Must-Use Methods for Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment

Many inexperienced eCommerce business owners may not want to hear this, but the vast majority of online buyers who add things to their carts and proceed to the checkout page never really finish the transaction. These shoppers will instead abandon their purchases, either by leaving the checkout page or by discarding the products they have previously added to their cart.

This is known as “checkout abandonment,” and it’s a problem that many online store owners face often across many different sectors. While some degree of checkout abandonment is unavoidable, it is annoying when consumers are so close to completing a transaction and a sale but not quite there.

Here are seven tried-and-true methods that have been shown to either eliminate or drastically reduce abandoned carts.

Activate Confirmation Prompts When Users Try to Leave

With exit intent technology, you may interact with site visitors via pop-ups as soon as they indicate a desire to abandon your site and, as a result, reduce cart abandonment. It monitors your mouse clicks and provides valuable feedback to improve your sales. Lightboxes, slides, gamified opt-ins, and other creative forms of this pop-up advertising may keep customers interested in your business and their transactions. You have a lot of options, including free delivery, discounts, coupon codes, and more.

Don’t Complicate Things at the Checkout

In general, the number of required stages in your checkout process should not exceed five. Anyone who has shopped online knows how draining it can be to go through many websites’ checkout processes.

Go through the motions of making a purchase and assess your thoughts honestly. Did you find it easy, or did you encounter any frustration? What specifically about the check-out process left you feeling exhausted or annoyed, if anything? These are the aspects of your checkout process that you should get rid of.

Avoid Forcing People to Create Accounts

Do not insist that buyers register for an account with your website as a prerequisite to making a purchase. You may provide this choice to your customers if you wish, but you should also maintain a guest checkout option.

If a consumer chooses the guest checkout option, they shouldn’t be asked to provide any personal information that would be needed for account signup.

Allow for a Range of Payment Methods

The difficulty here is striking a balance between satisfying the customer’s need for simplicity and the requirement to provide them with many payment methods. Having too many different payment options on your checkout page might be confusing.

Instead, provide a variety of payment methods to your consumers, but don’t make it too complicated. Credit cards, debit cards, mobile payment apps, and a PayPal account should cover all your bases. In most cases, this will be sufficient to satisfy a client.

Make Sure Your Clients Are Aware of Your Security Protocols

It is essential that every one of the payment methods offered on your website be PCI-DSS compliant. Make sure your clients are aware of this by clearly labeling the PCI compliance of your payment methods in a tiny but legible font. This alone will go a long way toward calming the nerves of consumers who are worried about the safety of their financial data.

Provide All Pricing Information Upfront

Customers shouldn’t be surprised by taxes, shipping, or any extra expenses when they get to the checkout page. Get this data to the consumer before they arrive at the checkout page.

Far too many consumers are adding items to their shopping carts, clicking through to the checkout pages, and then immediately abandoning their purchases. Customers who, despite knowing this in advance, go to the checkout page are more likely to complete the purchase. While this may result in fewer visitors to the checkout page overall, it should raise the percentage of visitors who go on to successfully make a purchase.

Give Shoppers the Option to Keep Their Carts for Later Use

People often fill their virtual shopping carts with items, go to the checkout page, and then back out at the last second because they change their minds. Many of these buyers, however, may have second thoughts and decide to purchase the things after all, only to be put off by the prospect of having to scour your website once again.

That’s why it’s important to always provide consumers the option to store their shopping carts and return to them later if they change their minds. Those clients who change their minds, later on, will find it much more convenient.

Final Thoughts

Keep in mind that a certain amount of cart abandonment at checkout is unavoidable. While the aforementioned strategies won’t completely wipe it out, they should significantly cut down on the number of abandoned shopping carts.