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Abandoned shopping carts aren’t necessarily negative. Visitors quit
their carts for many reasons. They may be competitors checking out your
e-commerce site, or consumers comparing prices and finding out your trading
policies. Equally, customers may use your e-commerce site and then place
the order by telephone.
On the other hand, shoppers may quit because they find your
checkout too complicated, or because they can’t find a next-day delivery
option. The following tips will help you minimize unnecessary
abandonment, and encourage consumers to complete their purchase and
to buy again.
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Once people have placed items in the cart, offer further items at
a discount. You could offer the extra items post-free as an incentive; you
may want to identify your best selling lines, or to look at linkages
between items (e.g. batteries with toys or a case with a laptop). With
good software, you can do this easily. A customer who has just decided
to buy is generally feeling favourable towards you - so it’s an ideal time
to sell them something else. You could contact the customer post-sale to
check everything is OK and to suggest some more possibilities.
This gives a personal touch to your operation as well as generating
additional revenue. Be carful not to go for the hard sell as you don’t want to
scare off a potential return customer.
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If customers cannot find out what they want to know from your e-commerce
site, they may try to get in touch with you. If they are unsuccessful, they
will expect the same difficulty if they ever have a problem with an order -
and they will go elsewhere.
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Encourage repeat business by going out of your way to meet
customer needs. A happy customer will tell his friends, but an unhappy
one will tell anybody who will listen.
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Different e-commerce site layouts and options can have a dramatic and
unexpected impact on sales. For instance, one site reported a 20%
increase in revenue after they added Paypal as a payment option.
Another reported a 30% reduction after they made customer feedback
questions compulsory. It seamed people just wanted to purchase and go.
Experimenting is important because each e-commerce site will have slightly different
visitor demographics - meaning that the people who visit different sites
will behave differently. So you need to do your own trials.
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Offer customers the visible security of the ‘golden padlock’ that
comes with using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) on your E-commerce site.
Your ISP or web host can advise you how to set this up - or you can use a
Reputable secure payment service provider. Compare there charges and
reviews to get the best deal as it costs to take money on the web.
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Avoiding abandoned shopping carts
