How to Decrease Cart Abandonment
Imagine going into Asda or Debenhams, filling your shopping cart, only to be side tracked and to forget about your entire cart full of shopping and leave. This is not an uncommon scenario in the online world of ecommerce. It’s known as shopping cart abandonment, where consumers add items to their online shopping cart and never complete the transaction.
Unfortunately, your cutting-edge website and simple purchasing process are not always good enough. Shopping cart abandonment it’s just one of the unavoidable, unfortunate realities that ecommerce businesses have to acknowledge.
But, lucky for you, we’ve got some excellent tips to help you reduce your cart abandonment rates.
Before we begin, it’s important we note the different reasons why consumers may abandon their cart:
- – They never had an intention of buying, they placed the item in the cart by accident
- – They’re looking to see if the product is cheaper elsewhere
- – They’re using the basket as a wish list and they’ll buy when they’re ready
- – They changed their mind
- – They found another product more suitable
- – They got distracted from their cart
- – They’ve decided to look at the item in person instead
There could literally be any reason why consumers change their mind about a buying a product, so it’s important businesses do not make assumptions about cart abandonment.
With the above reasons in mind, it’s inevitable that your website will at some point experience cart abandonment, but it’s your job to encourage consumers to revisit their cart and complete the transaction.
Tips to Tackle Cart Abandonment
1. Consider Adding a Progress Indicator
Keep consumers up-to-date with where they are in the checkout process to reduce their impatience and frustration. We all know how annoying it is to be stood in a lengthy queue at a store with no idea how long until you can walk out – so try to avoid a similar experience on your ecommerce website.
Let them know exactly where they’re up to and assure visitors they’re almost done so they don’t get bored and give up.
2. Feature Strong CTA’s on Checkout Pages
Calls to actions are an efficient way to encourage consumers to complete their purchase.
Keep the message clear and consistent through your CTA’s and test different styles to see what works best. For example:
- – Complete your purchase
- – Continue
- – Checkout
- – Buy Now
3. Offer Guest Checkout
Businesses can gather a lot of data about their customers when they make an account with them to complete a purchase – but this could actually be a deterrent for some consumers.
Giving consumers no other option but to log in to make a purchase can be a huge obstacle for them to buy a product.
Give the option of login or guest check out to cater for all consumers.
4. Offer Different Payment Options
Continuing from the point above, you don’t want anything to be an obstacle for consumers to complete a purchase. Offer a select few payment options could be another obstacle – offer different credit cards, PayPal and even mobile payments to make the process as convenient for buyers as possible.
5. Send Reminder Emails
If consumers are in the process of completing a transaction, then it’s likely you’ll have collected their email address.
After a consumer has abandoned their cart, promptly send them a quick reminder and a couple of follow ups in the upcoming days.
Don’t wait too long to remind them (ideally less than 24 hours for the first email) and don’t send numerous ones – 1 – 3 will suffice.
6. Retargeting
Capture consumer behaviour and collect data by attaching a cookie to each user session.
Use social media to create capturing campaigns to those who have abandoned their cart or to consumers who have viewed a product to try and recapture their attention.
No matter how well-designed your website is and how excellent your products are, there will still be the odd cart abandonment or two.
Explore our options, put yourself in your consumers shoes to identify the possible reasons why they abandon carts and work to resolve the issues.
Why not check out our Digital Marketing Terms Glossary?
About the author:
Marie Harwood is a Digital Marketing Assistant at Different Gravy Digital, Hale, Cheshire.
Different Gravy Digital are a full service Digital Marketing Agency operating in the Hospitality & Leisure, Financial Services, Legal & Property sectors. Products and services range from; 3D & 360° Tours, Website Design & Build, Social Media, Video Production, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Creation, Email Marketing, Online Feedback / Review Systems and Paid Advertising (Google, Bing and Social Media).
Contact Details:
marie@differentgravydigital.co.uk
0161 706 000
120a Ashley Road, Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 2UN