Keep Customers With Their Carts
The numbers are scary for online retailers: for every online shopper who
completes her transaction, another abandons his shopping cart without ordering.
So what should be a story about online success often becomes a tale of
lost opportunities. Don't let your site suffer. If you know why customers
abandon their carts, you can take steps to correct the problem.
Online Sales Increase...
...And So Do Abandoned Carts
By any measurement, $54.9 billion dollars in sales is impressive.
That's the US Census Bureau's estimate of the total ecommerce sales in
2003. The The Register website reports that total retail
sales in the United Stated during the fourth quarter of 2003 increased
just 6.2% while online sales increased by 25.1%.
Those numbers are astounding, but don't tell the whole story
because they could be even larger! Different studies of online behavior
estimate that between 50 and 75% of online shoppers regularly abandon their
shopping carts and that 77% have done so at least once. DataMonitor statistics
suggest that incomplete online transactions could deprive retailers of
up to $63 billion in revenue this year.
Why People Abandon Their Carts
You've probably abandoned a cart at least one - and probably
a lot more often. This isn't a problem with beginning users either. Experienced
Internet users are actually more likely to dump a shopping cart because
they know there's always somewhere else they can go online to purchase
the same item.
There are as many different reasons for ditching a shopping cart as there
are visitors, but various Web surveys have pinpointed the most common causes:
Reasons Shoppers Abandon Their Carts
Source: Yankee Group |
| 56% |
Shipping charges were too expensive |
| 41% |
The item was unavailable |
| 29% |
The site was too difficult to navigate |
| 21% |
The order wouldn’t go through |
| 18% |
The order form was too complicated |
| 15% |
They were unable to use coupons or discounts |
Reasons Shoppers Abandon Their Carts
Source: WebTrends |
| 35% |
Shipping charges were too expensive |
| 35% |
Site requested too much information |
| 17% |
Not enough product information |
| 14% |
Decided not to buy online |
So what's up with customers and shipping charges? Surely any reasonable
person knows that it costs to pack and ship merchandise.
Of course they do, but these reasonable people still suspect that the
shipping and handling costs they're asked to pay are sometimes unreasonable. A study by Ernst and Young seems to back
them up.
- 89% of online retailers charge for delivery
- 11% used delivery charges as a
profit center
- Many charge based on the cost of
the item and not its actual shipping
costs.
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The idea of charging for shipping based on cost infuriates
customers the most. It makes sense if you're ordering something that sells
by the pound, but what if one customer orders a $70 scarf and another orders
a $25 scarf? At most online merchants and catalog retailers, shipping costs
for the $70 item are higher - even though there's no real difference in
weight or packing difficulty.
An ecommerce study by the marketing firm
NFO CFGroup found that "…59 per cent of online shoppers believe
they're being gouged for further profit on shipping costs." At least 11%
of the time, they're right!
Help For Orphaned Shopping Carts
We touched on the issue of shipping charges in the last
Webmaster Tips article: "7 Ways To Increase
Your Online Sales", but there are other issues you can address to keep
visitors with their carts all the way through the buying process.
- Shorten the process! Visitors get frustrated easily
with a shopping cart system that asks for huge amounts of duplicate
information - as in forcing visitors to enter both billing and
shipping addresses even if they're the same.
An ecommerce case study published at
MarketingSherpa.com found that when you redesigned your shopping cart system to eliminate one step,
your cart abandonment rate will drop by an average of 12%.
Fewer clicks move the process more quickly and give visitors fewer
chances to click away from your cart.
- Make it snappy! Forms that process slowly irritate your
visitors just as much as slow-loading pages. Monitor your page
load time with and verify that your
server responds quickly when visitors submit the forms.
- Check for errors. Test your forms thoroughly to make
sure the information is processing correctly. Also check to make
sure the form displays correctly in all browsers. A simple coding
error like a misplaced
tag can prevent visitors from submitting the form they
took the time to fill out.
Give visitors another chance. According to one case study, developers experimented
with another method that resulted in a 25% average improvement
in sales.
They added a pop-up to the shopping cart system. Customers who
abandon their carts see a pop-up window that offers $5 off the
purchase they abandoned - but only if they immediately return to
the shopping cart and finish the transaction.
Most visitors say they hate pop-up windows, but that's because
the pop-ups are often for products they aren't interested in. This
technique gives visitors something valuable.
Safeguard personal data. You're asking visitors trust you
with their personal information and credit cart numbers. Make sure
they feel comfortable doing that by linking to your site's privacy
policy, offering secure online transactions, and requesting only
the information you need.
Ideally, you should ask for personal information as late as possible
in the ordering process. Most shoppers will click away from any site
that requires a credit card and contact information before they
tell you the final cost of your purchase - including shipping charges!
Answer questions! Each shopping cart and product page should
include a prominent link to your Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Visitors can refer to it to get
information about shipping times, ordering options, contact information,
returns policy, and any other questions they may have.
Contact information is important. The NFO marketing survey found
that customers like to know they can contact a live person and
might not have abandoned their carts if one were available
22 per cent said a 1-800 number to call customer service might have changed
their minds, while 15 per cent said live text chat with a customer rep would
have helped.
Make it user-friendly. Shopping cart usability is essential
to the success of your online business, so you should always test
early and often.
There's more to testing than just checking the HTML code for errors. True usability testing gets actual users in front
of your site so you can evaluate their user experience. Of course
you can use the site because you designed it.
But can your visitors order your products, input information, and
complete their transactions? You need to know that before you launch,
not after!
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No matter how carefully you design your site, test your
ecommerce system, and price your products, some shoppers will always leave
without buying. Not every customer in a brick and mortar store buys something
on each visit either.
Visitors are more likely to buy if they perceive that your
site is trustworthy, provides good value, and is easy to use. That perception
is vital to your online success.
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