With the advancement in technologies, online shopping has become easier and can be now carried out at the buyer’s and seller’s convenience. The process of buying online has become very simple now. You go through the range of products of your choice, pick out what you want. That item then goes into the “cart”. As you go through the items you want, you go on adding them to your cart. Once you have picked all items, you have to “checkout” which means completing the process by making the payment online or choosing the option of cash on delivery. The next step will be to fill out details for the shipping address. Once this whole process is completed, you will be notified and get regular updates about the delivery of your items.
Seems very clean and simple, right? Sometimes, people add all the items of their choice into the cart and abandon it, which means they don’t carry forward the buying process. At other times, the buyer goes all the way to the checkout- payment and delivery address, but abandons the process midway. This is known as checkout abandonment.
The reasons for shopping cart abandonment could be:
- Bad user experience
- Slow page speeds
- Confusing navigation
- Lack of response
- Too many steps involved in add to the cart process
- Having to refresh the page after adding an item to the cart, etc.
You should keep in mind following tips to prevent cart abandonment from happening:
- Making sure that your site is user friendly
- Easy and simple navigation
- Minimal number of steps
- Good site speed
In case of cart abandonment, you can send a personalized email to the customers reminding them of the items in their cart. If too many mails are sent, they might feel pushed and may not come back to your site. An incentive to continue the checkout would be more helpful.
Similarly, the reasons for checkout abandonment could be:
- Too many additional costs that seem unreasonable
- They might want to buy as a guest and not register
- A complicated and confusing process
- Site errors
- Not enough or convenient payment options
How to prevent Checkout Abandonment?
- Give an accurate breakup about the total costs (including reasonable additional costs)
- To apply any coupons or offers, explain your terms and conditions clearly.
- Shipping, return and privacy policies have to be precise and easy to understand.
- Site trust is very important- display any security badges that you have
- Delivery time being too long
- Do not force a customer to sign up if they do not want to.
By understanding the reasons for cart and checkout abandonment, it is easier to find the solutions and implement it in order to get better sales and also the reputation of the company.