According to the Baymard Institute, the average documented online cart abandonment rate is around a whopping 68.63%. In simpler terms, eCommerce businesses are losing more than half their possible sales.
The revenue loss of these businesses due to cart abandonment was estimated to be $18 billion in 2012 and is predicted to hit $31 billion by the end of 2016. Cart abandonment is actually one of the most common phenomenons in the eCommerce line.
With the increasing number of businesses taking their products and services online, one of the most common reasons for consumers to ditch their purchases midway is the availability of too many options. Most of them aren’t able to decide which product they really want and often keep looking for better deals than what they are currently getting.
Some of the common reasons, as pointed out in a study by Statista, include:
- Unexpected costs in the cart total
- Not ready to purchase (only browsing)
- Looking/found a better deal
- Complicated navigation and checkout
- Security concerns
- Did not find the preferred shipping and payment methods
Though these reasons for abandonment vary from business to business and customer to customer. But there are ways in which you can actually win back those possible sales.
Actionable Tips On Combating Cart Abandonment
1. Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices
More than 80% of your target audience uses their mobile devices to access your website. Hence, it is important to ensure that your website is responsive and all the processes are optimized for efficient usage on mobile.
2. Avoid Hidden Costs
One of the biggest reasons for a customer to ditch his purchase is being presented with hidden costs during the checkout. Hence, it is important that you mention all shipping and delivery charges clearly beforehand. For example, Forever21 uses a constant banner across all its web pages to let the customer know at what amount they would get free shipping.
3. Optimize The Checkout Process
It is important to understand that online shopping is supposed to be convenient for consumers. Creating a complex or lengthy checkout process will only discourage them from making the purchase. Ask only what is required during checkout, make navigation easy and clear, and also offer them a guest checkout option.
4. Include Social Proof and Security Elements
Sometimes consumers only need to know that they are making the right purchase, from the right business. Including social proof like ratings, reviews and customer testimonials help consumers make better purchase decisions. Adding security elements like third party seals and logos can help reassure them that they are making transactions on a safe channel.
5. Offer Multiple Payment and Shipping Methods
Like we mentioned before, people seek convenience when shopping online. Offering multiple payment modes and shipping methods is a sure-shot way of ensuring that they would complete the purchase. Since it is impossible to offer all sorts of payment and shipping methods, it is important to understand what most of your audience is looking for.
6. Implement An Exit-intent Campaign
Instead of waiting for the visitor to leave to start your cart recovery campaigns, re-target them one last time before they abandon your website. Use bounce prevention technology from companies like Exit Bee to predict their exit intent and target them with a custom overlay. This overlay could contain a message that creates a sense of urgency around the purchase or could simply offer them an incentive to complete the purchase then itself.
7. Spice Up Your Return Policy
Since more than 60% of shoppers look at return policies before buying, it’s clear that many of the people on your website are willing to leave if the return policy is not up to their standards. That’s why you must clearly state exactly what your return policy is. In addition, you need a quality policy, preferably with free returns and a simple process that gives them printable labels so they can drop it off at the post office the next day.
The returns policy is the blanket that shoppers need to carry out their purchases using a phrase such as “no quibble”, “no-hassle” or “no questions asked” puts the customer at ease that it will be sorted if there is an issue or if they happen to change their mind. Placing a graphic on product pages and near the add to cart button can help turn visitors into customers.
8. Cart Recovery Email Campaign & Push Notifications
Email marketing is still the most effective marketing tactic in the digital industry. It gives you the platform to directly make conversational relationships with your customers. Using a cart recovery email campaign is known to enhance conversion rates for eCommerce businesses.
These campaigns can be used to remind the shopper of the items he has left behind, recent sales of those items or sending an incentive that is tailored especially for him to lure him to buy. Sometimes sending across the product images and details remind the shopper of what he was looking for, why and where he can buy it from.
People who come to your eCommerce store are clearly interested in the products you are offering. Instead of just asking them to sign up for your newsletter, ask them if they want to be notified of similar deals or offers that they are browsing through currently. Since this doesn’t require them to share their email address, your visitors are more likely to opt into it. Push notifications enabled by companies like Wigzo enables marketers to create personalized retargeting campaigns to bring their customers back to complete the purchase. Such notifications create a sense of urgency and scarcity by letting the customer know you are going out of stock, uprising them of a new purchase or offering them an additional discount to come back and complete the purchase later.
9. Social Media Re-targeting
Another platform that is effective in bringing back your customers to where they left off, is social media. Retargeting ads display the items that the customer had shown interest in previously on your website and lead them directly to that product page.
Since most of us use social media on a regular basis and spend a considerable amount of time during the day on it, chances of conversion are a lot higher then.
10. Pack Pages With Images and Videos
Shopping online has one big disadvantage, you can’t touch and play around with the item. That’s why imagery is so crucial to keeping people around. When people can’t determine whether a product is a good fit for their wants and needs, they’re less likely to make a purchase. Also, include visual prompts for credit card details, such as an image of where to find the CVV code. Overcome this problem by including thumbnail product images in your shopping cart
Over to you
There are going to be a lot more businesses bringing their products and services online. The one approach that each one of them is going to follow is to acquire customers by offering competitive deals. But it is impossible to match up with them consistently. Hence, businesses and marketers need to find other ways, like those stated above to prevent or recover their abandoned carts.
