The Art Of Preventing Cart Abandonment
October is here. That means we have officially entered into the year’s fourth quarter. As we all know, the fourth quarter is highlighted by the busiest shopping season of the year. Before you know it, people everywhere will be doing their holiday shopping. In fact, many Canadians have already started. As you may have guessed, much of that shopping is being done online. As an e-retailer, it’s imperative that you cater to the needs of the online shopper.
One extremely important task to undertake is preventing cart abandonment. Far too often, e-commerce sites are piled up with shopping carts from customers who haven’t completed their purchases. What is stopping them from finishing the checkout process? Let’s discuss some ways to avoid cart abandonment.
Offer a flat rate for shipping.
The majority of online shoppers report shipping costs as a top reason for abandoning their carts. Often, the added fees make the purchase costs too high. To remedy this issue, consider offering a flat rate for shipping. This will assure shoppers that, no matter the sizes of their purchases, their shipping fees won’t go through the roof.
“That takes the guesswork out of how much shipping will cost and gives them a reason to buy even more on each order,” writes Jon MacDonald on TheGood.com, “You may not be able to recoup all shipping expenses, but you’ll get some of it back and you’ll build customer loyalty in the process. The increased average order value will cover any costs of shipping.”
Make the checkout process much quicker.
Do you insist that your online shoppers set up accounts on your site? If so, make it an optional step. For many consumers, the quicker their shopping experiences, the better. Ensure that your online store enables shoppers to click as few buttons as possible to select and pay for their items. As Bolt.com affirms, a long, complex checkout process is one of the leading reasons customers abandon payment.
“Every added step and form field slows the user from finishing payment and makes it more difficult,” informs the website, “As customers are looking for a simple, convenient process, any additional steps hurt your user experience. Solution: Reduce steps, minimize data entry, and optimize the checkout to make it more streamlined and straightforward. Set up an auto-save capability for when users abandon their shopping cart with items in it and auto-fill forms when possible.”
Highlight customer testimonials.
There is no better way to advertise your brand than to have your customers do it for you. In our last blog, we highlighted just how important it is to get genuine referrals for your business. MacDonald stresses that using testimonials and reviews to promote your company offers social proof of why doing business with you is an excellent idea. Place customer testimonials throughout your site to help boost your online sales.
“You don’t need a psychologist to tell you how important social proof is to e-commerce,” he writes, “Like the rest of us, you frequently check reviews before placing an order for an unfamiliar product. We tend to believe others (even if we’ve never met them) quicker than we believe the seller. It’s human nature.”
Is your company in need of a safe and secure e-commerce solution?
Unity Payments can help you to take advantage of this ever-growing trend. We’ve made selling online easier than ever! Please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at [email protected] to learn more.