When you run an ecommerce website, marketing doesn’t stop when your customer clicks the “Buy now” button. According to research by the Baymard Institute, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 66.22%.
In order to encourage your online customers to input their credit card information, and complete the purchasing track, you need to keep marketing to them throughout the entire process.
The more information you provide on your product pages, the more likely your customers will complete their sales. Check out this product page from ModCloth and the wealth of information it provides to the customer:
Another great feature of ModCloth’s product page is their customer reviews, which provides an overall product rating as well as more specific assessments of fit, width, and quality. A potential customer can’t try on the boot before they buy it but with this information, they know ahead of time whether it will be right for their size.
The first review on the product page and the only review above the fold, is a negative one. By responding to the review in a positive and forthright manner, ModCloth not only mitigates the effects of a bad review, but cements their branding as a responsive, customer-informed company.
There are two ways to keep the conversation going with a customer who abandons their shopping cart. If the customer has an account, a follow-up email can remind them to complete their purchase.
You can also provide customers with a means of actively staying in the loop regarding products they are interested in. For example, ModCloth shoppers can sign up to receive an email when the product they want is back in stock. Upon receipt of the email, the customer can return to make the purchase.
Customers need to be able to navigate to and from their shopping cart easily. If they can’t figure out how to continue shopping or return to their cart afterwards, it is highly likely that they won’t complete the purchasing process.
In order to complete a purchase on Amazon, you must click through at least eight pages before your purchase is finalized. While these additional pages are useful for promoting upsells, add-ons, and accessories, they can also cause a customer to become frustrated and abandon their cart.
For this reason, Amazon has implemented a 1-click ordering option for registered customers. Giving customers a way to shorten the checkout process through account registration can improve conversions, while also providing you with the wealth of data that comes from customer accounts.
In order to reduce your retail website’s shopping cart abandonment rate, you need to:
Megan Webb-Morgan is a Web Content Writer for ResourceNation and writes for small businesses, focussing on topics such as business sales. Thanks to Megan for sharing her advice and opinions in this post. You can follow ResourceNation on Twitter or connect on Facebook.
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