Did you know that cart abandonment can hurt your conversion rate?
Customers may be interested in your products to the point of adding it to their shopping cart. However, they may not push through with it leaving the transaction without making any purchase.
Cart abandonment is very common among customers. SaleCycle placed the global cart abandonment rate at 79.53% in 2022 across all sectors. This may vary depending on the industry, as the purchase process and customer behavior may differ. For sites with complex online experience, the research process may be longer, so the abandonment rate increases.
Meanwhile, Zippia says lost revenue due to cart abandonment for e-commerce stores each year at $18 billion. If you are an e-commerce retailer, this represents a lost income opportunity. You may not be paying attention to it that much, but it’s high time you do.
Reasons for Cart Abandonment and How to Resolve Them
So why do customers abandon their cart? Here are the reasons and how to resolve them.
1. Hidden shipping costs
Are you charging hidden fees in your e-commerce store? 48% of customers cite high shipping costs as a reason for abandoning their online shopping carts. While in the Baymard study indicates that 58.6% of online customers in the U.S alone were still unprepared to purchase or just casually browsing.
Customers treat hidden charges as annoyance and irritation. It may even cause “buyer’s remorse.” You should also be aware of other unexpected charges such as taxes and additional fees that can impact the total costs that the customer would pay.
How To Solve
Informing customers about pricing as early as possible will help lessen cart abandonment. Show a breakdown of the fees, such as tax and shipping. While it may not be possible to show the upfront costs, you can always devise ways to keep pricing visible, like placing them in a sidebar, above the screen, or in other conspicuous places.
Another solution for unexpected shipping costs is to remove them altogether. However, this will depend on the products you are selling. If this is not feasible, you can bundle the shipping fee with the actual product cost. The most important thing is to be transparent with the shipping costs.
2. Creation of a new user account
Your customers shop online because it is convenient, which is what they expect from your online store. They want to process an order quickly and get instant results. However, letting them create a new user account defeats the purpose. It will not only be time-consuming but also an effort for them. Also, some customers find it uncomfortable to provide their personal information.
Online customers have a short attention span. Today, customers like to explore products before buying. If customers cannot proceed because they still need to create an account, they will most likely abandon the cart. According again to Baymard, new account creation is why 24% of users still need to complete their purchase and eventually abandon their cart.
How To Solve
Never force customers to create an account. If your purpose is collecting emails and contact information for remarketing, you can do it after a successful purchase. Alternatively, you can ask the customer if they want to receive email updates about their purchase or other special offers on the confirmation page. Instead of making them register for a new account, offer guest checkout, especially for first-time buyers. With this, they can proceed with ordering and checkout without having to register for a new account.
3. Research first, buy later
The internet has become an indispensable tool for customers to research a product before buying. A 2022 article from Consumer Gravity reveals that 81% of consumers conduct pre-research before making an online or in-store purchase.
Customers look for information like features, benefits, materials, and others. They are looking for valuable information that can convince them to buy your product. If this is missing, customers are likely to leave their shopping carts.
Solution
No matter how you prevent cart abandonment, it can never be truly eliminated. One reason customers abandon shopping carts is that they need more information about the product they intend to buy; hence they cannot initiate an order and checkout.
To remedy the situation, provide product details to help your customer decide on adding the item to their cart.
4. Payment security concerns
Security can be a trust issue for customers. Another reason buyers abandon their shopping carts is because they need to see a trusted logo. In a study by Econsultancy, 48% of respondents cited trust marks as a factor in deciding whether or not they will trust a website.
Just how vital is a trust badge to your e-commerce store? 17% of customers will not complete a purchase if they don’t trust the site. When shopping from an online store, customers want to be assured that their personal information is secured. They may not be comfortable with providing financial information such as their credit card number or bank details.
How To Solve
Make sure you display any trust logos so they know your e-commerce website can be trusted. In addition, include social proof on your e-commerce websites, like customer testimonials, product reviews, or customer endorsements.
When security is a significant issue that keeps shoppers from continuing the checkout process, ensure that your e-commerce website is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant when storing credit card information. You can use a high-quality fraud-detection system to identify fraudulent activity on your online store.
5. Long checkout process
Another reason shoppers abandon their carts is the lengthy checkout process. Nothing can be more annoying to customers than filling up numerous forms before they can complete an order. This can be the result of asking too many questions. Some websites also present products at every step of the order process, thus prolonging checkout.
A data from Jebbit shows that 34.64% customers loses trust if being asked for too much information. For example, online retailers still ask for contact information even if it already has a way of contacting the customer. Customers have already decided on what they will buy so don’t give them a reason to change their mind.
Solution
A lengthy checkout process can be bothersome to the customer. This can be prevented by minimizing your form elements. Every additional step and form field can slow down the checkout process. Remember, customers, are looking for a convenient and straightforward process.
Moreover, it would help if you streamlined website navigation. As much as possible, reduce the number of screens to lessen customer’s time. Another possible solution is to add an auto-save capability. Users who abandoned their carts don’t have to repeat the process from the beginning should they decide to come back and complete the process. If possible, use auto fill-forms so they can pick up from where they left off.
Customers shop online because of the convenience it offers. For this reason, you need to make their shopping experience on your website as short and seamless as possible. Failure to meet their expectations is one of the reasons they will abandon their shopping cart. But you can reduce cart abandonment by delivering exceptional customer service.
Ensuring a positive customer experience is the responsibility of every business. You want to give customers an excellent impression to win their business. Are you looking for a partner to offshore e-commerce customer service? Look only as far as One CoreDev IT (CORE).
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