4 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

In the e-commerce world, it’s all too common an occurrence for shoppers to click off of a site and abandon their filled shopping carts. They were close to doing business, but for some reason chose not to close the deal. Abandoned carts represent lost sales for you, and they could be indicative of a problem with your store policy or site content.

Here are four simple steps to keep your shoppers engaged in the buying process right through to the “Buy Now” button.

1. Permit guest checkout. Requiring shoppers to register on your site can be a major turnoff. Customers may not be invested in your business enough to want to register, shy away from sharing personal information, or just don’t want to be inundated with communications they didn’t ask for. Go ahead and offer the benefits of registration, but be sure to give shoppers the option of checking out as a guest, too. (Another last-minute turnoff: Making shoppers wait for add-on costs, like shipping, taxes and handling. Present these options upfront so customers can do their own mental math and not be surprised when the “buy now” button appears.)
2. Remember your international customers’ needs. If you’re selling internationally, keep your cross-border buyers’ checkout procedures in mind. Prominently state on your information page or section that you ship anywhere, or else spell out exactly where you do business so there are no surprises in the end. In your drop-down menus, make it easy for them to find their country and offer a convenient currency converter.
3. Keep closing the sale simple. Pepper your site with plenty of “Proceed to Checkout” or “Buy Now” buttons on both individual product listing pages and page headers. Once shoppers are in the checkout process, help move things along with intuitive menus or forms for shipping, payment, delivery and gift-wrapping options. Don’t, however, offer information that doesn’t move them toward the pay button – this isn’t the time to ask for site feedback or “likes” on social media.
4. Keep the cart full, and send a reminder. If a shopper closes the browser window with a full cart, be sure to retain those items in the cart so they can view them on a later visit. If you managed to capture an email address, consider sending a friendly reminder to the customer to let them know that their cart is available and you’re ready to ship upon order confirmation.

The Bottom Line
Remember, these tips for shopping-cart abandonment can help close a sale – as long as you’ve done your homework about other pertinent store operations, such as pricing, branding, customer service, creating a social media presence and shopper engagement. Make shopping at your e-commerce site a positive experience from start to finish, and those abandoned shopping carts could become a thing of the past.