How To Avoid Cart Abandonment In Your Online Store

You’ve put a lot of work into promoting your company’s website. You’ve finally generated some decent traffic and you’ve noticed that your online sales are starting to pick up. But you’ve hit a wall. The ratio of your website’s visitors to the total number of sales you’ve made is unbalanced. What’s happening? Why are your online shoppers leaving their carts at the checkout?

Cart abandonment is a big problem for many online retailers. Far too often, they find that customers are selecting items for purchase but not following through on completing their transactions. Could there be something about your online store’s checkout process that is turning customers away? What’s making them change their minds about their purchases at the last minute? What can you do to avoid cart abandonment in the future?

Make the checkout process quick and easy.

The quicker, the better – it’s just that simple. How many different pages do your online shoppers have to sift through before finally completing their orders? In many cases, customers get fed up with the long and drawn out processes that many websites force them to endure. Make your checkout process a quick and easy one and you’re bound to see your sales increase.

“One of the best ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment is to eliminate unnecessary pages and streamline the process,” writes Mary Fernandez on OptinMonster.com, “Do your customers really need to click through five different pages to complete a purchase? The more you can simplify the process and reduce the number of hoops a customer has to go through, the better.”

Be upfront with all costs.

If a customer is shown that a desired product is $35.99 and his/her final bill is north of 60 bucks, he/she is bound to say “forget it”. Don’t hide your shipping costs and be sure to make applicable taxes visible to your online shoppers. The more upfront you are about all of the costs involved in having purchases shipped, the easier it will be to close out your online sales.

“One of the top reasons for cart abandonment is unexpected costs,” informs Matt Orlic on SEMrush.com, “This typically relates to shipping costs that show up only at the end of the checkout process. To reduce sticker shock and cart abandonment due to price issues, make sure your shipping costs are transparent while the customer is browsing through your products.”

Keep the cart alive.

Remember that not all abandoned carts are abandoned forever. That is, unless your company website makes them things of the past once online shoppers leave the site. Be sure to keep your carts live. That means that when a shopper returns to your site, he/she will be able to view the cart that was previously filled. That way, it should only take another click or two of the mouse to complete the transaction.

“84% of online shoppers are comparison shoppers,” notes Fernandez, “That’s the convenience of the internet. They open a bunch of windows, find similar products, compare prices and terms, and then make a final selection…This means it is crucial that shopping carts are saved so that you can retarget users who’ve previously added something to the cart but haven’t checked out yet.”

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