When a superb website design and quality products have brought enough visitors to your platform, the next big task is to make sure you are able to convert maximum numbers into buyers.
However, a reasonable conversion rate is not easy to achieve especially if you are not careful enough about your checkout process. So if you are currently facing an issue where visitors tend to add items to the cart but then leave without confirming the purchase, there is a thing or two you should learn in order to reduce the cart abandonment issue.
Let’s take a look but before that, we will address a basic question:
Why Do Most Sites Face This Issue?
More than 68% of visitors tend to leave their carts at the check-out phase and abandon the purchase. This makes us wonder why one would go through the ordeal of adding all the required items to cart only to leave it, unpaid, on the counter?
Well, the answer is quite simple: An overly-complicated checkout process can discourage buyers. For example, putting up a mandatory sign-up form or requiring personal information that clients might not be comfortable sharing means they would walk away from the cart.
We did some research of our own and here’s what we found out about the top-most reasons why buyers abandon their oh-so-favorite items at the purchase counter.
- 44% of the buyers shared that they left the site without purchase due to high shipping costs that were mentioned at the time of the checkout.
- 41% of the customers abandoned their cart simply because they were not interested enough in purchasing the items at that time.
- 14% of the buyers discontinued shopping due to mandatory sign-up as the sites did not allow guest check-out.
- Lastly, 7% of the customers refused to purchase the items because the website did not present enough payment options.
As you can see, a number of factors come into play when considering optimization of the checkout process on a website. It needs to be quick, convenient, secure, and easy to perform.
Here’s What You Can Do!
First of All, Introduce Guest Check-out Option
Just because thousands of visitors wish to buy stuff from your site does not mean that all of them would like to create an account here as well!
Most clients are comfortable shopping as guests where they do not need to sign-up before proceeding to the check-out. Keeping this in view, it is a surprise that many ecommerce platforms still make it mandatory to sign-up.
You can remove such obstacles by keeping the guest check-out option open to everyone.
If Possible, Introduce a Single-Page Checkout
When most of us are hustling through online shopping, nobody wants to go through a series or steps where each new window seems like a fresh puzzle. It is a great idea to stick to a single-page checkout when designing a layout for your website. Take our words for it, the strategy has proven to reduce cart abandonment rates by up to 21%!
One page also seems less confusing to customers. You can offer the same information but squeeze it down to be more precise and to-the-point. However, make sure that by option for this layout, you are not giving “too much” to the visitors as that would just lead to high abandonment rates.
All in all, this option is simpler and definitely more convenient for the buyers. It eliminates the risk of customers getting intimidated by a long, scrutinizing check-out process and leaving without hitting the Confirm button.
Next, Simplify Your Payment Process and Let Them Pay via Different Methods!
When it comes to how buyers can pay for their purchase, it is always a good idea to put as many options on the table as possible.
Cash on delivery is still the preferred mode of payment. However, during the pandemic and beyond, the majority of the users have shifted to contactless payments instead. This means you have to consider payments via cards as well as mobile money transfer apps to receive funds.
Moreover, there has been a rise in the number of people resorting to the use of online banks such as Chime that can transfer funds to other accounts as well, you can see the complete process through this site. It would be a great idea to accept such modes of money transfer if you wish to expand your customer base.
Allow For Free Shipping and Free Returns, Whenever Possible
High shipping costs are enough of a problem so when these are topped up by “no return policy” or exchange process that can be pricey, customers tend to walk about instead of taking the risk especially if they are shopping at the website for the first time.
Although it is not possible to introduce free delivery every time or to every location, giving customers the assurance that they can reverse the product purchase at any time can be quite useful.
Use Recovery Emails To Bring Back Customers
Some buyers may have just left the cart because they had to hurry to another important chore. Such customers need just a motivational push to come back to shopping.
Recovery emails can do just that by reminding them what they had left in the cart and how it would just take a minute to come back and finish the purchase. It is better to send these emails within 1 to 3 hours after the abandonment. Recovery mails that are sent too late might not be able to bring the precious buyers back.
Lastly, Optimize Your Website for Mobile Use
It is of no surprise that the majority of the eCommerce sites are accessed via phone. If your website is not optimized for such usage, it would automatically result in potential customers leaving the platform without any purchase.
Concise checkout page, visible Call-to-action buttons and a font that is catchy and classic can all improve mobile-friendliness of your website. This would in turn influence the user experience and ultimately help you convert more visitors into buyers.
