You’ve done it, you’ve got a potential customer to visit your site, look through your products and decide they simply must buy one (or many) of them. That’s only half the battle though. On average, 68.63% of potential customers abandon a site once they get to the cart. It can seem incredibly puzzling why someone would make the effort to choose a product and then just give up. To de-mystify why this happens and help you lower your cart abandon rate, we have put together this article.
Image Source: Joe The Goat Farmer via Flickr cc
Be the Customer
Although you can highlight the cost of a product throughout the customer journey, the cart is where they have one final chance to change their mind.
“Do I really want the product?”
“Is it really wise for me to spend this money?”
“What if I don’t like it when it arrives?”
These are only some of the questions running through their mind. So what can you the marketer do? You need to give them reasons to stay; you need to remind them how much they want the product. This is what will keep them and get that final click to pay now.
To really see what your cart is like from a customer’s point of view, become the customer! Add some products to your basket and go to through the full checkout process. Ask yourself these questions:
- Is there a discount code add in option?
- Have you highlighted shipping costs?
- Have you highlighted your returns policy?
- Do symbols of trust indicate a safe checkout?
- Do you have multiple pay options?
- Did the page load quickly?
- Does your potential customer have to create an account or can you checkout as a guest?
- Are shipping fees obvious?
- Is there anything on the page that will distract the user?
- Are there relevant sales and free delivery qualifiers?
Top tip: To really walk in your customers’ shoes, test your checkout process and ask the above questions on different mobile devices as well. If your website isn’t easy to use on mobile then you’re cutting off a large proportion of shoppers.
See Sales Rise
If you have answered no to any of the above questions, then there’s room to improve your checkout, lower basket abandonment and increase sales. Prioritise the things which will help your customers feel safe and trust you. When they see a cart page load slowly or they don’t know the checkout will be secure, they worry about giving away their personal details. Alleviating their fear will increase the likelihood of them continuing.
Image source: ASOS Checkout
Next, look into what will make their experience easier. Can they find information about shipping and delivery without needing to open a new tab and search the site, or click the ‘back’ button? Making their experience easier by requiring them to do less, i.e. not search for information that isn’t on the page, means they’re less likely to abandon the site.
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