Why do people abandon their shopping carts?

Why do people abandon their shopping carts?

There will be a plethora of reasons why people abandon their carts; the doorbell rings, kids need help with their homework – the distractions of everyday life. There are also things such as card issues, device problems or bad internet connection.  However, there are lots of factors that you do have control over to help minimise abandoned carts in your ecommerce store.

Reason #1: Lack of trust

Make sure your site is secure. Some people are still wary of shopping online so its important to ensure that the entire customer journey reassures them.

 You may wish to display the Shopify secure badge on your site and link it to a description of how Shopify meets Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards.

 

Reason #2: Being forced to create an account

Giving people the option to checkout as a guest and move through the checkout process as quickly as possible greatly increases the chance of them committing to purchase.

Wait until they have finalised their order and at that point ask them if they’d like to create an account, pointing out the benefits of doing so (such as a discount).

 Creating an account should require nothing more than picking a password once the user has finished making a purchase. After all, you have collected their email, shipping address, and other details.

 Another potential ‘put-off’ is passwords. Let users go with a password of their choice. If it isn’t secure then warn them and offer advice on how to improve it but don’t stop them.

Reason #3: Unexpected delivery costs

Going back to #1, people often feel as though a site is being manipulative when it doesn’t show the delivery cost before checkout.

 Don’t over-complicate delivery options. If viable, consider providing free delivery for orders over a certain amount and roll this into your pricing.  For other delivery options, keep it simple and user-friendly.

 Click and collect is another option to consider if viable for your business. 

Reason #4: Price

Online shoppers are becoming more savvy. Could price be the reason customers are abandoning their carts? Are you adding value to your offering in other ways?

Reason #5: Complicated checkout processes

It can be tempting when you have a captive audience at the checkout stage to start collecting lots of useful data but be careful that these additional fields aren’t putting people off.  Is the data that you are collecting translating into more sales? Keep your checkout process as streamlined as possible.

Reason #6: Unable to move between cart and store

The easier you make it for customers to move between their cart and your store, the more likely they are to stick with it and actually check out. If you have a Shopify store this is all taken care of!

Reason #7: Lack of payment options

Shopify Payments is the simplest way to accept payments online. It eliminates the hassle of setting up third-party payment providers or merchant accounts and means you’re automatically set up to accept all major payment methods.

 For larger purchases, consider offering payment plan options such as Klarna. 

What can you do about abandoned carts?

 Action #1: Analyse your Analytics

Head over to your Shopify Store Analytics in the admin area to examine your online store conversion rates. Are there any patterns and/or correlations?

Keep a close eye on your metrics to see what effect changes you make to the store and/or your marketing are having. Consider testing one variable at a time to get a more accurate picture.

Action #2: Review your abandoned checkouts

You can review your abandoned checkouts to find patterns that might suggest why your customers aren't completing orders.

Abandoned checkouts are saved in the Shopify admin for three months. From your Shopify admin go to >Orders then click on > Abandoned checkouts. 

Action #3: Remarketing

Remarketing is key for ecommerce retailers in order to entice those visitors back who came so close to converting.

  1. Abandoned cart emails – entice them with a reason to come back such as a discount or special offer
  2. Retargeting ads – you may wish to consider running ads to anyone who has been to visit your website and left or just those who abandoned their carts or left after spending some time browsing specific product pages.

You can also manually email a customer with a link to their abandoned cart.

Action #4: Grounding techniques

Grounding techniques help reassure your customers throughout their journey on your store.  Seeing that an item has been added to the cart icon, seeing thumbnail images of the products in the cart, seeing visual progress of the checkout process – these all help to ‘ground and reassure the customer, therefore helping ensure conversion.  These techniques are all taken care of with Shopify.

Displaying reviews and testimonials throughout the store is another excellent grounding technique and will help build trust. So too will quality content on your store – think product guides, how-to’s – arming your customers with the information that they may need to help them in their purchase-decision-making-process.

Up-sells and cross-sells can also work well to help with conversion but be wary of too much as it can put people off. Again, test to see what effect happens when you make changes.

Rather than focusing solely on abandoned carts, holistically look at your marketing and all of the touch points along your customer’s journey with you.  Are there any areas for improvement?  Could you try something new or different?

If you need any help or assistance with your Shopify store or marketing then drop us an email or give us a call on 01242 236600

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