You’ve attracted a visitor to your online store, they’ve browsed your products, added items to their cart… and they disappear. No purchase. Another lost opportunity.

Sadly, abandoned shopping carts are something that every eCommerce company has to deal with from small startups to global giants. The good news is that you can greatly reduce the amount of customers that do this by making certain changes to your site and service.

This first involves understanding the major causes of shopping cart abandonment. Why do customers change their mind at the last minute? There are a few different reasons, which this post explores.

Cause #1: No Guest Checkout

When you’re in a hurry to make a purchase, nothing is more frustrating than being told you need to ‘create an account’ first. This means having to come up with another username and password, and potentially having to tick extra boxes and fill in extra information before you can get to the checkout. 

While forcing customers to create an account can help you to gather more data, make the purchase more secure and potentially encourage more people to opt-in to your mailing list, it can also create friction and sometimes cause you to lose out on sales. This is why a ‘guest checkout’ option is always advised.

This should be a quick alternative checkout option that asks for minimal information, encouraging impatient or privacy-conscious buyers to follow through with their purchase.

Another strategy that some eCommerce businesses use is to ask customers to create an account after they’ve made a purchase – this gets the purchase out of the way first before asking customers to commit to creating an account.

For complex products that require lots of information to fill in, consider enabling auto-fill and add a progress bar below to motivate customers to keep going so they don’t feel trapped in an endless form.

Cause #2: Unexpected Added Fees

Some customers may feel that they’ve been scammed if the final price isn’t the same as the price advertised upfront. They may have gone into the purchase with a tight budget. Alternatively, they may lose trust due to lack of transparency.

With fees like shipping fees, packaging fees, taxes and handling charges, it’s best to advertise them alongside the initial price rather than ambushing the customer with them right before they pay. This could include advertising the price without these fees and then the price with these fees next to it or below.

In some cases, it may even be useful to add a calculator so that customers can work out the cost of any extras before they enter the checkout process.

Cause #3: Slow Shipping Options

Lengthy shipping times are another major cause of shopping cart abandonment. Most online shoppers these days are used to fast delivery. 3 days is now seen as the standard – with many shoppers expecting the additional choice of fast shipping.

If many of your customers are based far away and you’re getting lots of abandoned shopping carts, consider whether slow shipping may be a cause. By working with a Fulfilment company that can arrange speedy shipping for you, you could give customers the option of faster delivery.

This is recommended if you sell items that customers are likely to need in a hurry such as home essentials or popular gift products. You could even look into options like drop-shipping to provide next day delivery in various locations, which could greatly increase the number of purchases you get if you sell emergency goods. 

Cause #4: Security Concerns

Trust is everything in eCommerce. If a shopper doesn’t feel confident that their data and payment details are safe, they won’t complete the transaction – no matter how much they like your product.

Make sure that you’re not spooking customers without outdated design, browser warnings or a checkout page that opens in a different window. Keep the layout clean, display clear trust badges, include a privacy policy on your site and apply for an SSL certificate (this is vital for accepting payments).

To help you improve the security of your site, it might be worth working with a website developer or cybersecurity consultants. Always get technical support if you think your site has been hacked or warnings display when you try to visit it. 

Cause #5: Limited Payment Methods

Not all customers will pay using the same methods, so you need to provide a degree of flexibility. Customers could get put off if you don’t accept credit cards, if you don’t support popular digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay, or if you don’t offer finance or BNPL options with big ticket items.

Use a payment provider that supports lots of different payment solutions. Make sure to compare fees – while increasing your payment options could lead to more customers, you don’t want to pay huge extra fees.

If you’re selling to customers in different countries, it could be important to accept different currencies. A multi-currency bank account might be worth setting up.

Cause #6: Lower Competitor Pricing

Some online shoppers like to compare prices before they commit to a purchase. They could have multiple tabs open for different stores. As soon as they find a cheaper option, they’re likely to abandon your store.

How do you combat this? By regularly doing competitor research and comparing prices of rival stores. If they’re selling the same product for a lower price, you may want to consider whether it’s time to lower your pricing.

Sometimes it’s not always pricing that converts a customer but a better warranty or loyalty rewards. Take your time browsing competitor stores and determine whether your store is good value.

Start reducing shopping cart abandonment today

Shopping cart abandonment will never be zero – some people treat shopping carts as wishlists or simply get interrupted and forget to come back. However, by addressing some of the causes above, you can greatly reduce the majority of cases. Consider also sending out abandoned shopping cart reminder emails or using push notifications to encourage shoppers to commit to their purchase.

What additional thoughts would you add?

Featured image by Pexels. CCO Licensed.
.