what are abandoned carts?
Many online retailers feel the frustration of abandoned carts, where shoppers have added their items to the basket but don’t take that final step to check out. Reasons for cart abandonment can be many but having the right ecommerce strategy to tackle the most common, can reduce your abandoned cart rate by a huge 70%.
why do shoppers abandon their cart?
Understanding why shoppers add their items to their basket and don’t check out is one of the most vital steps of your ecommerce strategy. Once you understand why, you can then work on the solution.
Below are some of the most common reasons for cart abandonment:
- A slow checkout process / technical issues – 26%
- Shopping around – 59%
- High shipping costs / no free delivery – 55%
- Long delivery times – 83%
- Having to create an account to complete purchase – 34%
- Payment security concerns – 17%
- No promo or discount codes – 46%
Unfortunately, abandoned carts are unavoidable in ecommerce, but with the right ecommerce strategy your business can start to see a reduction in abandoned carts and an increase in sales.
5 ways ecommerce strategy can help reduce abandoned carts
1. it helps you understand user behaviour
Understanding why shoppers are leaving your site before purchase is a critical step in the process of reducing the number of abandoned carts. By getting into the mind of a shopper and looking at your overall shopping experience, you will start to understand any issues they may have. Allowing you to effectively implement changes to your site, products or checkout process that will eliminate these issues.
2. it makes you look at your sites technical elements
A slow website or technical issue can lead to a shopper having a negative experience with your brand, as well as detering them from making a repeat visit. An ecommerce strategy will ensure that regular test orders are undertaken and that ongoing monitoring of technical issues; whether that is your site speed or checkout process, are continuously looked at and improved upon.
3. it improves your brands image
Improving your brands image requires a strategic approach that ultimately leads to a positive user experience. Contributing to an increase in sales, more positive reviews and word of mouth recommendations. Brands that offer a good experience attract far more visitors than those who fail to consider their shoppers needs. A strategy will enable your business to look at ways for users to have a better encounter with your brand, improving your overall image.
4. it helps you win users back
As part of an ecommerce strategy, you’ll look at ways to win shoppers who abandoned their cart back. By analysing, researching and retargeting, you can tempt them back to your website to make a purchase time and time again. And the more returning visitors you get, the higher your conversion rates will be.
5. it helps you stand out from your competitors
By analysing your competitors you can identify what it is that they offer to their customers that you don’t. Whether that’s free delivery, different payment options, free returns or discount codes. With more and more consumers looking for additional perks when online shopping, standing out from the crowd will not only help you become their brand of choice but will also help to reduce your abandoned cart rates.
Conclusion
Low abandoned cart rates can be disappointing for businesses of all sizes. To overcome this, an effective ecommerce strategy should be applied to your business to ensure that you offer a seamless shopping experience and meet your shoppers needs. As one thing is very clear, checkout processes that are slow or complicated cause shoppers to become annoyed, leading to them abandoning their carts. In a world where customer experience has a huge impact on the number of purchases, brands need to do more to convert shoppers into sales.
Are you a small business who needs help reducing their abandoned cart rate? Contact us for a friendly chat and let us see what we can do.
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