As the owner of an eCommerce website, you might be doing everything you can to improve performance and boost conversions. Unfortunately, this is like a needle in the haystack kind of a situation. There are so many factors to consider and so many hurdles to overcome before finding the right solution.
However, there is something that you might have overlooked while trying to figure out why your shoppers are not making purchases on your website.
And that problem comes in the form of an abandoned shopping cart. According to a report, eCommerce companies lose $18 billion in sales every year due to cart abandonment.
A Baymard study in 2020 revealed that nearly 70% of shoppers tend to leave their cart abandoned. That’s a wildly huge number. That is why you need to calculate and analyze your abandonment rate. Check how many of your website visitors add items to their shopping carts but exit the website without completing the transaction.
Once you know this number, you need to examine the reasons behind the abandonment. Is it because the additional costs were too high? Or is it because your visitors were simply browsing without any intention of purchasing then?
Whatever it is, you should understand the issues on your website and try to fix them with the help of professionals. If you cannot set all the features on your website by yourself, it’s better to contact a professional and hire an IT consultant to help you.
So, how can you increase checkout conversion? Let’s take a look!
How to Boost your Checkout Conversion
There are several reasons why website visitor might leave their carts before making a purchase. However, one of the primary reasons that might contribute to shopping cart abandonment is that you have a complicated checkout process. In fact, the study conducted by Baymard revealed that a whopping 21% of online shoppers abandon their shopping cart because of the complicated checkout process. And all because of something that you could have easily simplified for your visitors from the get-go.
Does your eCommerce website have a complicated checkout process as well? The best way for you to know would be to dive into your Google Analytics reports and do a complete CRO audit to check your website’s conversion performance. Check out what pages your visitors are exiting the most and see where they are struggling. You might just find out that your easy checkout process needs some major tweaking. Checkout optimization can help you increase conversions by 35%.
Here are some of the best industry tips and tricks that you can incorporate into your eCommerce website and boost your checkout conversion.
Guest Checkout
Customers want quick and easy solutions. They don’t want to complete a hundred steps before they can make a purchase. And that is exactly what they are sometimes required to do if you make it mandatory for each of your visitors to create an account on your website to check out.
Nearly a quarter of your visitors are perfectly okay with walking away from their shopping carts just because they do not want to go through the complicated process of registering in the online store. In this case, you should provide a guest checkout option. In other words, offer your shoppers an opportunity to purchase without the requirement of any registration.
It will not only make it easier for your customers to complete their shopping, but it will also encourage them to come back to your website, again and again, all because they remember how simple it was to have made a purchase. And who knows, they might even come back to register an account if they like their first experience on your website! A win-win solution!
Show the Process Progress
A complicated eCommerce checkout process is one thing that does nothing to help your conversion rates. The lengthy checkout process is another obstacle for your clients in making a purchase.
A huge chunk of online shoppers tends to abandon the checkout process halfway through because they feel that they had to complete more steps than expected. Now the critical thing here is to make the process as short as possible and let your customers know from the very beginning how many steps they will have to undergo. Further, it is essential to keep your customers informed of what stage they are on at all times. That is where the progress indicator comes into the picture.
No matter if you have a few or a lot of steps in your checkout process, whether it’s 2 or 8, one of the best things you can do would be to add a progress indicator during the progress.
However, this does not mean that a progress indicator is an answer to your 10-step checkout process. It is essential to reduce the number of steps your shopper has to go through before getting their coveted products. The fewer steps there are, the more likely it is that your customer will stick around.
Here’s a hot tip for those of you who feel like you absolutely cannot do away with specific steps. Try to combine two or more actions into one single step in the process. Even if your customers are doing the same things, completing it all in one step will give them the impression that the process was shorter and more straightforward.
Add Call-To-Action
Now, as the owner of an eCommerce website, you probably have added as many call-to-actions as possible so that your customers end up clicking on that big “Add to cart” button. And you must be patting yourself on the back because your customers have finally landed on the shopping cart, right?
