The e-commerce landscape has accelerated rapidly over the past decade, fulfilling the needs of those too busy to visit their local high streets or simply offering a convenient procurement solution. Over the years online retailers have had to tackle a number of issues, including supply chain management, payment processing and digital merchandising but none have been as pivotal to the e-commerce experience as cart abandonment.
Shoppers visit your site, browse your products, and add a few items into their basket; then they leave. This all too familiar scenario may seem inconsequential to the untrained eye and even though online shopping carts are abandoned for a number of reasons, the results are always the same – lost revenue. It’s an issue costing retailers over 70 per cent of their ecommerce conversions a year but, more importantly, it’s one that can be avoided following a few simple guidelines:
1. No nasty shipping surprises
Nobody likes to be surprised by shipping costs popping up as they check out. Even a small fee will leave a customer feeling cheated. Irritated they click away to see if another site has free shipping, causing a lost sale. You can still charge shipping, of course, but it makes a lot more sense to make the charge clear from the outset.
2. Get a move on
Consumers do not want to wait for a slow-loading website. When building your site a useful practise is to think about the content first, then the navigation, then design. A slow website will almost definitely turn customers away, before they’ve even had the chance to talk to them. Anything longer than a few seconds, and your visitors will click that back button and you will have lost a customer.
If you do need to use a lot of graphics, make sure to optimise your site to showcase them effectively. The best websites have a clear focus and your visitors should know instantaneously what the purpose of the page is. If the site it too cluttered it can be hard to separate pragmatic information from the visual content.
3. Site navigation can put you in choppy waters
Limit the amount of clicks there are between the homepage and necessary information. The more you force your visitors to navigate around your site, the more likely they will be to abandon it.
4. Streamline your data collecting
What data do you actually need to collect from your customers? Do people have to sign up first, or can they complete an order without being a registered member? First, decide what information you can’t do without, and then make it as easy as possible for users to give their information. Competitor websites are only a click away so the easier you make the process, the more likely you are to convert window shoppers into customers.
The best check-out forms will only ask for the information they absolutely need, splitting the process into manageable chunks. Technology such as address auto-fill can dramatically shorten the checkout process by preventing your customers having to manually type out their address. Equally, as most online retailers extended their international shipping offering, it remains of upmost importance to deal with and maintain an overseas address database with the same consistency as those within the UK.
5. Cyber security is king
Although a number of factors come into play when a customer makes a decision to buy online, nothing is more important than trust.
Even in 2013 many people are still uncomfortable purchasing online and your customers will only buy products if they feel safe and confident in your business. Therefore, it is imperative that you align your website with industry-accepted protocols and standards and include testimonials clearly on your site. Third party generated feedback is great way to promote the trustworthiness of your site; customers may not trust you but they will trust their peers! Make sure you provide full contact information for your customers to get it touch if necessary.
6. Go Mobile
With faster broadband speed, multi-platform surfing and the roll out of 4G across all major UK cities, 2013 is the year for mobile marketing. If you don’t already have a website that’s optimised for mobile, this is the time to do it!
While there is no silver bullet for cart abandonment, online merchants that attack the issue from many angles will achieve the best results. Like many other creative projects, building ecommerce sites can be challenging and, at times, frustrating; there can be endless loose ends to sort out and on occasion, you will no doubt want to pack it in altogether. Perseverance is key; once launched, your ecommerce store will not only generate new and more profitable sales, but will give your business the agility to compete in even the most competitive circles.
