How to Deal with Cart Abandonment
There is a considerable amount of traffic coming to your web store daily, but the sales figures do not seem to make up for it. This scenario can be attributed to several factors. The biggest and most common one being abandoned carts.
Statistic shows that a whopping 70% of shopping carts will never make it through the checkout process.
Imagine this — 10 people have already browsed through your products and added a couple of items to their carts. You are so close to sealing the deal, any moment now and they will be heading for payment. Then BAM! 7 of them ended up not purchasing and just left.
In another research done by Forrester, 88% of online shoppers admit to abandoning their shopping carts at the final ordering step. So how can we stop people from doing that? We will first have to understand why they are doing it.
“I’m just looking, thanks”
One of the top reason for customers abandoning their shopping carts is because they were just browsing and not ready to purchase yet.
A familiar situation, isn’t it? You walk into a store, take a look at the product, turn over the price tag, attempts to memorise the figures and calmly walk out again.
Truth is, everyone likes a good deal. Customers want to make sure that they are buying the product at the best price possible. Hence, they will likely continue to shop around a bit before coming back. As shoppers get smarter these days, they want to make more well-informed purchase decisions and they know just how to do it.
Some other times, the product could be something that was not on their shopping list in the first place. They simply chanced upon it while browsing. These purchases might involve a longer decision process, mainly composed of lengthy internal debates such as whether one really needs an Iron Throne Egg Cup.
With the sea of websites that an average customer visits each day, it is not surprising that they might have forgotten or lost the link to your web store.
As shop owners, it is your job to redirect them back to your store and encourage them to complete their purchase.
Retarget them after their visit by sending out a gentle reminder on Messenger. Key thing to take note is the 24-hour magic time frame. A study suggests that reminder emails that are sent out before that 24-hour mark boost ROI by over 2800%. People don’t check their emails half as often as they check their messages. So, if emails alone can yield such impressive ROI, just imagine the kind of result you can expect with Messenger!
Missing Product Information
When it comes to online shopping, the quality and completeness of product information have a huge impact on sales. Without being able to see or touch the product first-hand, these information are pretty much the only thing that customers can depend on to know what they are really purchasing.
In the eyes of the digital consumer, a product is only as good as the information associated with it. — via RetailDIVE
30% of customers have reportedly abandoned their shopping carts due to poor product description.
Just have a look at these two examples from Amazon:
Needless to say, I was immediately sold on the TomTom product. The product page provided all the information I needed and coupled with a competitive price, there was no need to look further.
As with the Sistema product, I had to dig into the customer feedbacks and surf on the net further to try collate all the information I needed before clicking on purchase. Honestly, it felt more like a game of jigsaw puzzle and I eventually made my purchase in the store.
Missing product information not only affects cart abandonment rate, but also returns and brand distrust.
Always try to include more high-quality product images (preferably from different angles) and product details whenever it is possible. Do your job right, so your customers don’t have to run around looking for missing information.
Unexpected Cost
Unexpected cost is probably the #1 reason why people abandon their carts. According to Statista, it makes up for 25% of abandoned carts.
What customer sees as product price is the same price they expect to pay in the end (excluding shipping and handling fees). If shipping cost is unavoidable, make it very clear at the start (e.g. through main banner, product page.) Don’t like it hide within the footers of your website.
Sneaking in additional cost at the checkout stage is very likely to turn your customers away.
Complicated Checkout Process
Make the checkout process as simple as possible. Customers are already at the final stage of purchase. Do not give them a reason to drop their carts and leave.
Unfortunately, many stores are still implementing long-winded checkout where customers are forced to create an account and fill up a long list of personal details (some of which absolutely unnecessary). This is an effective way to scare customers away.
Instead, offer customers guest checkout option or to create an account using their social login. Bonus of social login is that you can also tap on the data that is available from their social accounts. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
Lastly, offer live chat.
Regardless of how well your website is designed, there will still be unanticipated customer queries. Product description and pictures may be available, but they are not fully dependable.
Hence, it will be good to provide customers a quick and easy way to contact you. Live chat is a great way. You can activate the customer chat plugin for your website by clicking on the button below.
Bottomline, always remember that customers are not looking for a reason to buy from you. They are looking for a reason NOT to buy from you. So do not give them one.
