by Steven Snell
E-commerce website owners typically have an opportunity to drastically increase the amount of money that they are making through the website by focusing on reduced abandoned carts. Many online shoppers will place an item in their shopping cart and then leave the site before purchasing. If they wanted the item to start with something must have discouraged them from the purchase. But what was it?
Abandoned carts are very common because it's easy to shop online, and buyers often have second thoughts and decide to not make the purchase after all. In this article we'll look at some ways that you can reduce the likelihood of shoppers to change their mind after adding an item to the cart.
1. Fine print or hidden details
Unpleasant surprises are a leading contributor to abandoned carts. When the visitor puts an item into the cart they may not be aware of hidden fees or other details that they find out about during the checkout process. You can minimize the impact of this by including the relevant information up front to avoid surprises.
2. Taxes and/or Shipping
As a seller, there is not much you can do about taxes, but shipping charges often will discourage purchasers. Of course you will have to cover the costs of shipping, but buyers should know what to expect before they get to the final step of checkout. Many online shops offer free shipping for purchases over a specific dollar amount, which can encourage add-on purchases.
3. Time
If there are too many steps in the checkout process or too much information is required, the buyer may choose to leave simply because it is taking too long. Cutting down the number of steps and streamlining the process can make a really big difference in the experience for the user, and ultimately in sales.
4. They choose to check some other sites first
Many online shoppers will place an item in their cart, then decide that they should probably do some comparative shopping before making a purchase. The internet makes this very easy, so there is only so much you can do. First, you could offer a low price or price match guarantee. Second, by making the process quick you can give them less time for second thoughts.
5. Not all the products they want are available
Sometimes a person who is making an online purchase will want to buy a few things at one time to save some money on shipping rather than buying several items one at a time. If your e-commerce site does not offer all of the items that they want to buy, or if something is out of stock, they may decide to move on to another online shop where they can get everything they want.
6. Buyer's remorse, second thoughts
One of the most common causes of abandoned carts is just the buyer having second thoughts about the purchase. This is especially common with high-priced items.
7. Confusion
It's not uncommon for a shopper to abandon their cart because they are not sure what to do or because they do not feel comfortable with the process. This used to be more common than it is now as a high percentage of people shop online, but you will still want to make the checkout process as simple as possible so there is no reason to be confused.
8. Lack of payment options
One of the decisions you will have to make when running an e-commerce website is what types of payments you would like to accept. If you are not offering many options you may find that people are abandoning their shopping carts because their preferred method of payment, such as the type of credit card they use, is not accepted. - 20490
Steven Snell is an (http://cartfrenzy.com) ecommerce developer. In addition to his work for clients, he also runs a gallery that (http://cartfrenzy.com) provides e-commerce design inspiration.
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