Ecommerce: How to Keep Buyers from Abandoning Their Carts
A Home Business Article Contributed by Alina Sandor
Abandoned Carts, Huge Ecommerce Losess
Many people look but don't buy on ecommerce sites, even after putting a purchase into a site's cart. This is creating huge losses for ecommerce sites in general. In fact, NetIQ cites DataMonitor statistics estimate unfinished ecommerce transactions could grow to $63 billion in losses this year. That is a lot of potential customers gone down the drain.
Why are they not finishing their purchases?
Stealing Your Ecommerce: Little Surprises
35 percent of consumers that were surveyed recently by the online analytics company said added costs, such as shipping and handling, or lengthy delivery times resulted in their abandoning an ecommerce purchase. Sites that request too much information is another annoyance that drives away 35 percent of shoppers. Also, 17 percent said there wasn't usually enough online product information to make an informed purchase decision, with 14 percent changing their mind to go to a brick-and-mortar store instead.
How to Combat Ecommerce Cart Abandonment
Since surprises at the checkout is one of the leading causes for cart abandonment then the smart ecommerce store owner needs to lessen the shock before hand.
A note at the bottom of product descriptions noting shipping and handling fees for the product is a start. The note could also include stats on delivery times as well. If the company does not offer express shipping it should also think about adding that as well.
According to the survey, sites that convince people to buy right away are most likely to see repeat ecommerce business, especially if they have strong security policies and low prices. Thirty one percent of respondents said "good security policies" would be the biggest factor in their returning to a store, while 28 percent cited "best prices" as a big factor.
A good way to persuade ecommerce customers to buy now are specials such as free shipping and 10 percent off if bought within a certain time period, for example.
Some ecommerce businesses have found that sending emails to people who have abandoned their carts a boost in almost lost sales. These emails can include special offers if the person will finish their ecommerce purchases. Newport News, for example, increased sales by 19 times the amount of revenue created from emailed offers sent to ecommerce shoppers shoppers who had abandoned an ecommerce purchase. This was done by tracking the click progress of of shoppers to find out who abandoned their carts.
They then emailed the lost customers within 10 days of their ecommerce abandonment with a special offer within the product category where they had planned to make a purchase. The key is to not let your customers feel as if they are being watched, Newport News stresses.
Another good way to make shopping on your site easier for shoppers is to make sure that all instructions on purchases are clear and easy to read. If possible, have a poll on your site so that customers can fill out a survey asking about the readability of the instructions of the checkout.
