Why would a person fill up the cart at an online store, make their way to check out, and then leave everything in the cart? That’s the question that many, many online retailers face, both big and small. Around 70% of all online shoppers will leave an online cart before buying anything at all. That’s a lot of cart abandoners who aren’t buying.
Did they lose interest? Did they actually not want to buy from you? Or is the cause of their leaving something else entirely? And if it is, what can you do to get them to click that final button to buy?
The top five reasons why cart abandoners exist are:
To combat these issues, here are five corresponding strategies to reengage your cart abandoners and convert them into happy customers. We’ve also included pro tips so that you can implement these strategies today in your online stores.
Never underestimate the power of clearly stated prices and estimates. For example, a shipping range cost at the bottom of each of your listed articles can go a long way in making customers feel educated as to the final price of your product. When people know exactly what they’re paying, they’re more likely to find it and not be swayed by the final cost when everything is added together on their bills.
Pro tip: Keep it simple. You can stand out among the crowd by keeping a price sheet in an easily accessible location, even if all you can offer are estimates for shipping.
From the company’s perspective, guest checkout isn’t the most desirable. However, if it gets you more sales, providing an option for guest checkout may pay off in the long run. At the very least, it’s worth crunching the numbers or running a survey to see how many of your site visitors are leaving you because you don’t offer guest checkout options.
Pro tip: Offer incentives to sign up as a member. Some initial ideas include free shipping, instant coupons, and the promise not to spam your members’ inboxes. A good place to offer incentives is the “Thank you for ordering page,” where you can ask the user to save their details for future purchases.
If you're faced with really high shipping costs as a business, consider factoring in these costs in other ways, if at all possible. If that's not possible, offer solid explanations as to why it's costly to ship your product and why consumers would be willing to pay that much. At the end of the day, when you have an excellent product, people will pay the shipping cost.
Pro tip: If there truly isn't an option to cut back on your shipping costs, offer free shipping and add the price of shipping into all your product offerings to combat people's propensity to back out of buying.
People don’t want to wade through long checkout processes. The self-checkout registers at grocery stores are living proof of this. If you have a lengthy checkout process, you should ask yourself, “What are some ways you could shorten it? What are some steps you could eliminate? Are there too many opt-ins, pop up offers, or other pages that are getting in the way?”
Pro tip: The faster people can check out, the more people will buy from you. People value simplicity, particularly in the checkout process. This is why one-click buying is so appealing on sites like Amazon.
Small business cybersecurity is slated to be one of the most serious economic and national security challenges in 2020. While small business owners think that their website is too small to become a target of web exploitation, this lack of awareness about the risks and consequences can cost you time, wealth, and trust. This is why it’s crucial to upgrade your security as needed so that customers feel safe while checking out.
Pro tip: While it may cost a bit more, getting your Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate can pay off big time if you make most of your sales and transactions online. Websites with an SSL certificate installed can be accessed through the HTTPS protocol, which means that all the data being transferred between you and the website you’re visiting is encrypted and private. According to Google, “Having a secure website with an SSL certificate will have an advantage over unsecured websites.”
If you're a small business, a third-party service such as PayPal can be a great alternative solution.
For a ready-made cart abandonment recipe to help drive visitors with products in their carts back to your website and over the finish line, click here.
Last updated on September 20th, 2023.