7 Tips to Fight Shopping Cart Abandonment

When a prospective customer has found their way to your website, browsed your products and added several items to their shopping cart, it might appear that the transaction is complete. However, until they enter and submit their credit card information, there are several ways the sale can go awry.

A recent report from Forrester Research found that the top reasons for abandoning a shopping cart included the following: total amount was more than expected; shipping costs were too high; the checkout process was too complicated; and the shopping cart was being used for research purposes. Given these reasons, it's not a surprise that Forrester found that 88 percent of online consumers have abandoned a shopping cart without taking the steps to complete their transaction.

In the past, shopping cart abandonment has simply been seen as a small risk when running an online business. However, as consumers become more business savvy and competition continues to grow, all retailers should take proactive measures to attract and keep customers as well as provide a distinctive online experience to reduce shopping cart abandonment. Here are seven tips you can use to increase your website's conversion rate:

1. Provide free shipping. Offering your customers free shipping is one way to increase the benefit of online shopping. However, if for some reason you can't provide free shipping, make sure to link you order management and fulfillment system directly to your carrier. Doing so will provide your customers with the lowest possible shipping price when they check out.

2. Achieve a verified seal of approval. Incorporate third-party services like buySAFE to authenticate your online store. buySAFE's seal of approval lets consumers know that the online business can be trusted and that all personal information shared on the site is secure. According to buySAFE, retailers that display its seal improve their conversation rate by 6 percent on average.

3. Offer online coupons. Provide enticing online coupon codes on third-party websites that offer consumers a discount on their entire purchase.

4. Uncover relevant data. Review your shopping cart abandonment data on a regular basis and test your site to increase conversion percentages from basket to paid order. It's important to use strategic email tools such as eWayDirect to run target campaigns and drive consumers back to your site to complete their orders.

5. Have a "decluttered" website. It's important to implement design changes that make your site look less noisy. Change the size and color of the "Proceed to Checkout" button to make it more noticeable. Also consider taking away the side navigation menu. Consumers will become more focused on the product they want to buy rather than other options that divert them to different pages of your website.

6. Use retargeting services. Retargeting services like FetchBack can help put products and offers in front of your targeted customers, helping you to recoup seemingly "lost" sales.

7. Change your online shopping cart model. Using a persistent shopping cart allows returning shoppers to view the items they previously selected and gives them the opportunity to complete their transaction.

"Shopping cart abandonment is a huge issue that can be detrimental to our online business," said Jennifer Wammack, owner of Berdoll Pecan Candy & Gift Company. "Here at Berdoll, we believe it's important to provide a unique online experience for customers by displaying our most popular and sought after items and products at the forefront of our site. We always strive to provide the lowest possible shipping costs, and have experienced an increase in conversions since implementing a persistent shopping cart. Following these clearly defined best practices has helped grow our customer base and enabled our business to succeed in an ever-increasing competitive marketplace."

Regardless of whether you decide to offer free shipping, provide online coupons, launch a retargeting campaign or all of the above, implementing these tips will position your online store to convert more abandoned shopping carts into successful transactions.

Fred Lizza is the CEO of Dydacomp, a provider of business technology platforms for small and midsized e-commerce and multichannel merchants. Fred can be reached at fred.l@dydacomp.com.