5 Secrets to Stop Shopping Cart Abandonment

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The number of customers per day won’t tell you that you have a precise problem. The number of sales a day won’t say much about your business either. However, the number of shopping cart abandonment won’t cease telling you about your business system day in and day out.

The fact is the prospective customers are already captured at the bottom of your marketing funnel. They went through Awareness, Opinion, Consideration, and Preference just to get to the final stage of a shopping experience, namely the Purchase. So, changing their mind in front of the finish line creates a big question mark.

This phenomenon is not as rare as we might think. The Baymard Institute recorded through their research a whopping percentage of 68.63% of shopping cart abandonment. So, let’s see the five secrets to stop this from happening.

Understanding the issue

First off, we can’t just plunge into the solution unaware of the cause that triggered the whole problem in the first place. The guys from Statista will be helping us out in this matter with their research on the exact reasons why customers abandon their online shopping cart.  So, the three main reasons are that there were hidden costs, curiosity, and better competition. These are useful insights for the secrets to turning leads into customers.

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1.     Price transparency

Business is not always about numbers, but it is foremost a connection based on trust. And when the marketing strategies are showing their sharp teeth right at the end of the shopping experience with some extra costs, the bond between brand and prospect is broken.

Both the company and the customers don’t like the idea of extra fees, especially the shipping taxes. The extra costs are a reality that should be acknowledged right from the start. Otherwise, it is a good opportunity for your competition to win your prospects without moving a finger.

Also, the customer hates when the company presents various prices, depending on the times the page was accessed. To avoid this kind of shady strategy, the customer must use an incognito page or clear the cache. This is frustrating and breaks the user’s trust in the company.

2.     Turning “just browsing” into purchase

The second reason why prospects are abandoning their carts is that they were just browsing. However, is this really the whole truth? I believe that the 37% of customers that are at the end of the purchase funnel are not there by chance. This can mean that the marketing strategies are efficient, but not persuasive enough.

Thus, “just browsing” can be translated into some more accessible words, like hesitation and uncertainty. There are many factors that nourish doubts for the online shoppers. They cannot test the product before buying it, and that is the major flaw of the online shopping experience.

However, providing assurances that shift the focus from the credit card to the product itself can narrow down that large percent of 37%. One such assurance is a ubiquitous assurance of a strong return policy that appears especially in the checkout. This way, the feeling of wasting money on marketing tricks is dispelled.

3.     Continue the shopping experience on checkout pages

Often times, the checkout process is a disruptive experience from the shopping part itself. It looks too stern, impersonal, and cold. The purpose of the check out is indeed a guidance of the financial process, but this isn’t necessarily an excuse to dismiss a personal touch.

Let’s take a look at the shopping experience from a real commercial venue. When the customers have decided upon the product, they are not leaving the fancy shop for the gray office of the Finance Department. They are still in the shop, and they are not losing their new acquisition from sight. There are some tricks to offer a similar experience in the online world.

First off, think about installing a progress indicator on checkout pages. This is a great way to send the message that the process is short, and the unknown doesn’t lead to unnecessary frustrations.

Secondly, it is recommended that the customers don’t lose the sight of their products throughout the process. This implies that the thumbnails of the products can be included in the pages. This method emphasizes that the customers will receive a better version of themselves which makes the checkout a more pleasing experience.

4.     Multiple Payment Options

Even though the e-commerce works seemingly with online payments, everybody has a favorite paying method, including the more traditional ways. The clients should be feeling comfortable with their purchasing decisions, and facing a new and unexplored payment method can trigger the unwanted uncertainty.

The personal finances are a delicate issue, and there exists no high authority that can influence the customers on their payment preferences. Thus, the shopping cart abandonment can be easily avoided by making any paying method available, no matter how classic they might be.

5.     The “Save for later” button

The most intriguing problems usually have the simplest solutions. The personal budgets aren’t an infinite resource, no matter how much the clients love your products. So, by simply putting at the disposal of the users the option to mark their wanted products for later, you please the purchasing funnel and the savings of the customers.

There is this general phenomenon when the consumers deplete their incomes in the first couple of days of the month, and they are waiting for the next month to purchase their favorite products. However, today’s preferences might be replaced by tomorrow’s trends. Keeping their desire alive for at least a month through behavioral retargeting, email notifications and the “save for later” button should do the trick.

So, these are the five secrets to avoid the shopping cart abandonment. As the researchers proved that this is a frequent problem for any company, there’s no better time than today to invest resources in this area.

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About the Author

Dustin Ford

The curiosity and the passion for technology defined Dustin Ford’s life. He always wanted to know more about the internet, social media, and marketing. Through his writings, he gets to share with others like him topics that fascinates him.

We are influencers and brand affiliates.  This post contains affiliate links, most which go to Amazon and are Geo-Affiliate links to nearest Amazon store.