E-CommerceAre You Missing Out Your Sales Due To Cart Abandonment?

Are You Missing Out Your Sales Due To Cart Abandonment?

Cart Abandonment
Cart Abandonment

Are you missing out your sales due to Cart Abandonment?

If yes, then it’s definitely a serious issue!

If you want to change it, you first have to change your point of view regarding Cart Abandonment.

Start taking Cart Abandonment as an opportunity for sale rather than seeing as a customer lost situation.

The first step you need to take is to check the ratio of people leaving your cart before making a purchase.

The average Cart Abandonment rate for Q1 2018 was 75.6%.

Source: SalesCycle Blog)

Shopping Cart Abandonment is the most crucial problem in an E-Commerce world and you have to take a moment to ask yourself where you?re going wrong.

Assume yourself in a shopping mall where you have filled your cart with all the necessary stuff and suddenly you leave your cart and just go off.

Weird Right?

Yes! That’s what happens in the online world. This is what we call Shopping Cart Abandonment.

1. Reduce Shipping Charges Or Avoid Unexpected Charges

The most shocking part of online shopping is that sudden increase in cost.
Every one of us does business to make money and I am not suggesting you give away everything as a gift.

Here, we can see the most prominent reason for a customer to leave the Cart Abandoned is due to the shock you give them before payment by adding some really unexpected charges:

Reasons For Cart Abandonment
Reasons For Cart Abandonment (Image Source/Credit: Baymard Institute)

Might be the price range is looking nice before the time of check out, but there are few charges that can pull your customers away:

  • Taxes
  • Processing Fees
  • Shipping/Delivery Charges

You must be thinking that all these are important charges and you can’t remove these or you’ll end up with nothing.

So as an escape from all these charges, instead of putting the whole burden of these charges to the customer, adjust the original prices of the products to compensate your shipping charges.

No doubt, customers have to pay little more, but it won’t be a shock for them at least.
It’s better to follow the middle ground, might be you end up with less profit, but it can always get balanced by more transaction rate.

2. Provide Guest Check-Out Option

Account creation can provide you Email ID, Contact Information, Preferences and hell lot of things that marketers are running behind.

But forcing people to stop in between their purchase to create an account can affect your sales badly.

This can be one of the major reason behind your Cart Abandonment, as everyone wants a hassle-free procedure, which can allow them a smooth buying experience without filling a never-ending form.

There can be two reasons why people don?t want a sign-up popup to occur just before they are going to complete their purchase:

1. They want to avoid unwanted emails, messages or junk mails
2. People are in hurry and they want the procedure to be quick and smooth

See how Nike is providing a clear and visible option to check out as a ‘Guest’:

Nike - Site Checkout
Nike – Site Checkout (Image Source/Credit: Neil Patel Blog)

We understand that you’re worried about that magical data that you want to grab from your site visitors to shoot your offers and other marketing bullets. But, it would be better if we ask for something by offering something in return.

So, it’s never too late to ask for a sign-up and we can always carry them out after the purchase has happened by giving them some reasons that will compel them to create their account with their own interest such as:

  • Guiding your customers the tracking status for their product
  • Offering them some discounts and coupons
  • Providing them with free knowledge about the products

3. Optimize Your Website Across Multiple Devices

More than half of all internet traffic shop from a mobile device.

(Source: OuterBox Solutions)

Not all of the mobile users are your prospective customers, but you’re most likely to lose a huge chunk of buyers if you’re restricting your website to desktop version only.

It’s high time and you’ve to optimize your website for mobile devices.

There is nothing better experience than shopping with your only one thumb scrolling on the mobile screen.

If we are talking about optimization, then we can’t deny the fact that the loading time of your website makes a huge difference.

Nobody like to sitting and staring on the screen to get it loaded.

People are in rush and we need to work out to complete their purchase as fast as possible.

  • Optimize the images to maintain the balance of quality and speed
  • Limit the usage of ad network trackers
  • Check-in poorly implemented tags, social plugins, and another bloat

These are some of the technical glitches that we can check and correct, but there are few parts where we can’t do anything other than waiting to get the page loaded.

One such condition is a delay from the payment provider. But here, we can use some attractive visual to make our customers feel that there is actually something happening and it?s worth waiting for a while.

4. Add Multiple Payment Options

Are you accepting payment only through Visa or MasterCard?

If yes, then you might be facing Cart Abandonment because people are coming to check out and could not find their preferable gateway of payment.

We do understand that some of the credit cards have more processing charges than others. But not accepting the payment methods can cost you lose your customers.

So include all the varieties like:

Payment Options
Payment Options
  • American Express
  • PayPal
  • Master Card
  • Visa
  • Discover Cards

… and all the other cards you’ve heard about.

Also, don’t fall behind the curve and apply new mobile payment gateways like:

Mobile Payment Options
Mobile Payment Options
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • Samsung Pay

5. Send A Series Of Cart Abandonment Emails

Don?t lose your hope if you’re not able to prevent your Cart Abandonment.

Don’t give up just because your customer has abandoned the cart. Reach out them if you’ve their details. Emails are the best way to keep your customers reminded about their undone shopping.

These emails can include:

  • A pleasant reminder about their cart
  • A sense of urgencies such as price drop or limited stock
  • An offer specifically for them

However, a reminder is enough to finalize the purchase, but we never know what is the reason behind an undone shopping.

Might be an urgency or feeling of losing the product can make your customers reach out back to the card and complete the payment.

Or they are looking for some offers.

So, keep them awake by your emails and be a reminder. But don’t irritate them by dropping a mail every now and then.

Here’s an email from Chubbies with interesting copy and compelling visual:

Chubbies - Abandoned Cart Email
Chubbies – Abandoned Cart Email

There’s humor in the above email which encourages readers/customers to go back to the cart.

Conclusion

Well, You’re not alone!

Shopping Cart Abandonment is a common problem that every E-Commerce business is facing.

But it’s never too late to revise your check out process and prevent yourself from the future abundant case.

We agree that you can decrease it, but turning it to zero is really not possible.

These are not the only ways to help you with this problem. There are a lot many more, some are generic and some are more focused.

But making changes can help you in growing your sales.

So, stop taking Cart Abandonment as a failure and make it an opportunity for your business.

Namrata Kashyap
Namrata Kashyap
Namrata Kashyap is an Inbound Marketer and a writer who enjoys reading and sharing practical marketing hacks. She is a Senior Manager in Sales and Marketing in an E-Commerce company - Quikr. She loves to paint her thoughts in her leisure time.

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