- E-Commerce
- How to Prevent Abandoned Shopping Carts
- Checkout Options for Your Online Store
- A Look at Your Online Customer Service
- General
- Is It Time for a Business Makeover?
- The Essential Elements of Great Customer Service
- Wholesale Gift And Novelty Items Always A Boom
- Marketing
- Traffic Generating Tips for the Online Wholesaler
- Effective Email Marketing for Your Wholesale Business
- Blogging and the Wholesale Business Owner
- Search Engine Optimization - SEO
- Basic SEO Tips for Online Wholesalers
- The Basic Rules of Search Engine Optimization
How to Prevent Abandoned Shopping Carts
By Sarah Pearson Published: 09/02/2009
An abandoned shopping cart puts a real damper on your business – and I'm not talking about the ones people leave lying around in the parking lot to bang into other customers' cars. I'm talking about your online shopping cart. Many online shoppers add things to their cart while browsing on your site, only to abandon them there and never complete the sale. This is frustrating for you as a business owner, because you naturally want to make those sales. If this a problem for your online store, there are a few things you can do to prevent it from happening as often.
The top reasons carts get abandoned before the sale is complete include frustration at the process on the customer's part, worries about privacy or security, and a purchase process that is too confusing for the customer. You can take steps to remedy these situations and save a lot more of those sales in the process!
Here are some tips:
• Make your purchase process as streamlined as possible. For example, don't make your customers enter their address information more than once. Having to retype the same information over and over again is annoying for people, and could cause them to give up before giving you the sale.
• Make sure each step in the purchase process is clearly defined. If the customer must navigate through more than one page to complete their purchase, make sure the “continue” or “next” buttons are clearly defined and easy to see.
• Make sure your security information is clearly defined, too. Customers will feel safer about using their credit card on your site if you have SSL certificates prominently displayed. Also make sure links to your privacy policy, terms of use, disclaimers and FAQs are easily found.
• Make sure shipping costs are displayed on the product page. Shipping costs are a major concern for online shoppers and they want to know right away how much it's going to cost to get something delivered to them. If they get to the cart and see the shipping is higher than they thought, they may jump ship.
These are just some of the steps you can take to reduce this problem. Go through your store yourself and examine how the process works closely. If anything frustrates you even slightly, it's sure to frustrate numerous customers enough that they will give up. If you focus on how the buying process works from the customer's perspective, you will find that you have a lot less abandoned shopping carts rolling around your online store.
