Any online shopper can likely tell you that they have added items to their cart with the intent to purchase only to close out of the website before completing the transaction. This common behavior has led to an average online cart abandonment rate of 60 to 80 percent for many e-commerce sites.
Perhaps consumers don’t like the price or decide to look elsewhere. Customers may choose to move on for any number of reasons. It’s key, however, for businesses to figure out why customers are abandoning their purchases so they can address those issues and encourage completion of the sale. That’s why we asked 14 members of the Young Entrepreneur Council how companies can lower their online cart abandonment rates. Read on to learn how you can improve conversions on your e-commerce website.
1. Figure Out How Customers Found You
Besides making the buying process a smooth customer experience, it’s also helpful to know how your customers found you. Did they find you organically, hear a radio spot or view a Facebook ad? You can optimize for their intent before they get to the cart, which beats cart updates that affect prospects globally. Collect prospects with the right intent, and your abandoned carts will drop significantly. —Jeff Keenan, LeadsRx
2. Leverage User-Generated Content
Shoppers trust each other more than they trust a new brand. Featuring user-generated content on product pages can build trust with shoppers who are hesitant to convert. Plus, that same user-generated content can be used in abandoned cart emails to entice shoppers to come back and complete the purchase. —Kyle Wong, Pixlee
3. Make the Checkout Process as Easy as Possible
I think, in general, you need to make it as easy as possible for customers to check out. Many shopping carts are overly complicated. Some of my clients are involved in e-commerce, and I always advise them to streamline the checkout process as much as possible. One of the best strategies is to allow for guest checkout. If you force people to register an account, you’ll lose customers right there. —Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
4. Study Page Interaction
Invest in heat maps and gaze plots, then adjust your web content, design and marketing strategies. Eye-tracking is one of the best indicators of a site’s performance. Using heat maps in combination with gaze plots shows you exactly where your audience is looking, where they are stalling and where you can make an extra pitch or offer a call to action that compels them to act. —Matthew Capala, Alphametic
5. Capture and Review Quality Leads
Review the quality leads that you capture with your digital marketing. You may be capturing more people who have low intent to buy because they just want to check out items online before buying elsewhere. Create content that will capture the attention of the right people. —Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
6. Add More Information to Guide Customers
Make the checkout process seamless and fast by adding thumbnails to each product with the product name, directions on how to finish the order, more payment options, opt-in options for registration after payment and so on. Make the payment processing fast enough that, once the site or app says the order is processed, a confirmation email is also sent ASAP. —Daisy Jing, Banish
7. Accept Multiple Simple Payment Methods
One of the reasons why people abandon products in their carts is because their payments don’t go through. When a payment fails, they have time to reconsider their buying decision and likely won’t make a second effort to buy the product. To avoid this, add simple payment methods and include wallets, especially for mobile. This method should allow you to avoid cart abandonment. —Blair Williams, MemberPress
8. Fine-Tune Your Checkout Page
The best way to lower your abandonment rate is to fine-tune your checkout page. When someone adds an item to their cart but doesn’t complete their order, it could be a sign that your checkout process has some issues. Check your form field length, payment options and loading times to get more people to complete their orders, which lowers your abandonment rate. —Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights
9. Focus on Your Sales Funnel
Setting up an effective sales funnel that guides your customers from start to finish can drastically reduce your online cart abandonment rate. Something else that’s effective is removing as many steps as you can in the purchasing process. Look at Amazon’s “Buy With One-Click” as a good example of this technique. —Bryce Welker, Beat the CPA
10. Prioritize and Optimize Your Overall User Experience
Usually, a high bounce rate indicates that you’re not doing well in convincing the users to buy your product. The more time a user spends on your site, the more likely they are to make a purchase. The overall user experience reduces bounce rate and increases your conversions. Analyze how users behave and what influences their decisions and increases their experience. —Kelly Richardson, Infobrandz
11. Make It Effortless to Navigate Between Cart and Store
A good way to lower cart abandonment rates is to make the navigation between the cart and your store effortless. This helps reduce friction during the checkout process and thus decreases the abandonment rate. —Josh Kohlbach, Wholesale Suite
12. Add an Exit-Intent Pop-Up
To decrease your cart abandonment rate, you can add exit-intent pop-ups to your website. These pop-ups appear when users try to exit your website. It can give them an offer or incentive to stay or ask for their details to join a mailing list. But catching users’ attention as they leave has proven effective at prolonging their engagement. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
13. Make Your Site Minimalistic
With fewer buttons, fewer distractions and a state-of-the-art user experience, Apple is a great example of minimalism. It’s a tight balance between cutting-edge sites and fast loading times. Well-placed calls to action with strong SEO and minimalistic copywriting are necessary. Hire professionals who specialize in SEO and UX separately. Don’t just go for “unicorns” to save money. —Joey Bertschler, uniworld.io
14. Avoid Negative Surprises at Checkout
People dislike surprises when it comes to buying a product. Make sure that you always state any delivery fees, added taxes and time frames for delivery right on the product page. That way, when customers move forward to buy the product, they’ll know exactly what they’ll be paying, which makes the payment process smoother. —Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
