By Marina Sala, on 7 September 2022
In marketing, knowing the cart abandonment rate of your ecommece business could give you clues about how successful the purchase process is. To understand it, all you need to know is the number of visitors who have added at least one product to the cart and have not completed the purchase. Then, you compare this against the users who did complete their purchases.
When this percentage is too high, you need to find out what could be happening and look for a way to reduce it.
Why Abandoned Carts Occur
There are several reasons why a user might abandon the shopping cart. So if the abandonment rate is too high or starts to increase, the first thing you should do is check the following:
- Hidden or additional costs: Many consumers abandon their shopping cart when taxes, additional charges, and shipping costs are added to the products. Specifying the price of the product, including taxes, and shipping costs, is one way to solve this problem.
- Delivery and return policies: Many consumers decide to abandon the cart when the delivery period is excessive or when the return policies are unclear or too complex. The faster and simpler this process is, the better.
- Ordering and payment process: Both the purchase process and the payment process must be quick and simple. Avoid users needing to fill in information more than once. In fact, it should be possible to place an order without the user having to register first.
- Problems in the payment process: The payment process is one of the most delicate, so in addition to communicating that the website is a safe place to buy a product, it must be fast and offer different options so that the consumer can choose the one he feels most comfortable with.
Technical errors: Any error, no matter how small, can convey a lack of professionalism and trust on the part of the brand, so it is important to check that throughout the purchase process there are no technical or loading errors.
Faced with an increase in abandoned carts, you should detect why the error is happening to avoid a decrease in sales that could jeopardize the stability of the company.
10 Strategies to Reduce Cart Abandonment Rate
Once you have checked that everything is working correctly, there are ways to reduce the abandonment rate and increase conversions for your ecommerce business:
Reminds Users What They Have Left to Buy
Carrying out a good email marketing strategy can be very useful in these cases. Reminding the user that they have an abandoned cart and that they can recover it to complete their purchase, as well as informing them of the value of the selected products, can be a good way to reignite their interest.
Not all users who receive this email will complete the purchase, but a small percentage will.
Reconnect With Them at the Right Time
In addition to email marketing, personalized ads are a way to reconnect with users who have already visited your website and shown interest in your brand's products or services. To attract their attention, you can include offers, promotions, or discounts.
Provide Assistance in Closing the Sales Process
Customer service is fundamental in the purchasing process. Although contact via email or telephone is fine, you can also use a chatbot or other communication platforms, which can be integrated with any ecommerce business quickly and easily.
Facilitate Shipping Policies
In addition to reducing shipping costs as much as possible, the delivery time should not be excessive. It should also be as easy as possible for the customer to return the product if he or she is not satisfied with it.
Ideally, the delivery time should not exceed 3 days, although there may be exceptions depending on the type of product or service for which the customer is paying. As for returns, ideally, the package should be picked up at the same delivery address or the customer should also have the option to leave it at a collection point, and the refund should be as fast as possible.
Check the Security of Your Website and Trust in Your Brand
In order for the user to finalize the purchase, he or she must trust the brand and website. This means that the products must have a description, a quality photograph, and a price without any hidden costs.
In addition to all of the above, which helps generate confidence in the user, privacy information must be provided and trust seals must be displayed to certify to the buyer that he or she is on a totally secure platform and his or her data is not at risk.
Create a Sense of Urgency
You can create a sense of urgency for the user in different ways, including a countdown, indicating the inventory stock when there is little stock left, or launching limited edition products.
Leverage Scarcity Marketing
Scarcity marketing consists of offering products or services that are difficult to obtain or creating a kind of artificial scarcity in order to make them much more desirable. When this happens, the user does not usually risk leaving the product in the cart for fear of losing it.
To do this, you can launch limited editions of a product or even indicate how other users are behaving. If you indicate the number of people who have bought a product it becomes more interesting and attractive.
Optimize Your Checkout Process with A/B Testing
The purchase process should be quick and easy. In addition, it should not be mandatory for the user to register in order to be able to buy and you should always avoid asking for the same information twice, especially when it comes to payment details or shipping address.
Registered users should not be asked for the information again, although they should be given the option to change it.
Offer Multiple Payment Options
Customers should be offered different payment methods so they can choose the one they are most comfortable with. In the case of an expensive product, you could even offer a financing plan.
In order for the customer to feel comfortable entering his credit card details, the website must come off as secure.
Create Discount Codes for Abandoned Carts
In order to get the user interested in the abandoned cart again, you can offer discount codes or promotions for a limited time. It is also very common to offer free shipping. Helping the customer save a little money is always a good strategy to achieve that conversion.
