4 Ways to Reduce E-Commerce Shopping Cart Abandonment

E-commerce company success depends on conversions and cart abandonment is a conversion killer; here are four strategies to reduce it.

Reduce Cart Abandonment Rates and Grow Your E-Commerce Business Faster

Understanding the most common reasons why your e-commerce company’s shopping carts are sometimes abandoned by your customers will help you know how to improve the shopping experience and convert more sales. If your cart abandonment rate is high, you should know that you’re not alone.

With more than 68 percent of online shopping carts being abandoned by online shoppers, imagine the money being left on the table – money that can be yours to rake in if you can figure out why it’s happening and address those reasons. Think about it: If only about one in four online shoppers are actually completing their transactions, the other three must have good reason (at least in their minds, which is all that matters) to have left their cart sitting full on your site instead of making a purchase.

Here are some of the reasons customers most often cite as to why they abandon online shopping carts, and strategies that can help your ecommerce company overcome them.

Cart Abandonment Reason #1: Inadequate Payment Options

Many people are set in their ways; others are leery of the unknown, especially in light of all the data hacks, stolen ID’s and credit card information that have occurred during the last few years. Consumers trust the brands and payment systems that they know (they recognize the name) and those they have experience using in the past. In fact, 59 percent of online shoppers will abandon their shopping carts online if their preferred payment method isn’t available and 40 percent of e-commerce shoppers say they have the most trust in websites that offer more than one payment solution.

The Answer: Provide multiple options and make sure the most common payment options are included. It’s a basic and simple answer to a basic roadblock. Even if you have your own card processing service and can offer a very secure payment portal available to your shoppers, adding options like PayPal buttons, Apple Pay, and Google Wallet provide immediately-identifiable, trusted payment options for your customers.

Cart Abandonment Reason #2: A Hard-to-Use Checkout Process

Two reasons it’s important to understand this obstacle for your e-commerce site:

• 1 in every 6 dollars spent online are done on mobile devices – and mobile device-use necessitates an easy-to-navigate payment solution
• 24 percent of shoppers said they abandoned their carts and left the site because it was simply too difficult to figure out

The Answer: Optimizing your website goes beyond making it look pretty or making sure it will get found in online search. You have to also optimize your site for mobile – well, really for all types of devices – any device your customer might happen to be using to shop on your website. Customers expect to enjoy the same ease-of-navigation whether visiting your e-commerce store from a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to the screen on their smartphone which might only be a few inches wide.

Add simple buttons during the checkout process to help streamline the experience for online shoppers. Buttons that allow shoppers to continue shopping, change payment or shipping information, delete items, change quantities, or find more recommendations are a few examples of buttons that can not only increase conversions, but increase sales as well.

Cart Abandonment Reason #3: Asking for Too Much Information

We understand that you may want your online site visitors to provide you with valuable information that can make your marketing stronger. However, there’s such a thing as asking for for too much. 35 percent of those who abandoned shopping carts on e-commerce sites did so because too much personal information was required to complete the checkout process. Even simply requiring shoppers to register can be a turnoff; 34 percent said they abandoned carts because they were required to register before checking out.

The Answer: Offer a guest checkout option for those who don’t want to register or provide more-than-necessary information. Consider sending a survey after the sale, capturing registrations through social media, or asking only repeat customers to register, so you can begin capturing more of the valuable information you need to improve your marketing.

Cart Abandonment Reason #4: Setting the “Free Shipping” Bar Too High

We all know there’s really no such thing as “free shipping” because neither UPS, FedEx, the USPS or any other shipper can work for free. However, remember that over 40 percent of shoppers online will abandon their carts because shipping costs are too high and a growing number of consumers expect shipping to (always) be free.

The Answer: There are multiple ways you can overcome this issue for your customers in their ecommerce experience:

• Set the bar low enough – but not so low – that you aren’t getting shoppers to move up over your e-commerce company’s “average ticket” amount.
• Cross-sell and up-sell. These long-standing sales tactics can be used just as effectively by your e-commerce company as brick and mortar stores. You can also use this tactic post-cart abandonment by following up with shoppers who did not convert with additional incentives for free shipping.
• Be transparent. Offer tools like shipping calculators and make sure your literature is clear so no surprises “pop up” before shoppers complete their transactions.

Understanding the main reasons your ecommerce company loses sales to abandoned carts will help you win in your long term and short term goals. With nearly 70 percent of shopping carts left full by online shoppers, guiding them through the process and providing the options they desire is the key to your success. By overcoming these obstacles, you’ll attract shoppers, engage with them in the process, and turn abandoned carts into sales.

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