According to Baymard Institute, almost 70% of online shopping card purchases are abandoned at the last minute. So out of 100 customers that’s 70 who leave without making a purchase. This is a considerable amount and one which you should address in order to increase revenue and your ROI. However, in what way can you improve this pretty alarming stat? Thankfully, there are a number of steps you can take to your website and it’s buying process to reduce shopping cart checkout abandonment. Below we cover the 6 steps you can take to get your customers over the line and making a successful purchase from your online store.
An Account is Required:
People have very limited time in todays busy modern world and forcing potential customers to create a fully fledged account to make a purchase will cost you sales. Not everybody will make multiple purchases from the same website so they simply don’t want to set up an account. This is where having a guest checkout option will improve matters and persuade your customer to complete the checkout. Only requiring the essential information like address and payment details means a quicker checkout for your customers which will encourage completion of the transaction.
Extra Costs Too High:
Yes you might be competitive prise-wise but once they hit your checkout are there additional costs which will increase the purchase price and make you more expensive than your competitor? Not necessarily delivery costs but maybe admin fees or warranty costs. Unexpected costs at the final process of a checkout will put people off and likely make them shop elsewhere. Always be transparent with your prices and if possible include them in the initial purchase price so your customers don’t get any nasty surprises towards the end which will quickly put them off.
Limited Paying Options:
People want to pay using their preferred method and this isn’t always with a standard credit or debit card. With so many payment options now available, including the major ones as an option will always help encourage a complete sale transaction. There’s Paypal, bank transfer and even cheque options. If you sell a high value item then offering finance is one option too. There’s so many companies offering finance options to E-commerce stores that you should offer this as an option.
Delivery Too Expensive:
The old trick of trying to make profit from delivery costs will often result in a lost sale. If your delivery costs are high then you risk being more expensive then your competitor for the total cost of the item delivered. People will quickly be put off by extortionate delivery costs so never be tempted to offer a low price for the product itself but try to make some profit back from the delivery costs. Also offer multiple delivery options, so the cheapest method first even if it takes longer, then faster delivery options which cost more. This way you can please most of your potential customers when it comes to delivery costs.
Process Too Long:
Shopify claims a long and complicated checkout process is responsible for 18% of shopping cart abandonments. For this reason alone you should remove any unwanted stages or information requests. If you try gain extra information for future marketing campaigns then you could be losing sales at the expense of collecting more info then you really need. Trying to cross sell other products could also be annoying to the shopper, unless your industry is one where certain items are usually purchased together. A fast, easy and simple checkout process will always encourage complete transactions.
Untrustworthy Website:
There has to be an element of trust from a potential customer to enter their card details onto your website. With online fraud often in the news then this makes people nervous when it comes to finally entering those card details. Over 17% of people exit the buying process online at the final stages due to simply not trusting the website, claims Shopify. Thankfully, there are many things you can do to help build trust with your customer. Installing an SSL certificate, having easy to find testimonials and reviews from previous customers and a transparent contact and address page all helps. A physical bricks and mortar address will also help, with people knowing you have a dedicated location, especially if in the UK.
Summary:
Ensuring the steps above have been implemented during your checkout process should help alleviate some instances of checkout abandonment. The good news is that it can be actively reduced by taking these small simple steps.
