Liesha PetrovichAlmost 70% of online shoppers abandon their shopping carts before they make an actual purchase, according to the Baymard Institute. This translates into approximately $ 4 trillion worth of abandoned merchandise!
That means you had them, but somehow you lost them. They slipped through your fingers and clicked away from your site. Probably never to return.
We all know that online shopping grows every year, so it’s not all doom and gloom. Many business make a lot of money selling online, but losing billions to simple shopping cart abandonment is insane. And it doesn’t always need to happen.
There are some great shopping cart options, but many choose an eCommerce platform based on affordability and an easy installation. But you don’t make the sale until a customer pushes the last button. You can lose them at any step along the way.
Think of your entire sales process as a road map that takes a customer to your desired outcome – an actual sale. Any point along this path can turn customers off and they will simply click away from your site. Therefore, your goal is to avoid anything that increases cart abandonment.
Here’s a few main reasons why shoppers abandon their carts and you lose a sale:
Reason #1: You Ignore the “Window Shoppers”
In the past, many merchants thought window shoppers were just browsing or wasting time. Filling up a shopping cart is sort of a hobby. But the reality is 37% of carts are abandoned by researchers who are not ready to buy – yet.
This is a huge opportunity to draw the customer back! Shopping researchers are in a buying frame of mind. They’re looking for a good deal, or maybe waiting until they get paid. It’s not a time to give up on them but gently lead them back to your offer.
Selz, a great platform for online selling, has an Abandoned Cart app that allows you to communicate with customers who have recently abandoned a shopping cart on your site. You can send gentle reminders to the customer, and hopefully they will be motivated to finish the sale. Remember, these customers are already interested in your product or they wouldn’t have added anything to your shopping cart. Recapturing these customers is much easier than selling to any cold prospect.
Reason #2: You Force Customers to Register Before They Buy
Just because you can do something, doesn’t always mean you should. That’s the problem with making customers register before they actually buy anything from you.
According to a Smashing Magazine test, forcing customers to register is a huge turn off. It increases customer frustration, which you need to avoid during the shopping cart process. Customers may not mind registering when given the chance, but they want a choice. Registering before the actual purchase is a detour from the actual sale. Even PayPal thinks it’s a bad idea.
WooCommerce offers a choice of customer registration options. You can add a registration option on the checkout page or “my account” page. Either way, you have the choice on when you have customers register, if at all. It’s obvious why you would like potential customers to register first: you want to market to them down the line. But it’s crazy to lose the sale today for the possibility of future sale.
Reason #3: Your Process is Too Long
Do you know how long the average customer looks at your site? In an article for Time magazine, author Tony Haile says you’ve got less than 15 seconds to grab a customer’s attention. With this kind of limited attention span, customers will never sit through a complicated checkout process.
According to Formisimo, you can lose up to 12% of shoppers simply because you’re checkout is too complicated. Up to 50% of eCommerce sites ask for repeat information. This is crazy! With an incredible short amount of time to grab your customer’s attention, why would you ever ask for repeat information?
Amazon, the eCommerce giant, understands the online shopping process very well. They pioneered the 1-Click option, and now it’s considered one of the most profitable innovations in eCommerce. Sellfy, a great WordPress option for digital sellers, has a one-click buy option. Customers can have the same simple shopping experience at both Amazon and from Sellfy. You literally can’t get easier than a one-click option.
Don’t Lose the Sale at the End!
It’s not enough to get customers to add items to your shopping cart. You have to guide them to the last click of the process. Start thinking like a customer and make sure your entire shopping cart process is streamlined, fast and efficient. You’ll never capture every sale, but you can reduce the number of customers that abandon your shopping cart at the last minute.
Because you’ve worked way too hard to lose customers at the end of the sale.
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