Learn the Secret to Preventing
Shopping Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is common in eCommerce, making it important for stores to make their shopping and checkout process as simple as possible for consumers. Consumers all live busy lifestyles that do not leave time for complicated shopping processes. There are numerous other stores in every industry online, making it imperative for your store to stand apart from the rest to avoid your potential customer abandoning their shopping cart and taking their business somewhere else.

What does shopping cart abandonment mean? Customers that start shopping, put items in their cart and then navigate somewhere else without completing the sale. Just how do you close the sale? First and foremost make the experience simple. Avoid requiring customers to navigate to several pages and have to answer numerous questions. The more seamless the checkout process is, the more likely customers will complete their sale.

Customers also worry about safety. Your site needs to look and feel safe. To consumers this looks like third-party logos and illustrations that portray that your site is encrypted and PCI compliant. When consumers see these indications, they can feel comfortable that their personal and financial information is secure. In addition, customers want a variety of payment options. Every customer has a different favorite method of paying. Some customers prefer to use their credit card while others prefer to use third-party payment sites such as PayPal or Authorize.net. Enabling customers to use any of these methods on your site will encourage them to shop at your eCommerce store.

Last, but certainly not least is finding a way to capture your customer’s attention to avoid shopping cart abandonment. Before they try to navigate away, make them aware of any shipping promotions you offer. Consumers do not want to pay high shipping costs. If they get to your checkout page and see astronomical shipping charges, chances are they will abandon their shopping cart. To prevent this make them aware of flat rate shipping or even free shipping that you offer. Recent studies have shown that free shipping is the most effective way to retain customers and to encourage them to complete the sale, helping you to reduce the likelihood of shopping cart abandonment.