Cart abandonment is when customers add items to their online cart and leave before completing the transaction. It’s a common problem for most online business owners, resulting in revenue loss.
A high cart abandonment rate often signifies issues with an eCommerce store’s checkout process. However, other factors may cause cart abandonment, such as poor navigation and countless distractions like pop-up windows.
The causes may also vary depending on your brand, niche, and target customers. Understanding why your customers left may help you reduce cart abandonment rates in the future. You can do that by conducting surveys, user research, and competitor analysis.
Once you get insights and other helpful analytics data, it’s time to propose a solution. To get started, here are the strategies you can consider to lower the cart abandonment rate:
- Allow Guest Checkout
It’s crucial to avoid a lengthy checkout process, especially with the short attention span of online shoppers. Even if collecting valuable information is essential for eCommerce shops, simplifying your checkout process by providing a guest checkout option can significantly reduce the cart abandonment rate.
A guest checkout option saves customers time and completes their purchases hassle-free. If it’s your first time considering a guest checkout for your store, make sure to understand its pros and cons and discover how it can be an excellent solution to simplify your checkout process.
- Create A Sense Of Urgency
More people are interested in items that are in demand. Typically, they think the product must be good when it’s always in limited quantity. It also creates a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to buy immediately while the supplies last.
Aside from showing the stock availability of your items, you can also create a sense of urgency by offering deals or discounts for a specific period. For example, provide discounts that only last for an hour or so. This way, your customers won’t hesitate to complete the purchase to take advantage of the discounts.
- Show Clear Calls-To-Action (CTA)
When shoppers add items to their carts, be sure to make the next steps clear. For instance, remind them of the items they added to their cart and provide them with easy-to-follow instructions to check out their items. With this, your shoppers can quickly proceed to the checkout page without getting confused or unsure about what they should do next.
- Be Clear With Your Warranty And Return Policy
Most customers want to transact with a store offering a warranty or return policy to ensure their money won’t go to waste. So, to build trust with your customers and reduce the cart abandonment rate, you must show your return policy or warranty information clearly. By making it visible to your shoppers, they can decide to purchase from your store with confidence.
- Add More Payment Options
Another reason customers leave their online carts is because of a lack of payment options. Many people have different preferences for how they like to pay online and would only go through with the transaction if they saw their preferred payment method. Hence, consider adding more payment options to avoid this problem and lower your cart abandonment rate.
Other than providing multiple payment options, you may implement express checkout process options for a seamless transaction. It may also prevent potential customers from considering other competitors over your business.
- Simplify Your Website Navigation
If you want your customers to complete the purchase and prevent cart abandonment, ensure your website is easy to navigate. Remember that most customers prefer quickly adding items to their shopping carts and browsing other items easily before completing the transaction. If your website has complicated navigation, your customers are more likely to abandon their carts.
As a solution, lessen the number of page views and clicks required to complete transactions. You can do this by simplifying the process of adding products to the carts and then allowing them to return to the checkout page once they’re done shopping around and ready to purchase.
- Offer Free Shipping
Another strategy to avoid high cart abandonment rates is offering your customers free shipping. Some customers abandon their carts because of an expensive shipping fee. At times, several stores have shipping fees that cost more than the actual prices of their products.
Thus, consider offering a free shipping fee to prevent your customers from abandoning your cart. For example, you can provide free shipping for a particular minimum order. This way, you won’t only boost your average order value but also reduce cart abandonment.
Bottom Line
Reducing the cart abandonment rate is often a challenging task for many online business owners. However, it doesn’t have to be complicated. By following the above strategies, it’s possible to lower the cart abandonment rate and avoid it in the future, helping boost your sales and improve your customer’s overall shopping experience.