Is Your Cart Being Abandoned?
Today we are looking at Cart Abandonment Rate (CAR) in websites that sell online (Ecommerce). It is vital that customers constantly monitor the reasons why customers take the time to browse and add products to their basket only for something to stop them in their tracks.
Here is the general spread on why people are abandoning the checkout and the areas you need to focus on to make sure they are not abandoning your website at the most crucial time.
Unexpected Shipping
You would have seen this before, you get all the way through the checkout process only to be slapped around the face with a massive delivery cost, sometimes more expensive than the cost of the products you want to buy. The important thing is, to be honest with your customer, spell out the shipping cost in the cart page, not the checkout page, also, if this is an issue, get a delivery page on your website that explains how your delivery options work and if you do not offer it, maybe a click and collect can be an option for you?
Had To Create A New User Account
One of the most frustrating parts of the online shopping process is to have you stopped in your tracks by asking you to register an account online. Sometimes there is a good reason for this but if you put yourself in the position of a customer, they may be ordering a low ticket priced item, e.g, a pack of felt tip pens, why should a customer trade their information (which is valuable to them) for the low priced items. If you can, offer a guest checkout option. The GDPR overhead means even if they do register an account, legally you cannot do anything with it unless you ask them first.
Was Conducting Research
This is normal, customers shop around, your competitors shop on your website to see what is on offer and how much things cost. Companies often get around this by offering a delayed incentive and psychologically pressuring a customer into completing the sale, e.g. Order in the next 20 mins to get same day despatch etc. Amazon is very good at this.
Payment Security Concerns
We have spoken about SSL certificates in the past, even if your payment gateway is secure, you need to make sure your website is also secure. Look for the padlock at the top of the browser window. It should be glowing green, consumers are getting more educated on what a secure website looks like and this is the last place you want to have security concerns creeping in.
Confusing Checkout
The checkout page is crucial and should be kept as simple as possible, the only colour you should have is a coloured button that says "Pay Now" - Try to keep banners off this page and you will find customers flow through this page quickly and easily.
No Coupon Code
We all do it, we hunt around last minute for a coupon code that will get some money off. If you do offer coupon codes then make sure you are dealing with this on the cart page and not the checkout page.
We hope this short post helps you grab hold of the cart abandonment rate issue you may be having. For more information about how Pebble can help you with your Ecommerce website please call us on 01733 902070 or email us via our contact page.