Wrong. What you must keep in mind is that customers are naturally hesitant when it comes to making a purchase. Just because your shopper is on the shopping cart does not mean they don’t require a push in going through the final step. They need encouragement from you at all times.
The thing that might make the most difference to your checkout process is adding a simple and clear call-to-action during the process. Tell the customer what is expected of them at this point in time. And watch them follow your instructions to the end.
However, you must remember that the kind of call-to-action you provide has to be consistent with what drives your customers to make a purchase. In other words, your CTA has to be effective. You can either see what kind of call-to-actions have worked for you in the past or try to develop new ones for the checkout process. Use some A/B testing to see which call-to-actions are getting the best results.
Provide Different Payment Options
Making a payment on your website has to be quick, simple, and easy. Many people who visit your website will abandon their carts full of products if they only see one or two payment options available. Especially if they don’t see the option, they would like to use.
That is why you need to offer as many payment options as possible so that your customer won’t leave your online store at the last step.
However, that does not mean that you should add anything you can find regarding the payment process. If customers find some sketchy eCommerce payments on your store, they won’t trust you and won’t return to your website anymore. That is why you must add some credible ones to your website to assure your customers you are a reliable merchant. Not only will this encourage your shoppers to complete the transaction, but it will also ensure them that it is okay to share their credit card details with you.
Also, you need to ensure that you are offering easy-to-use as well. Here are some of the best online payment gateways you can incorporate into your website.
- Credit and debit cards: While a huge chunk of the population has switched to e-banking methods, these traditional methods have still not gone out of style. That is why credit and debit cards are the classic must-have payment methods that you need to incorporate into your checkout process.
- Bank transfer: Bank transfers are not as popular as the others on this list, but you can consider providing your customers with this option as well.
- Cash on delivery: The best way to avoid the hassle of making an online payment would be to offer your customers a COD option to make their payments.
- E-wallets: E-wallets such as PayPal, Amazon Pay, and Google Pay are extremely popular amongst people today, and they make your checkout process super simple and quick.
- Cryptocurrencies: Granted, this is not an option that is as popular as the rest of the payment methods on this list. But cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have a loyal user base that would highly appreciate this option on your platform.
- Mobile Payment: Most people these days shop online on their mobile phones. That is why your payment methods need to be completely optimized for mobile.
It is also crucial for you to incorporate some payment options that are locally popular as well. You might also want to think about whether all of the above options are cost-effective for you in the long run or not. Your payment options must not only make the checkout process easier for the customer, but they should also be good for business.
To add some of the payment methods, you may need to integrate new eCommerce solutions into your store. The best way to do it and make sure everything will work correctly is to hire software developers to help you set up and develop all additional features.
Save the Abandoned Shopping Cart
There might come a time when you have a customer who is highly interested in buying your products but just not ready to make the purchase yet.
One of the best ways to salvage this situation would be to give your shoppers the option of saving their cart so that they can come back later and complete the purchase. Now, there are several ways in which you can accomplish this.
You can ask your shoppers to create an account on your website and then save their carts. However, creating an account is a hassle that some shoppers might wish to avoid, as we have already mentioned. In this case, you can also use cookies to make a note of what your shoppers saved onto their cart. Either way, giving your shopper the option to come back later makes a huge difference in conversion rates.
However, you must ensure that your customer does not forget about their saved cart. That is most likely to happen if you are not following up with them after they have exited your website. The best way to prevent this would be to implement some remarketing activities to engage your customers once again.
Wrapping Up
The abandoned shopping cart is like the kryptonite to your sales. It can be pretty heartbreaking to see an abandoned shopping cart on your website – to know that you were so close to closing the deal, but just not close enough.
Working on your checkout process can make the most significant difference to whether your customer abandons their cart or sees their purchase all the way through. Some of the best practices in which you can do so are the ones that have been elaborated above.
Of course, you also need to make sure that you are implementing some unique strategies to your eCommerce website to rescue your abandoned shopping carts. After all, each online store is unique and needs a unique strategy to succeed.