Optimize Your Ecommerce Shopping Carts to Minimize Cart Abandonment

55% of respondents in ComScore survey of 3000 US consumers admitted to abandoning shopping carts online owing to high shipping costs. The survey also highlighted that security concerns caused 21%, lack of money, 36%; lack of preferred payment option, 24%; and item unavailability at checkout, 26%, to abandon the shopping cart. 37% did not have any problem with the shopping cart but were simply interested in comparison shopping, while 26% wanted to shop offline. 65% of shoppers take 24 hours or more to complete a purchase they have initiated.

There are many reasons why shoppers abandon shopping carts. Let’s take a look at what turns off shoppers, what shoppers want, and how this understanding of online shoppers’ mind can help us create customized shopping carts.

Shoppers Demand Free Shipping
Provide free shipping, clearly mention minimum purchase limit for this facility
Saving money is one of the chief reasons people prefer to shop online. If you force them to pay for shipping, they will simply move else where. They want a deal and they are going to get it.

You can set a minimum purchase limit for free shipping and clearly state disclose all of the costs at start of the process. Highlight the fact that you are offering free shipping – it is a major turn on for first-time shoppers on your site. Offering expedited shipping and flexibility to choose delivery dates will make you irresistible.

No One Wants To Wait
Promise Speedy Delivery, Deliver on Time
Most shoppers are not willing to wait for more than 5 days to receive the product they want. The maximum limit is 8 days. And if you miss the delivery date, they will avoid shopping from your store in future.

Keep the shipping days to a minimum: if you can deliver a product within two days while your rival takes ten, you have sealed the deal. Promise a speedy delivery and ensure that the product reaches the customer on time.

Easy Does It
Ease of Check-out dramatically Reduces Abandonment
Online shoppers do not like to fill long forms, click too many times or take too many steps to buy a product. The longer you make the checkout process, the larger will be the number of customers abandoning the shopping cart.

Keep the number of form fields to a minimum, don’t erase form entries, enable auto-fill options wherever practicable, enable purchase as guest, and use breadcrumb navigation to show the visitors exactly where they are. By making the check-out process as short, smooth and speedy as possible, you will decrease shopping cart abandonment significantly.

Why Don’t You Just Ask?
Send Remarketing Emails to Abandoning Users
Many times, visitors leave the shopping carts for reasons that have nothing to do with you: they do not have enough money, they are comparing prices, they are not sure whether they want to buy the product, or they are hunting for a discount coupon.

Remarketing emails have the power to convince almost 1/3 of the users to come back and complete the purchase. It is best to send an email within a few minutes of the customer’s abandoning the cart. Provide a one-button return that takes him/her directly to the shopping cart.

Security and Friendliness
Secure Payment Options and Clear Returns Policy will make you a Hit
Most customers would not buy products from an online store if they were not sure about security or if they were not able to pay through usual payment channels. 63% of respondents on ComScore’s survey said that they refer the returns policy before buying.

In order to instill trust in the users, prominently display the fact that it is 100% safe to buy products from your website. Also provide a customer friendly returns policy and make it clearly visible.

Summing Up
Most people who visit online stores are a wary lot. They are on the lookout for liars and cheats – if you do anything that makes them uncomfortable, they will leave. By proving free shipping, secure payment gateways, simple check-out process, timely delivery and email reminders, you can minimize shopping cart abandonment on your web store.

Albert Vang

Albert Vang is working with PLAVEB - Ecommerce Shopping Cart Development Company in Los Angeles. An avid reader, he reads whatever he can lay his hands on, particularly fiction. He also likes to write on topics that he may come across and shares them with like-minded people on various guest-blogging platforms.

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