Why are your shopping carts not converting? According to Baymard Institute, 67.45% of online shopping carts are abandoned.

Needless to say, shopping cart abandonment is a big problem. Why do shoppers leave without paying? There are a few possible reasons:

• Presented with unexpected costs – 56% of shoppers claim that unexpected costs is the reason they leave without completing their purchase. When they decide to checkout, they were most likely presented with additional fees and charges that weren’t listed on the product page, therefore, the product doesn’t seem as hot to them anymore.
• Website crashed or was too slow to load- Many online retailers host their websites on poor performing servers, leading to slow website loading and crashes. If this is the case, you would want to switch to a reliable web host to sell your products.
• Price presented in a foreign currency- It is really important that you display, or provide the ability to show, what the cost will be in the shopper’s local currency. This will help save your customers’ time and hassle of wondering what the exchange rate will be and how much it is actually going to cost them. As most online retailers are now accepting international orders, it is important to keep up with the competition.

Methods to help make your checkout more effective:

1. Show Images

Clear thumbnails of the actual items will provide a clear picture to customers.

2. Display Security Logos

The Statistia study showed that 17% of shoppers don’t purchase because they are concerned about security. In a test published by Get Elastic, an online retailer found that by placing a security badge on their site sales increased 4-6%.

3. Make Editing the Cart Easy

Shoppers don’t want to be locked in to the checkout page. If they made a mistake in their selection or need to edit it for some reason make sure it’s easy for them to do so.

4. Offer Different Payment Methods

Consider offering payment by Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Paypal as well as other payment solutions depending on the audience and demographic. FreshGigs reported a 15% increase in their checkout process simply by enabling the option to pay with American Express, which wasn’t offered out of the box with their payment processor.

5. Avoid Registrations

One of the biggest turnoffs in some checkout processes is being forced to register on the website in order to complete the purchase. A study by User Interface Engineering showed a 45% increase in customer purchases when forced registration was removed from the checkout page.

6. Offer occasional Free Shipping

A Deloitte study found 69% of shoppers are more likely to shop with online retailers who offer free shipping.

7. Offer Price Guarantees and Refunds

Offering a price guarantee you give the shopper confidence and peace of mind to the shopper’s experience.

Many online retailers are losing money daily due to cart abandonment. By implementing the techniques mentioned above, you can get more shoppers to complete your checkout process the first time. Also bear in mind that there will always be cart abandonment, hence, your goal should be directed to increase sales instead of converting every lead. Good luck!

Contact us for more information on e-commerce development. As a full-suite digital agency, we can set up your online business or implement improvements that will optimise your customer’s online shopping experience.

References:

Baymard.com. (2017). 37 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics – Cart & Checkout Usability – Baymard Institute. [online] Available at: https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate.

2016, O. (2017). Shopping cart abandonment rate by industry 2016 | Statistic. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/457078/category-cart-abandonment-rate-worldwide/.