by Kevin Cook

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Last Updated on: 2nd April 2024, 07:34 am

Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges faced by ecommerce businesses.

Studies show that nearly 70% of online shopping carts are eventually abandoned before checkout. This results in massive revenue losses running into billions of dollars annually across the ecommerce industry.

As an ecommerce business owner, it is important to understand why shoppers abandon their carts and implement suitable measures to reduce cart abandonment rates. Here are some proven strategies you can utilize:

1. Offer Guest Checkout:

Forcing shoppers to create an account before they can buy often leads to cart abandonment. Implement guest checkout to remove friction from the buying process.

This allows shoppers to check out quickly without registering. You only need their email address to share delivery updates. Guest checkout also reassures shoppers who worry about storing payment information on your website.

2. Display Product Images at Checkout:

Shoppers tend to forget what they added to their cart, especially if selecting from multiple options like size and color. Displaying product images, along with key specifications like size and quantity at checkout, reaffirms their choice.

This prevents shoppers from deleting items and leaving to reconfirm specifications, eventually not returning to purchase.

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3. Offer Product Customization:

As per Deloitte, 36% of customers show interest when they are allowed to customize products.

Selling products that are pre-designed is quite common. When you allow your customers to customize a product and place orders, they are likely to show more interest. Because they are buying of what they design. Thus, you need a ImprintNext plugin to get it installed in your online store. The online design studio enables a design interface to customize products directly from the online storefront.

4. Show Checkout Progress

An extended checkout process tires out shoppers and triggers abandonment. Using a progress indicator helps them visualize steps completed versus remaining.

The sense of momentum achieved keeps them invested to finish the checkout process. Showing 90% progress triggers a tendency to want to complete the rest too.

5. Transparent Pricing:

Hidden costs revealed late during checkout leads to mistrust and cart abandonment. To build trust, be upfront about taxes, shipping costs and any additional fees right from the product page itself.

If actual shipping costs can only be shown after collecting address, provide an estimate range beforehand.

6. Highlight Savings:

Did the shopper use a promo code or qualify for first-time user discount? Highlight this by prominently showcasing how much they saved against the original price. The feeling of gaining a bargain makes them less likely to abandon their cart.

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7. Offer Multiple Payment Options:

Don’t assume all your customers use the same payment methods. Integrate multiple payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net to name a few.

This allows shoppers to pay using their preferred option in a more convenient manner without repeatedly entering billing information.

8. Consider Free Shipping:

Studies reveal that nearly 80% of shoppers expect free shipping when ordering above a threshold spend.

While ‘free’ shipping cuts into your margins, it does help prevent cart abandonment and can boost repeat purchases.

You can consider absorbing shipping costs on bigger ticket items or for customers located in nearby areas only.

9. Clear Call-to-Actions:

The checkout process is when clear visual cues matter the most to guide users to the next steps. Use familiar words like ‘Checkout’ after Add-to-Cart and ‘Complete Purchase’ before the final payment page.

Avoid using obscure phrases that could confuse shoppers at this critical juncture.

10. Easy Cart Accessibility:

Shoppers will toggle between cart and store before finally checking out. Allow effortless navigation between cart and product pages via single click access.

Ensure product specification pages are easily reachable from the cart without losing their checkout progress if they wish to reconfirm details before purchasing.

11. Liberal Return Policy:

An ecommerce store with a no-questions return policy within 30 days builds immense trust in customers. Of course, avoid blatant misuse but do accept returns caused by incorrect shipments or defective products.

Negative social proof and bad reviews resulting from refusal to accept justified returns causes more long term damage.

12. Offer Chat Support:

When stuck during checkout due to payment issues or product questions, customers want real-time clarification to proceed further.

Delayed responses via email ticketing systems lead to frustration and cart abandonment.

Invest in 24/7 live chat with humans or chat-bots that can address common concerns instantly and resolve them then and there.

13. Trust Badges:

Display safety and compliance seals prominently across your website, especially the checkout pages.

These validate to shoppers that your website is secure and their sensitive information like credit card details are safeguarded as per industry regulations like PCI-DSS.

Trust badges help reassure nervous first-time shoppers tentative about purchases.

14. Show Social Proof:

Prominently display genuine reviews, customer images and star ratings across the site. If you have a sizeable customer base, share metrics like ‘2 million+ happy customers served!’.

Such social validation that others are happily buying from your store provides the confidence for new shoppers to follow suit and not abandon their cart.

15. Site Speed Optimization:

With every second of delay in page load time, conversion rates drop. Fix technical glitches causing crashes or lagging page speeds, especially during high traffic.

Optimize site speed performance and aim for under 2 second page loads by minimizing redirects, enabling compression, and using a fast web host.

A seamlessly smooth site experience retains customers in their buying journey.

Final Words:

Implementing a right mix of the above strategies tailored to your ecommerce business model and target audiences can significantly reduce cart abandonment rates and recover lost revenues. The key lies in identifying and fixing business process gaps causing customer Struggling with high shopping cart abandonment? Implement these proven tactics to plug revenue leakage by retaining and converting more customers seamlessly.

Some other areas like rebuilding your shopping cart, displaying all security certifications can work. When something appears pleasing, users stick to it. Most importantly, do check for shopping cart failures. Your customers may face payment issues like slow loading, redirecting, bank failure unless not from your side. Do check all these aspects before making it live.

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