4 Tips to Lowering Your Cart Abandonment Rate
Is there anything more frustrating than an abandoned shopping cart?
Online retailers drive themselves crazy over this problem, wondering whether they should improve their site’s design, promote a more intuitive user experience or revamp their marketing strategies. All of these factors could indeed be playing a role in whether consumers are clicking the “Buy” button.
However, even if you’ve created the slickest site with the smartest marketing campaign, you’re not immune to cart abandonment. If you really want to get those shopping carts through the checkout process, here’s what you need to offer:
1. Password-free checkout: Cart abandonment occurs for a number of reasons, but consumers who use online shopping carts as wish lists are especially problematic. Whether they’re considering an item as a gift or just creating a catalog of their own desires, they add goods to their carts and plan to come back when they’re ready to buy. However, in the days or months between visits, they forget their password and have to go through an arduous process to reset it. By the time they get back to buying, they’ve lost their flow — along with their interest in your products.
Capture your users’ data when they’re on your site, and invite them back with customized emails reminding them that they still have items in their carts. Make it simple for them by saving their information and facilitating an easy, password-free checkout when they return.
2. Curated lists of products: Think about what it’s like to search for goods on Amazon.com. You receive pages upon pages of products in response to a single query, and you have the ability to use several payment options. Easy search and checkout functions are hallmarks of Amazon’s successful business model; you should replicate that mentality.
If you surprise people with how accessible and robust your product offerings are and how convenient your checkout process is, they’ll stay on your site and appreciate how you’ve simplified the shopping experience.
3. Accessible promo codes: Deal seekers can’t stand when they’re ready to check out but have to go back to their inboxes to hunt for discount codes. Instead, offer a list of available promo codes right there on the checkout screen. Macy’s does a great job of this.
Again, it comes back to accessibility and convenience. If your customers know you have their backs and offer them deals with no hassle, they’re more likely to come back and purchase again.
4. Free shipping: This has become nonnegotiable for online shoppers. A recent comScore survey revealed that 83 percent of consumers would rather wait an extra two days to receive their purchases than pay for shipping. Even more importantly, more than half reported adding items to their carts to reach a free shipping minimum. Not only does free shipping appeal to customers’ wallets, but it also increases overall sales.
Be sure to play up free shipping in your marketing materials. Consumers are more inclined to shop with brands that guarantee free shipping even on returns, so the promise of convenience incentivizes people to visit your site. Your bottom line need not suffer from free shipping, either. Build the cost into the product price to cover your expenses.
Choice and convenience are what get customers through the checkout line. Consumers are busy, and they’ve got a million brands vying for their attention and dollars at all times. To earn their business — and keep it — you’ve got to provide a seamless, cost-effective retail experience.
Ania Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of Key Lime Interactive, masterminds for all things usability for web, mobile, tablet and medical devices, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
