Abandonment of the shopping cart is one of the biggest problems of the e-commerce industry, although many experts see it as a natural element of the buying cycle for those who prefer shopping online. We all like to carry out a few checks before we finally decide on buying something. Online buyers too have the right to test the waters before they make a firm purchase.
Cart Abandonment Is an Opportunity You Must Cash On
It would help online companies better, if they look at cart abandonment as a potential opportunity instead of a missed chance. Abandonment of carts should be seen as a message that consumers are delivering. You must try to decipher that message and make suitable changes to the process or product quality to make sure their reasons for abandonment are suitably addressed.
Remember that by carting a product after browsing through the products list, the consumers send a very strong signal of intent. What happens later which forces them to abandon the cart must be analyzed carefully because it can be more damaging to your business than you could probably imagine.
Tweak Marketing Strategies for Improved Conversions
Cart abandonment can be particularly frustrating when you have successfully pulled off your SEO and PPC strategies and brought your customer right to the cart filling process. When your strategy crumbles at the final hurdle, it can be a highly exasperating situation. However, wait, it is not all over yet. You can minimize cart abandonment by making some changes to your marketing strategies.
The biggest percentage of cart abandonment comes from those who are simply trying to compare the prices of merchandize they intend to buy through window shopping. While this segment can still be very valuable business prospects as they have given strong buying intent around specific items, they must be categorized differently. Research shows that they were not really ready to buy at the time of abandonment and are looking for some strong signs that they truly have a bargain on their hands.
Don’t Surprise Consumers at the Fag End of Purchase Cycle
According to e-commerce experts, another key reason for abandonment of cart is unusually high shipping charges. You may be surprised to know that shipping costs could account for as much as 75 percent of abandoned carts in ecommerce. It is common for most retailers, not to disclose shipping costs until the last stage of the checkout process. An unusually high shipping charge can put off potential customers.
To get a price shocker at checkout is entirely undesirable. Customers have limited time to think and make decisions, and hence choose the easy way out by abandoning the purchase. Any type of unexpected charges during the checkout process can increase abandonment. The best way is to prevent last-stage surprises, especially in terms of pricing.
Make Checkouts Smooth, Seamless, and Hassle-Free
It is seen that poorly organized checkouts coupled with long form filling processes that involve asking for irrelevant and even inane data is a sure way of increasing the instances of cart abandonment. Consumers are becoming increasingly impatient while shopping online and prefer merchants with a quick, hassle-free, and smooth checkout process. Give them what they want and you will experience a dramatic fall in the number of cart abandonments.
