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Building Your Store

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HOW TO REDUCE SHOPPING CART ABANDONMENT

October 13, 2020

Shopping cart abandonment is a troublesome issue for most online stores. One study shows the average abandonment rate in 2019 was 77.13%. That’s a huge number and if you aren’t taking the issue seriously, you are probably losing money. However, it also means there’s room for improvement and there are several strategies you can implement in your store to reduce shopping cart abandonment.  

Offer Multiple Secure Payment Options

Customers need to know they can trust your site when they make a purchase which is why it’s important to offer multiple secure payment options. It creates trust and transparency which is crucial for growing your ecommerce business.

The GearLaunch platform allows sellers multiple options for their customers and reassures them the options are safe and secure.

We also provide secure options for the EU market as well. Check out our list of EU payment options.

No matter which platform you use for your online store, creating trust every step of the way will help you grow your business and reduce your abandoned carts!

Keep Your Customer’s Shopping Cart Visible

Many customers browse ecommerce websites like they would a brick and mortar store. They’ll click through your pages and peruse your store at their leisure. Up to 58.6% of US shoppers report that they abandoned their cart because they weren’t ready to buy and were “just browsing.”

One way to combat the “just browsing” mentality is to keep their shopping cart visible so they are reminded about the products they were interested in enough to add them to their shopping cart. As many as 20% of customers also report not being able to see the order cost upfront as a reason for abandoning their cart. Choose a plugin or design your site in a way that allows you to showcase your customer’s shopping cart and reduce abandonment.

Allow Guest Checkout

Customers want a quick and easy checkout process and as many as 31% reports abandoning their cart when they are required to set up an account. While it’s a good marketing practice to ask customers to set up an account with you, it’s important to give them options to reduce the possibility of shopping cart abandonment. If you don’t offer options, it’s likely you are losing revenue.

If you still want customers to sign up, consider adding that step in after they make a purchase. You reduce the likelihood of losing a sale and customers are often more willing to give you their information after completing a purchase rather than before.

Use Exit Intent Pop-ups

Another easy way to catch customers before they leave their cart behind is to use exit intent pop-ups on your website. Often, customers will decide they want to do more research before making a final purchase.

Your exit intent strategy needs to include something of value to offer customers if they decide to leave your site. Your value offer could include:

  • Discounts
  • Free shipping offers
  • Contests
  • Discounts on additional items

You don’t need to have an exit intent pop up on every single page on your site, but definitely include them on your product pages, checkout pages, and category pages. Make sure it is eye-catching and the offer is attractive enough to entice your customers to complete their transaction.

Run a Promotion

Customers are always looking for the best deals online or any way they can find to save some money. A survey done by Statista found 8% of customers will abandon their cart if they can’t find a discount code while as many as 46% will abandon their cart if the discount code doesn’t work.

What does that mean for your online store? Get them while they are ready to buy with a discount offer enticing them to stay! Create discount codes and deals as part of your checkout process. Consider having a sale on items you are wanting to promote. You may also create a sense of urgency by telling customers your products sell out fast and may not be available if or when they return.

Make the Process Effortless

Customers expect an easy and effortless checkout process. If there are too many steps and you require too much information, you are more likely to lose their business.

Eliminate unnecessary pages and streamline the experience. Also, make sure your store is mobile-friendly. Customers love shopping on their mobile devices. Some online stores don’t ask for customer information until the end of the process as a way to streamline the experience.

Another option for capturing customer information at the end of the process is to give them a “Remember Me” option so the next time they don’t have to add their information to complete the sale. This process walks your happy customer through creating an account and gives you the ability to market directly to their inbox.

Abandoned Cart Emails

One of the best ways to encourage your customers to come back and complete their purchase is through an abandoned cart email. There are many automation services available to sellers and some print on demand platforms provide this automation as well.

Your email should include:

  • The items left in their cart with product imagery
  • A discount or incentive to return and complete their purchase
  • A sense of urgency

Make sure you have a catchy subject line and use this as an opportunity to be creative with your copy. If you have a rewards program, remind how many points they have and encourage them to spend them.

Conclusion:

Shopping cart abandonment is something every ecommerce business owner needs to address. Create a strategy and test different tactics to see what works best for your audience. Remember, when you reduce abandoned carts, you increase your revenue!

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