The Cart Abandonment Issues You Need to Know About - FastSpring

The Cart Abandonment Issues You Need to Know About

You’re losing money. We haven’t even met, yet I know this because the data supports it; that each and every day you’re losing potential orders on your website.

Cart abandonment causes online retailers a great deal of pain. How much pain? According to Baymard Institute, a web research company in the UK, 67.45% of carts are abandoned.

Think about that. For every 100 potential customers, 67 of them will leave without purchasing. How much would your revenues increase if you were capturing those sales instead of losing them?

Clearly shopping cart abandonment is a big problem. But it doesn’t have to be.

Here’s our breakdown of a perfect checkout page.

• Calls to action: These are key—keep them concise, consistent, prominent, and color contrasted. Never place the “checkout” button next to the “remove from cart” button.
• Continue Shopping: Allow the customer a direct route back to the main shop.
• Dedicated toll-free number or live chat: This is a chance for the customer to ask questions before they buy.  The more avenues they have to a real live human, the fewer concerns the customer might have.
• Diversify payment options: This is like unknowingly walking into a cash-only restaurant. Nobody likes it. Allowing customers to choose different payment options decreases shopping cart abandonment.
• Security: It never hurts to triple-lock the door and include third party reinforcement such as VeriSign.
• Allow changes: Making moves easy for your customer is the key. Make changing details on the checkout page easy and intuitive.
• Thumbnails: Include thumbnails so customers know they are buying the right item—you don’t want them to have to start the whole process over.
• And while you’re at it . . .
• DO preach it with customer testimonials. Customers love to hear and read other customers’ feedback. On the path to checkout, feature strong testimonials.
• DO offer price guarantees. With the saturation of many markets, nowadays it’s easy to find the lowest price on any service or software. If you’re a niche seller, offer a comparison of like-minded competitors’ prices.
• DO prevent errors. Make sure you’ve tested your purchase path thoroughly to avoid throwing errors. Errors look unprofessional, and they void sales. If the customer is making the error, clearly point out where the error is being made.
• DO follow up if your shoppers abandon their carts. A win-back promotion may be in order, or simply an email offering to help.
• But DO NOT force a customer to register through social media or any other unnecessary step. It’s best to offer guest checkout.
• And DO NOT hide costs of any kind—this is the best way to aggravate customers.