One of the many things that keep online retailers up at night is Shopping Cart Abandonment. It happens when an online shopper suddenly stops in the middle of filling the virtual cart with one or more products.
Based on 41 studies done by Baymard Institute, 69.57% of all online shoppers abandon their carts. It is an alarmingly high rate for any online retailer. It is a huge drain on their profits, especially after all the resources poured into their marketing funnel.
If you are an online retailer and wish to reduce your cart abandonment rate, you must first understand what compels online shoppers to abandon their carts.
1. Perceived Security Against Fraud
Online security, or at least a shopper’s perception of it, is one of the many contributing factors for Shopping Cart Abandonment. It does not apply only to data leaks, but also to the risk of buying fake products or receiving no product at all.
The first step to alleviate the anxieties of online shoppers is showing accountability. You can do this by disclosing your security provider’s name and address, the SSL certificate, your contact details, and other information that they can verify independently, such as registration and VAT numbers. You can use the VAT validation API from https://vatcheckapi.com/ for easy checking and confirmation of VAT numbers. You should also put a privacy statement on your website to assure shoppers that every sensitive financial information is handled properly.
2. Poor User Experience
The biggest advantage that online shopping has over a retail store is convenience. If buying from your website is difficult or too complicated, this will discourage most shoppers as it defeats their purpose of going online.
You can improve your website’s usability by increasing its page speed. It should take no more than two seconds for your pages to load. Another way is to make your website user-friendly, whether it is accessed from a mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or any other smart device.
3. Online Distractions
Anything can distract an online shopper at home, and there is nothing you can do except increase your loading speed. Online distractions, however, are a different story. You can do something about the pop-ups and banners that suddenly appear on a website, distracting potential customers and even possibly scaring them away. One good way to reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment is by getting a consumer-wide malware protection solution for your website.
4. Technical Problems
A server that becomes unresponsive or an error page in the middle of an online purchase can cause eight out of every nine online shoppers to abandon their carts. Conduct regular technical audits and website assessments to detect and fix potential problems on your website, especially the HTTP errors.
5. A Less Than Perfect Fit
Online shopping is infinitely more convenient than going to retail stores, but it is not without its own set of challenges. Getting the size right or being misled by a generic image of the product are some of them. An accurate size chart, coupled with measurement instructions, can help with sizing. Augmented reality technology, on the other hand, can help consumers experience the product virtually. A reasonable return policy is a good compromise if AR is too expensive.
Whether you are a big brand or a small online business, you are not immune to Shopping Cart Abandonment. The key is to reduce it to a more manageable and profitable level by understanding the reason behind it and taking appropriate actions.
