Cart abandonment is a very regular issue that every eCommerce store faces. Stats say that the conversion rate of eCommerce ads in the US is only around 2.6 percent. Among the failed conversions, a huge majority of people abandon their purchase in the midway, after adding their desired products to their cart.
High cart abandonment rates are always a burden for eCommerce businesses. Cart abandonment happens when customers add products to their cart but leave the platform without completing a purchase. This mainly happens due to poor shopping experience or difficulty in the checkout process of an eCommerce website.
Cart abandonment, when not treated early, can cost your eCommerce store a lot of regular and new customers. In this article, we will have a look at the major reasons for cart abandonment and how to reduce it.
Reasons For Shopping Cart Abandonment
Given below are the major reasons for shopping cart abandonment.
- Long or Confusing Checkout Process
Online shoppers want the deal to be as easy and soon as possible. When you complicate the checkout process with many steps and forms to fill, customers will surely find it annoying and quit the process. Apart from losing a purchase, you will lose a potential customer forever if he/she does not choose to purchase from your store again.
- High Shipping Costs
Most customers do not encourage shipping charges for the products they purchase. Additional shipping costs can ruin their shopping experience and they will most probably abandon their purchase.
- Mandatory Account Signups
Many eCommerce websites ask the user to set up an account before making a purchase. Customers who are looking for a quick solution, or those who are reluctant to share their personal information will back off from the purchase in these conditions.
- Security Concerns
If customers are concerned about the security of their data on your website, they will deter themselves from providing any information. This includes both their personal and payment-related data. Apart from this, the lack of a secure return and refund policy will also discourage them from continuing the purchase.
- Product Quantity Restrictions
The restrictions imposed on how much a person can purchase may irritate the customers after they reach the limit. This will force them to abandon the purchase.
- Lack Of Payment Options
Online shoppers prefer to use payment options that they use usually in other cases. If an eCommerce website has very limited payment options, the customers who use other options will quit the site before the payment process.
- Long Delivery Times
Online shoppers want their products delivered as soon as possible. If your expected delivery time is longer than usual, they may bounce back to other eCommerce platforms.
- Performance Issues
The poor performance and user experience that an eCommerce platform delivers may lead to cart abandonment. If the product or payment pages take time to load, the customers will no longer continue the purchase due to the fear of double payment.
Decreasing Shopping Cart Abandonment
To make your eCommerce business successful, shopping cart abandonment rates should be decreased. Here are some tips that can help you with this.
- Transparency About All Costs
When you provide the customer with the final cost on the product page itself. This way, there won’t be any unexpected pricing that discourages them during the payment process. This will reduce sudden cart abandonments in the payment stage.
- Display Products Throughout the Checkout Process
When you display thumbnails of products throughout the checkout process, the audience will be able to reassure their choices and also discourage them from quitting the purchase.
- Use Progress Indicators
Progress indicators can give the customer an idea about where they are now and how far they have to go to complete the purchase. Easy checkout along with progress indicators can decrease cart abandonment rates.
- Load Speed
Studies suggest that 60 percent of visitors bounce back from a website if the loading time is more than 3 seconds. Fast loading pages can provide a speedy and comfortable checkout experience for your customers, urging them to shop more. This will also reduce any chance of cart abandonment.
- Don’t Force Account Creation
You should have the provision for guest purchases rather than a mandatory account creation for purchases. To collect email and other information for marketing and promotion, you may recommend customers save their checkout information during confirmation.
- Live Chat Support
It is best to avoid cart abandonment when the visitor is still on your eCommerce platform. For this, you should provide live chat support that can address customer queries instantly, so that the customer never feels unattended throughout the process. You may use cart abandonment data to identify the areas of frequent abandonment and provide help at these areas.
- Offer Multiple Payment Options
Limited payment options may cost you a lot of potential customers at the payment stage. Thus, you should provide multiple payment options that include all the popular ones, so that almost every customer has a fair choice.
- A Solid Return and Refund Policy
Online purchases are still considered risky with fraud and unauthorized eCommerce platforms rising in number. Thus, to enhance your credibility and improve customer satisfaction, you should provide a strong refund and return policy to your customers. This will provide them a peace of mind to complete the checkout process.
- Retarget Abandoners
Even if a customer quits the checkout process, you should try to regain their attention with relevant ads and personalized emails. Reminding and reassuring them will make sure that they continue their purchase from where they left off.
- Analyze Customer Behavior and Experience
You should analyze the recurring cart abandonments and the stages in which they happen. You may also collect feedback from converted and abandoned customers. These two practices will help you to improve your eCommerce service wherever necessary.
Cart abandonment is something that even the most successful eCommerce platforms witness. But the idea here is to reduce it to the minimum, and treat it as soon as possible so that it does not affect your business. So, be sure to provide a stellar customer experience on your eCommerce website.
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