descriptions that highlight the purpose and benefits of the product you are selling, they will be able to determine whether your product is the best fit for their needs.

It is also advisable to provide good quality high-resolution images of your product showing it at different angles so that your potential customer can visualize how the product will look like in real life.

This will make them more confident about buying your product to avoid the chances of any shopping cart abandonment.

Be Upfront About Your Pricing

People who shop online are more likely to abandon their shopping carts when they are suddenly slapped with unexpected fees at the end of the checkout process. This includes the addition of any shipping costs, handling fees, taxes, product customization charges and other types of fees.

If you are not able to provide the exact shipping fee because it will depend on the product/s that are purchased, then you can use a shipping calculator to give an estimated shipping cost to your potential customers. This will make them aware of the additional charges so that they will not be surprised only at the end of the checkout process.

You can also include any taxes or additional fees in the price of the product/s so that they are aware of the exact cost of what they are going to buy at the beginning of the buying process.

Provide Free Shipping

Alternatively, you can provide free shipping to your customers to increase your sales. Your customers will be more likely to buy from you compared to your competitors who are charging delivery fees.

If you are unable to cover shipping costs by just selling one or two items, you can provide free shipping to customers who purchase a minimum priced order before offering your free shipping. This will encourage them to buy more from you too!

Build Trust With Your Potential Customers

Some of your potential customers may be afraid to buy from you because they are afraid your products won’t work for them.

To build trust with your potential customers, you can follow up with your existing customers who have bought your products.

Ask them to provide you with product reviews and testimonials to demonstrate to your potential customers that your products have worked for others. This will increase their confidence in buying from you and prevent shopping cart abandonment.

Provide Relevant Contact Details

It can be pretty scary buying something online especially if you do not know how to get in touch with the company you have bought the product from. I mean, what if the product is faulty and you need a replacement? What if they send you the wrong product? What if you do not know how to use the product and need some guidance?

To eliminate this fear, you should always include relevant contact details in your website, sales funnel and/or checkout pages so that your potential customers will know how they can contact you when they have a question!

Use Secure Payment Methods

Many of your potential customers may be afraid to make online payments because they have to include their credit card information. When you use secure payment methods, you will eliminate this fear because they will be paying through a secure payment platform.

You can include security badges to help them feel better about the payment process. When they have the reassurance that the payment methods you use are secure, they would be more likely to complete the checkout process.

Offer Multiple Payment Options

Your potential customers have different payment method preferences. So by offering multiple payment options, chances are you are going to provide them with the opportunity to make payment with their preferred method. A universal payment method that is especially popular for eCommerce is PayPal.

Ensure Fast Website Loading Time

Online shoppers are mostly busy people. That’s why they do shopping online instead of taking the time to go to the shops to buy stuff. So it’s crucial that you ensure that your website doesn’t take too long to load. This is because when your shoppers are searching for products to buy, they will get irritated when they have to wait for a long time just to let your web pages load. When they get frustrated, they will abandon their shopping carts and move on to another website that provides better customer experience.

Provide Simple Website Navigation

Make it easy for your customers to find the stuff that they want to buy. Present your products in the right categories and have them organized well.

You can include product thumbnail images at your shopping cart so that they can remember what product/s they have selected to purchase.

Ultimately, your customers shouldn’t need to do more than three clicks to be able to buy what they want. The faster they can find and buy what they want, the more things they will buy from you.

Save The Cart

Many online shoppers do not buy products immediately. They browse the products and compare them with other websites. And once they’ve made their decision, they will purchase the products.

When you save their shopping cart, it is easier for them to be reminded about the products that they have intended to buy. You can do this by letting them register as an account holder at your website and saving their carts automatically.

So when they login to their account, all they need to do is complete the checkout.

Reward Those Who Purchase Immediately

Once your potential customers leave your website, chances are they might end up buying from your competitors instead of you!

So to avoid this, you can use an exit-intent popup to encourage them to buy immediately.

You can include a special discount, coupon code, free shipping or any other types of incentives to close the sale.

Use Fear Of Missing Out Strategy

If you are currently running a promotion, you can use the countdown clock at your website or checkout page to show exactly when your sale is ending.  By doing this, your customers will be motivated to purchase from you fast before the end of your promotional period.

When selling popular products, you can also show your customers exactly how many units of each product that you have left in stock. So if they really want to buy a particular product, and they know that you don’t have much stock left, they will be motivated to buy it from you immediately.

Provide Money-Back Guarantee

Many people are afraid to buy from online stores because they are afraid that they will not like the product once they see it in real life. So by providing a money-back guarantee, you will be able to eliminate this fear that is holding your potential customers back from purchasing from you.

Give A Clear Call-To-Action

Don’t leave your customers guessing what to do next to complete their checkout process. You need to give them clear call-to-action prompts to let them know what else they need to do before an order can be completed.

Take notice of your call-to-action buttons. Do they stand out against your website content? Are your call-to-action buttons too confusing to understand?

If your call-to-action buttons are not clear enough, your potential customers may get frustrated and leave their shopping carts.

Allow Guest Check-Out

Don’t force your potential customers to create an account before checkout. Many of them may have just heard about your website for the first time.

So making it compulsory to create an account at the first instance will just scare them away!

You can encourage them to sign up for an account at your website by letting them know about all the benefits of having an account.

Let them decide whether or not they want to sign up.

Use Remarketing Strategies

If you’ve managed to capture the emails of your potential customers who abandoned their shopping carts, you can always reach out to them again using remarketing strategies.

You can send them a series of emails or reach out to them through Facebook to remind them about the products that they have left in their carts and provide them with a call-to-action to complete their order.

Personally Email Your Potential Customers

You can also personally email your potential customers who have abandoned their carts to ask them whether they need any questions answered or help with completing their orders.

Many would appreciate it if you reach out to them directly to help them because it makes them feel special.

In return, they might consider completing their orders with you because they impressed with your great customer service.

I hope that this post has broadened your understanding of how to reduce shopping cart abandonment. Have you tried any of these strategies before and have found them useful in helping you to drive more sales for your business? Or do you have any other strategies that you’d like to share? I’d be happy to know.

References:
https://optinmonster.com/11-advanced-tips-to-reduce-shopping-cart-abandonment/
https://www.semrush.com/blog/10-ways-to-reduce-cart-abandonment-and-recapture-customers-for-e-commerce-websites/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/03/17/shopping-cart-abandonment
https://optinmonster.com/11-advanced-tips-to-reduce-shopping-cart-abandonment/
https://www.monsterinsights.com/smart-tactics-to-reduce-shopping-cart-abandonment/
https://www.abtasty.com/blog/reduce-shopping-cart-abandonment/
https://www.optimizely.com/anz/optimization-glossary/shopping-cart-abandonment/