04 Nov Avoiding The Abandoned Cart
Recent studies published online by MarketingSherpa, comScore and PayPal among others, have indicated cart abandonment rates of between 40 and 60 percent for online shoppers before carrying out the checkout process.
Reasons for cart abandonment are many, among the most often cited being security concerns, over-complication of the checkout process, unexpectedly high shipping costs and the lack of acceptable payment options.
Bearing in mind that these valuable potential customers have already been attracted to your site, and have already shown interest in your products and prices (evident by their having added items to their cart), what can be done do help prevent – or recover from – cart abandonment?
* All online stores should offer checkout routines with certified SSL encryption and clearly stated security, delivery and returns policies.
* Make the checkout process as streamlined as possible; each extra step is another chance for the customer to leave.
* Pre-populate previously-saved customer information to increase confidence and reduce form-filling.
* Provide multiple payment options
* Use fine-grained control of shipping prices based on factors such as quantity, location and order value to offer the best value shipping you can.
* Collect detailed visitor statistics to examine where and when customers with populated carts failed to complete their transactions
* Use sophisticated email management to remarket to potential customers
Talk to Sure Communication (sur.co.uk) Ltd about our range of eCommerce tools (including the QuickBuy 1-click checkout solution), professional content management and email marketing, integrated visitor statistics and SEO programs, website design and feature-packed hosting, all designed to help you develop eCommerce sites that work.