4 Steps to Lower Your Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

Shopping cart abandonment is very common. The good news is that there are a few easy ways to lower your shopping cart abandonment rate. This post provides four steps you can take to help reduce shopping cart abandonment and turn more of your visitors into customers.

Step One: Include free shipping offers on all items in your store and ensure that the standard shipping option does not cost more than the item itself. You should also include an "add-to-cart" button at the top of your product pages, as well as a "check-out now" button in the footer of every page on your website.

A well-designed shopping cart page can help you reduce cart abandonment.

Step Two: Make it easy for shoppers to contact you. If your customers have any questions about their order, they will want to be able to contact customer service within a few minutes of placing the order. 

Shoppers are more likely to abandon an order if they have trouble contacting a company's customer service department. According to one study , only 50% of shoppers were able to reach a live person when they called the customer service number on the company's website. In addition, 53% of those surveyed said that their interaction with a live representative over the phone improved their perception and made them more likely to complete an online purchase with that company in the future. 

It is critical that you have a live, customer service representative available to answer questions about your products and customer support.

Step Three: Don't use stock photos in your banner ads and call out-of-stock items when you have more on hand. If you use a stock image in an ad, customers will feel misled and more likely to abandon the cart. On the other hand, if you know that you have more on hand than what is listed in your product pages, don't just call out the item by name; say something like "we are currently out of this item but we may have it back in stock soon."

Shoppers are often distracted by banner ads and call-out boxes during online checkout. When these types of pop-ups and call-out boxes appear, shoppers are more likely to abandon the shopping cart.

Step Four: Monitor your shopping cart abandonment rate, and take action when it reaches a certain threshold. Shopping cart abandonment is an important problem that must be dealt with, but it is complicated. In order to reduce abandonment, you need to measure the rate of abandoned orders on a daily basis. According to  one study , the average cart abandonment rate for e-commerce websites is around 19 percent , although certain parts of the internet (such as Amazon) have lower rates. 

Once you know your daily rate, you should work towards lowering it. Here are a few simple ways to reduce abandonment rates:

Increase the price of shipping and handling (if possible).

Offer free shipping or free returns.

Offer gift cards that can be redeemed for future purchases.

Translate your brand into local languages. If you sell products in Spain, British English may not be understood by many Spanish speakers and you could benefit from using Spanish as your language on your website. 

Post a sign at the front desk of your store, saying that you will call customers if they leave a message and then call them back within 24 hours.

Conclusion

The story of "The Soda Shop" perfectly illustrates the importance of reducing shopping cart abandonment rates. 

For this cartoon, steer clear of stock images and add some humor to your shopping cart page. It's important to keep in mind the simple fact that shoppers are more likely to abandon an order if they can't reach a live person through email or phone. That is why you should keep a live customer service representative available for all callers and install a high-quality live chat system on your website. 

You should also use banner ads sparingly; when used, they should be strategically placed in order to offer potential customers additional information about certain products and discounts.