Why Cart Abandonment Hurts Your Business
Picture this – your new ecommerce website is finally set up, your shopping cart is ready to go, and your customers are shopping and adding items they like to their carts. The problem – for some reason, a large number of your customers stop here. They add items to the shopping cart but fail to follow through with the transaction. This is dreadfully referred to as cart abandonment, and this is one of the biggest issues that can hurt your ecommerce business.
So, how big of a deal is cart abandonment? Is it really hurting your bottom line? Well, on average, approximately 67 percent of online shoppers don’t follow through with their purchase. That’s two out of every three people who add items to the cart on your website. We would venture to say that it’s a bit of a big deal.
Cart abandonment results in a significant amount of lost revenue. “For every 100 potential customers, 67 of them will leave without purchasing. How much would your revenues increase if you were capturing those sales instead of losing them? Let’s look at a quick example. If you’re currently making $15,000/mo in online revenue and could turn just 25 percent of those abandoned orders into sales, you’d make an extra $45,000 each year,” explains Mark Macdonald, in Why Online Retailers Are Losing 67.45 percent of Sales and What to Do About It. He outlines the math here:
It’s estimated that abandoned carts cost online retailers anywhere between $18 billion and $31 billion a year in lost sales. This is not something you can overlook if you see products and services online.
“Shopping cart abandonment is one of the most exasperating things that customers do. While some people may simply be browsing for products and checking out your website, when you detect a high rate of shopping cart abandonment, you need to take a close look at what’s happening,” says Kinjal Adeshara, in 10 Reasons People Abandon Online Shopping Carts.
An item in the shopping cart is never a guaranteed sale. There is no shortage of factors that could get in the way of your customers completing their transactions. If you have noticed that a high percentage of your customers are disengaging once adding items to your online shopping cart, it’s a sign that something is wrong, and you need to investigate your shopping cart process to identify the issues that are preventing users from completing their transaction.
Why People Abandon Their Carts
Every website is different, battling their own challenges of ecommerce, and there are countless reasons why people abandon their carts. Some you can control, and others you can’t. While you have little control over things like your customer’s Internet connection or the fact that their dog is bothering them to go for a walk, there are many onsite things that you can control.
According to Statistia there are 14 main reasons why shoppers abandon their carts. They are outlined here:
A number of themes jump out based on this data. First, many of the top reasons why people disengage with your cart page has to do with pricing issues, whether it’s the cost of the item or unexpected costs being tacked onto the final price during checkout.
A second theme is usability. It’s no secret that customers want the checkout process to be as quick and simplified as possible. This is why things like complicated website navigation, excessive payment security checks, website speed, and the process taking too long are all factors that cause people to abandon their purchases.
Other reasons why your customers could leave mid-purchase include:
- Having to sign in and create an account in order to complete a purchase.
- A complicated checkout process.
- Lack of trust.
- Shipping and delivery issues.
- Website performance.
- Being unsure about secure checkout and other security features.
- Lack of product information and images.
It’s also entirely possible that people are simply browsing and want to consider other options before making a purchase decision, meaning that even if they leave without buying something, it doesn’t mean they won’t come back later to pick up where they left off.
9 Ways To Boost Online Sales And Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment
If you are experiencing a high level of cart abandonment (which you probably are because the internet is a place where people can be wayward or hasty, depending on their mood), you can fix the problem and improve your users’ online shopping experience using these tips:
Add Social Login
According to data from Forrester Research, 43 percent of the traffic sent to a shopping cart comes through social media. This is almost half of the people who visit your website for the purpose of making a purchase.
Rather than forcing these users to sign up and fill out a registration form, social login allows users to sign into your website using their existing social media profiles and likely the account where they came from. This helps to seamlessly transition users from being interested in one of your products they learned about on a social platform, to having the ability to make a purchase without having to go through the hassle of creating an account.
According to WebHostingBuzz’s The State of Social Sharing in 2013, 86 percent of users balked at having to create a new account for each website they visited, and 77 percent of respondents were firm believers that websites should offer social login.
