You do all the work to build a community, not only on social media, but also:
- A database people have opted into
- Sharing regular communications
- Figuring out what your community wants most and creating offers – info (“sales”) pages, marketing campaigns, product development and fulfillment
You get the idea.
And then the issue. . .shopping cart abandonment. Community members read through everything and click where you intend only to “add to cart” and then whoosh…off to something else.
According to a Forrester Research study, 88% of consumers have abandoned an online shopping cart before completing their transaction.
88 percent.
Compare this with the fact that only 11% of companies send cart-recovery emails and there’s a lot of revenue being left on the table.
6 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment
- List shipping and handling costs early and keep them reasonable. The Forrester study found that the #1 reason people don’t complete their online purchases is because “shipping and handling costs were too high”. #6 on the list was “shipping and handling costs were listed too late during the checkout process.”
- Don’t require new customers create an account. According to Convince&Convert’s research, 2 out of 5 people would rather scrub a toilet than create a new password and Forrester reports that 23% of customers would exit the cart when prompted to register.
- Be trustworthy. Share third-party security logos and contact information throughout the checkout process to put customers at ease. Ensure your site contains as many trust indicators as possible.
- Provide value throughout the checkout process. A simple way to do this is to remind potential clients what they’re receiving at the top of the shopping cart page or in a thorough description.
- Keep the checkout process as short as possible. Have as few fields required as possible. For example, my shopping cart allows either a 1-step or 2-step checkout process.
- And, send targeted emails to those who abandon the cart. Seeing a lot of cart abandonment? Send an email directly to those people reminding them of what they wished to purchase and, if appropriate, let them know about any coupons/discounts/guarantees which may apply.
There will always be cart abandonment of some form – internet’s too slow, spouse called for dinner, kids interrupt, etc.
Your job is to control what you can and make it as easy as possible to invest with you. How will you change your shopping cart experience?
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