Did you know that almost 70% of all cart/baskets are abandoned? This is a significant stat when you think that on average 30% of users will complete their purchase.
For eCommerce businesses this could be a worrying statistic but not all is lost as there are lots of techniques that can be implemented to help convert more browsers into customers.
Spending time to optimise your eCommerce store is the key, and here’s how:
Now is not the time to distract users from making the purchase, by keeping your checkout pages straight to the point, you have more chance of keeping them engaged and ready to finalise their purchase. Unnecessary noise such as pop-ups, having to complete multiple fields and adding long descriptions are all things you want to avoid.
Keep it simple by only asking for the key information needed to make the purchase. And if it’s a new customer, perhaps give them the option to complete more details or set up an account after purchase with Guest Checkout.
Give your users the option and flexibility to purchase with their preferred payment method. You can do this by offering multiple payment options such as your usual credit/debit cards, ApplePay, Paypal, GooglePay and much more.
Not only that, but the increasing popularity of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ options such as Klarna and Clearpay are clear winners when needing to convert a visitor to a customer.
Let customers know from an early stage in the buying journey that these payment options are available. This could be adding payment methods to a USP bar at the top of your site, acknowledgement in the footer and ‘A way to pay’ page detailing how a customer can make a purchase.
Users are more likely to purchase items that offer free delivery or have the option to click and collect in-store for no extra cost. This is probably one of the quick wins you can implement to see a huge change in user behaviour.
Just like promoting multiple payment options across your user journey, the same should be done for free delivery options.
Ensure your eCommerce store is performing at its best. A poor quality website will likely make users lose confidence and start to bounce from the checkout process. We recommend reviewing your website performance on a regular basis, checking the site speed across both mobile and desktop. If your checkout is slow and possibly experiences crashes where payment fails, users will start to lose trust and abandon their purchase.
Keep site users informed at the beginning of the checkout process to what their final cost will be. Doing this will avoid any unwanted surprises to the users, keeping them on track to finalise their purchase.
Customers value transparency, your checkout process should offer just that.
We of course want to keep returns to a minimum but if you avoid or even make your returns process complicated, this can be very off putting to a potential customer.
Users want to have confidence in what they are purchasing, if an item can’t be easily returned, then this could send them looking for an alternative - away from your site.
Have links to your returns policy at check-out stage to make it easy for the user to find this information if they haven’t already read it (as no doubt you have this as an easily accessible page on your website).
Earlier we suggested avoiding pop-ups as this could be a distraction when a user is trying to complete a purchase. However there is an exception to the rule. If the user is showing signs of leaving your website before completing the purchase, use on-site conversion messaging to highlight the reasons why they should finalise their purchase.
This could be in a pop-up form, letting them know of a certain discount or perhaps showcasing how popular the item/s are.
Users build confidence in products and brands by reviewing first-hand customer feedback. This can be done through reviews, customer images and influencer endorsements.
eCommerce leaders ensure social proofing is part of their wider eCommerce strategy, as this is a big player when looking to improve conversion rates. Social proof has an incredible influential impact, helping to encourage users to make a purchase.
Fear of missing out helps to encourage users to complete their purchase.
Add prompts such as displaying how many users have bought your product in the last 24 hours - this showcases the demand of your products. Alternatively, run limited time offers that will resonate with your audience. For example, if you sell suncream, and it just so happens to be the hottest day of the year, showcase just how in-demand your product is.
Even with the best checkout journey, basket abandonment will happen, but if you act quick you can still tempt known users back. Automate emails to users regarding their abandoned items, offering a sense of urgency to purchase, perhaps through a limited time deal.
This helps to remind a user what they were about to purchase and gives them clear reasons to come back and purchase through your site.
Summary
As you can see above, there are plenty of ways to help reduce your basket abandonment rate . When reviewing key customer journeys, put yourself in your consumer's shoes - do they have all the information they need to make a purchase, is the checkout journey clean and concise making transactions as frictionless as possible?
By using a customer first lens while reviewing and developing your site, you’ll be able to enjoy lower basket abandonment rates whilst also benefiting from greater sales growth, higher conversion rates and increased AOV.
Chat with our eCommerce Success team to get recommendations on how to improve your product pages.
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