Social login is the solution for many of the biggest issues that cause cart abandonment in the first place – forced registration, long checkout processes, trust, and security.
Learn more about the impact social login has on the challenges of ecommerce by checking out this article: Why Adding Social Login Reduces Cart Abandonment.
Simplify The Checkout Process
This cannot be more overstated – make the checkout process as simple and easy as possible. Allow your customers to complete a purchase in as few steps or clicks as possible. Anything that can be perceived as a barrier to completing a purchase needs to be removed.
Smashing Magazine surveyed the top 100 ecommerce sites and found that almost two-thirds of the companies had 5 steps or less in their checkout process.
Include Social Proof And Testimonials
Including testimonials helps to reassure your customers they are making the right decision when buying your products and services. Include quotes, product ratings, and testimonials from previous customers, and if possible, from authoritative figures in your industry who are recognizable to your user base. Here’s an example:
As stated on KISSmetrics, “Nothing helps instill confidence in an order more than customer reviews and ratings about a particular product. Shoppers want to know if the wires break easily, if the item is too long in the sleeves, or if it works exactly as advertised.” SPOILER ALERT: bad reviews are going to happen. Dont freak out. It’s a good idea to research how to turn a negative review into a positive opportunity. Nobody’s perfect and everyone gets “bad” feedback once in awhile. Make the comment or review work for you, respond to it, and learn from it as best as you can.
Include Images
Including multiple high quality product images will help your customers be more confident in their purchase decision. The more information and imagery you can provide, the better. Also, try to make shopping cart items visible at all times as customers browse through your online catalogue.
Shoe company Saucony provides users the option to hover, zoom, and look at the shoes from multiple angles.
Eliminate Hidden Costs
Be completely transparent about all costs associated with the purchase. Don’t wait until the very end of the transaction to add on the tax and shipping costs. According to Shopify, “Six percent of shoppers said that being presented with unexpected costs is the reason they leave without completing their purchase.”
Focus On The Customer Experience
At the end of the day, people will buy from websites that provide them with a positive shopping experience. When your website is simple to use, appears authoritative and trustworthy, and provides consumers with the support and information they need to make a purchase decision, the more likely they will be to complete their transaction. Give your customers an experience that they will want to share with others and discuss via social media.
Perfect Site Performance
People don’t want to wait for anything. They are impatient, and if you make them wait, they will leave. Spend time testing and refining your website and shopping cart performance ahead of time to ensure you have all the kinks worked out before going live. Remember, if your user’s first experience with your shopping cart is a negative one, riddled with technical glitches, you will lose their trust and their money.
Provide Multiple Payment Options
The more payment options you can provide the better. The last thing you want to happen is to have your customers get to the payment step only to see that they can’t pay with PayPal or their preferred credit card.
A recent SeeWhy study for offering multiple payment options also points out how to help increase conversion rates across multiple devices. PayPal, Google Wallet, and MasterPass are only a few of the alternatives to paying via credit card.
Include Trust Factors
Many of your users are still wary about making online purchases and have the irritating challenges of ecommerce sites lingering in the back of their minds. Don’t overlook the fact that a good portion of your customers (depending on what you are selling and what industry you are in) may not be very tech savvy, making it even more important not only to keep the checkout process simple, but you also need to reassure them that you can be trusted. Include trust marks such as security logos, industry credentials and certifications to put their mind at ease.
Conclusion
Keep it simple! Forcing your users to sign up for accounts and go through overly complicated multi-step processes to complete a transaction hurt your sales. At the end of the day (or at the end of the purchase process in this case), it’s about creating a simple and effective shopping cart experience, something that social login can help improve.
Ultimate goal: keep your shopping cart checkout process as quick and easy as possible to deter shopping cart abandonment. The challenges of ecommerce sites don’t begin and end with cart abandonment, but the fewer barriers you place in front of your customers, the more likely they are to complete a purchase and return in the future. Don’t you dare leave money on the table!
