Last week, we discussed the methods to boost site traffic. Today, we’re in the last and most important part of the series – How to reduce cart abandonment and keep your customers close.
As an Ecommerce store owner, your target is to increase revenue through online marketing. But, despite spending so many dollars on ads, the conversion rates remain low. If you’re wondering why, one of the major reasons is – shopping cart abandonments. When you don’t optimize your checkout process, the items stay in customers’ carts forever.
If you’ve tried everything and still find a higher cart abandonment rate, read more to identify the right methods to hold your customers close.
What is shopping cart abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is when your customers add the items to the cart but fail to complete the checkout process. There are a million reasons why customers leave before checking out. However, the shopping cart abandonment rate is an important metric to calculate your conversions and revenue. Below, we discuss a few reasons why customers leave.
5 major reasons why buyers leave before completing the purchase
1. Compulsory account creation
In the fast-paced digital world, customers are unwilling to spend more than a few minutes purchasing. In fact, 23% of the users leave just because they need to create an account to complete the checkout. And as first-time shoppers, creating an account adds an extra layer and complicates the process.
2. High shipping costs
When customers enter their shipping information and see the additional costs, 43% rethink their options. Generally, customers do not want to incur huge costs on shipping. This makes them believe that they’re spending too much on a product that may not be worth it.
3. Wants to give it time before purchase
It’s rare for shoppers to immediately purchase your products. Most of them like to compare items on different sites, including prices and discounts. Especially, the deal hunters end up purchasing from a different retailer.
The other times, the shoppers are just looking to create wishlists that they can choose from later. It’s important that you give them this option to reduce Shopping cart abandonment rates.
4. Delayed or unexpected delivery timelines
Customers do not like to wait endlessly to receive the products. Uncertain delivery, return, and refund policies might send the customers elsewhere. Longer timelines dissolve the purpose of online shopping and increase cart abandonment rates by tenfold.
5. Slow site speed
Slow site speed is the number one factor why customers leave before making a purchase. They opt for online shopping for quick and easy access, however, crash issues and poor app performance make them lose trust in your store. And maybe you will never see them return after a crazy site experience.
While these are a few problem areas for a customer, there is more than one cause for abandonments. Let’s see the ways to gain their trust and reduce cart abandonment.
How to reduce cart abandonment rates?
1. Offer Guest checkout
Your goal should be to offer a simple checkout process and not solely collect their information. Offering a one-step guest checkout will have a reduced shopping cart abandonment rate. If you’re looking to collect emails for promotional purposes, you could do it on the last page as an opt-in.
Additionally, you could use our checkout field editor to change or update fields based on your needs.
2. Send out reminder emails
There could be a lot of reasons why customers leave before purchase. But, a simple way to bring them back to your site is through cart recovery emails. A personalized email can lead them back to the exact place they left off and build trust in your products.
At Woogostores, we noticed recurring problems with email campaigns. So, we decided to offer unlimited emails for a minimal monthly fee.
3. Focus on the delivery speed
Often, customers leave because they are taken aback by higher shipping costs and lower delivery speed. Ideally, they want to receive products sooner and get free shipping. You might think you’re losing out a huge chunk of money in free shipping. But, there are different shipping methods to provide the users with the best and incur minimal costs at your end.
4. Provide different payment options
Imagine you add your favorite products to the cart but aren’t provided with enough payment options? You would probably leave the store and never return. Customers want a range of payment options they can choose from. Hence, make sure to offer a multicurrency checkout with Woocommerce Canada post shipping.
5. Offer a distraction free checkout
Astra Pro offers a distraction-free checkout for your Ecommerce store. That means the header and footer disappear leaving the details intact. Furthermore, it uses form labels as a placeholder which reduces the height of the billing form. And it retains all the information even if the user reloads the page by mistake.
Use the above methods to understand your customers and provide a pleasant checkout process. However, apart from a seamless checkout process, there are other ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Two effective tactics to keep your customers close
1. Store design
Right from the navigation to the checkout process, your store design builds trust in the user. Use a simple flow to lead the customer to the product pages and the checkout page. Now, there are several ways you can do this.
- Offer live chat support
- Provide your contact information on every page to build credibility
- Make CTA’s simple and clear
- Offer one-click shopping for repeat customers
- Show social proof on the landing page
- Keep the design uncomplicated and distraction-free
2. Tracking user behavior
No matter how brilliant your products are, a bad UX can decrease the possibilities of sales. If you want to know why users are abandoning carts, spend some time tracking their behavior. You could do this by:
- Using session recordings that capture the mouse clicks, taps, and movements of the users.
- Using instant feedback form as a pop-up on your site
- Using heat maps to track the most visited areas of your store.
Reading their behavior will let you understand where to optimize your page and which products to add to the inventory.
Wrapping up
Running an Ecommerce business takes patience and time. However, if you have the right tools and understanding of the business, it’s easy to find success. Ecommerce stores lose out on sales majorly because of shopping cart abandonments. And when you fix the small things, the sales fall in place automatically.
However, if you’re overwhelmed with the process, Woogostores can help you run your Ecommerce business without hassle. All you have to do is get in touch with your requirements and we’ll take care of the rest.
Well-done! You are ready to launch and manage your Ecommerce store.
Part 1 – Ecommerce Trends 2021: Proven methods to successfully Grow Your Business
Part 2 – Tips for successfully maintaining your E-commerce store
Part 3 – 5 best ways to choose the right WooCommerce plugin for your online store
Part 4 – Reach your customers fast: A guide to online marketing strategies
Part 5 – How to keep your customers close and reduce cart abandonment
