10 Practical Tips to Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment 2021

Shopping Cart Abandonment and how to prevent it

Losing online customers or not getting them to finish that purchase is very frustrating for ecommerce retailers. You certainly want to prevent or reduce shopping cart abandonment on your ecommerce site. For e-commerce sites, shopping cart abandonment rate is a significant metric to keep track of.

A study published in December 2020 by Statista demonstrated that 88% of online shopping carts were abandoned in March of that year. Another study from Forrester suggests that cart abandonment causes 18$ million loss to brands each year.

As a business owner selling products online, when customers add items to their shopping cart but leave before finishing their purchase it can have a huge impact on your business.

A high rate of abandonment could mean a bad user experience or an ineffective or broken sales funnel. If you want to prevent shopping cart abandonment, here are our tips on improving the checkout flow.

Common reasons for shopping cart abandonment

Lack of trust

Customers aren’t always comfortable sharing their credit or debit card info online. Social proof and payment security are important to build customer trust and confidence in your business. Make sure that you have an up-to-date SSL certificate on your website and clear returns policy. Show your customers evidence that other people found your products and your site safe, secure and reliable.

Sign up to TrustPilot, Google My Business and other review services and ask for testimonials from existing customers. Get active on social media. Not only is this good for promoting your products to your audience, gives you some SEO benefits, it also shows your potential clients that you are real and engaged with your business.

High shipping costs

Nobody wants to see their total double when they go to pay! Customers commonly abandon their carts when they see their order comes with a high shipping fee. You can avoid this by offering vouchers or free shipping.

Lack of payment options

If your customers preferred payment method is not available, customers will most likely abandon their carts too. Choose the best payment gateway provider for eCommerce business and offer the most popular payment methods in your country to prevent this from happening.

Product prices are too high or expensive

Customers often compare product prices on other ecommerce sites before they purchase. In addition to having a great product description, with all potential questions answered, prevent buyers from leaving your site by giving discounts, deals, or free vouchers.

No checkout process for mobile users

More customers use their smart phones while shopping so you have to optimise mobile checkout. You could be losing a lot of sales because people aren’t going to put up with a difficult shopping experience.

How to prevent shopping cart abandonment

When a potential customer starts a check out process, these tips will increase the chance of them completing the purchase.

1. Offer free shipping

High shipping cost is the number 1 reason consumers leave their carts. Free shipping provides the clear impression that the online store reaches part-way with its customers. This marketing strategy entices new sales and increases order values. It will also help your business remain competitive. It's an opportunity for customers to shop with you and a big selling point instead of your business rivals, so take advantage of it.

2. Enable guest checkout

Being forced to create an account makes customers abandon their carts. 34% of people say they abandoned for this reason. Make the checkout process user friendly and as simple as possible.

Creating an account slows down the process of checkout. Most people don't have the time and don't necessarily want to receive promotional emails. Instead, offer them guest checkout. You can always ask them to create an account if they have already made a purchase.

3. Create a sense of urgency

Shoppers need extra motivation to purchase. Here you can use scarcity. Highlight limited stock or end state during sale. This is a powerful technique to draw your customers to buying the product. You can also offer time-limited bonuses or special deals. Add a time-sensitive bonus, or add a specific end-time to that product. Shoppers will rush and even set their alarms so they won’t miss their chances.

4. Give multiple payment options

Do not limit your sales because a certain payment method is not offered by your ecommerce site. This is the digital age, and at least two or three kinds of payment methods are used by everyone. Paypal, being one of the most well known as well as other online payment systems.

5. Simplify cart-homepage navigation

Don’t pack your navigation bar with a lot of options. Make navigation between cart and homepage effortless for your site visitors. Help them navigate through your site by offering logical, intuitive navigation options.

6. Retarget on social

Social retargeting can reintroduce your products your visitors were already interested in but left and abandoned their carts because of some reasons. Retargeting is a game changer to most retail sites, because it tracks visitors and offers them promotions and deals to persuade them to return and make a purchase. Retargeting reduces cart abandonment by 6.5%.

7. Display reviews and feedback

Online reviews drive purchases. It helps the customer make the right decision. And they make your brand more visible, as well as proving you are trustworthy. Savvy consumers today look for reviews on items they want to purchase first before actually buying it. The average consumer reads 10 online reviews before making a purchase decision. They look for honest real experiences from actual customers.

8. Good customer support

Customers expect good service and convenience. Lack of customer support makes them want to leave their carts abandoned. Some retail ecommerce sites offer live chat support to assist customers and answer their questions real-time.

9. Mobile-friendly ecommerce

Creating a superior mobile experience for your customers who visit your e-commerce website is now more critical than ever. If the user is unable to browse and read the content from their mobile device on your website quickly, they would be left uninspired. You improve the likelihood of turning visitors into customers if a visitor is able to access your pages easily and the content is written mobile-friendly.

10. Display security badges

A trust badge is an emblem or icon put on your website that guarantees the integrity of the page to your visitors and that all procedures they’ll take are safe and secure. Trust badges can increase conversion rates.

There are 5 trust badges you can display on your website

1. Accepted payment trust badges
2. Third-party endorsements
3. Money-back guarantee badge
4. Free shipping and free returns trust badge
5. Guaranteed safe and secure checkout badge

There are several ways to reduce, prevent and undo shopping cart abandonment, and encourage your clients to purchase items from your website.

Make it easy for customers to trust, reach, and make purchases from you and boost your sales overall.

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