by In order to compliment marketing’s efforts of bringing more traffic to the website, the website should reduce the likelihood of shopping cart abandonment. Shopping cart abandonment occurs when customers decide to leave the website during the checking out process. Reducing this abandonment will increase sales without even having to attract more visitors to the website.
According to the whitepaper by McAfee titled Digital Window Shopping: The Long Journey to Buy, which utilizes the survey conducted by comScore for determining why shoppers abandon their carts, it found that the most common reasons why customers abandon their carts are:
- High shipping charges: 46 percent;
- Wanted to comparison shop: 37 percent;
- Lack of money: 36 percent;
- Wanted to look for a coupon: 27 percent;
- Wanted to shop offline: 26 percent;
- Couldn’t find preferred pay option: 24 percent;
- Item was unavailable at checkout: 23 percent;
- Could not find customer support: 22 percent;
- Concerned about security of credit card data: 21 percent.
Determine Where Website Shopping Cart Abandonment Occurs
In addition to using reports and statistics from the shopping cart program, the e-commerce business should consider using the following programs to find out the source of shopping cart abandonment.
- Google Analytics. This free web analytics software provides detailed statistics about the visitors to the website, as well as allows the business to create multiple codes to place on each check-out page to track where customers are exiting during the process. Another method is by setting up the funnels, which is explained very well by AnalyticsExperts.com in their “Funnel Abandonment Explained” article.
- Crazy Egg. This software provides shopping cart with a “heat map” that details where on the web page that visitors click. Even though Google Analytics provides a map of each webpage displaying which links where clicked on, Crazy Egg’s image will enlighten businesses if customers are clicking on things that are not clickable, plus which parts of the page are gaining the most attention. This software is available for only $9 per month.
- ClickTale. This advanced software is similar to Crazy Egg, but takes collecting data to the next level by measuring keystrokes, scrolling and movement of the mouse. In addition, businesses can watch movies of the visitor’s screens to see how the visitors use the website. There are even advanced reports for businesses to analyze to see how visitors handle their order forms, which can provide valuable information on what needs adjustment.
General Tips to Reduce Online Shopping Cart Abandonment
In addition to reviewing the statistics and reports generated from Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, Click Tale, as well as from the shopping cart software, the e-commerce business can take the following general steps to reduce shopping cart abandonment:
- Reduce the number of steps.
- Disclose shipping costs early in the process.
- Clearly display a link to the shipping and return policy.
- Secure the form and display a security icon.
- Display a money-back guarantee.
- Offer a variety of payment options.
- Seamless integration into the website.
- Encourage customer reviews.
- Allow customers to save their shopping cart or add items to a wish list.
- Send a reminder e-mail to customers that left without completing the checkout.
- Add a live customer service instant messenger.
- Offer a price guarantee.
- Use an exit survey for visitors abandoning the cart.
- If the site uses cookies, ensure cookies are not needed to complete the checkout so sales are not lost from those with their cookies turned off.
- Provide cross- and up-sells at the checkout to add value to order.
Adjust the Checking Out Process to Increase Internet Sales
Reducing shopping cart abandonment is an effective method for increasing Internet sales without having to attract additional customers. While there are general tips a business can do in order to reduce shopping cart abandonment, it should use programs such as Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, and ClickTale to get to the root of the problem quicker with more accuracy.
