9 little known tips to reduce shopping cart abandonment rate

A high shopping cart abandonment rate can be one of the most frustrating setbacks to increasing e-commerce revenue; however, with a few changes and some effort, you can easily decrease cart abandonment. Your almost-a-customer may just need a little bit of a push.

Little Known Tips to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Tip #1: Display Relevant Customer Testimonials

Be empathetic to your potential customers, buying from a new e-commerce site can be scary. They have no idea if what they see on your website is what they will get in the mail—that’s why testimonials and reviews from previous customers can make all the difference in finalizing that purchase.

Tip #2: Offer a Variety of Payment Methods

You may offer the payment giants such as Visa, Mastercard, and Amex, but not everyone uses, owns or prefers credit card as a form of payment. According to a study by UPS and comScore, 25% of US shoppers abandoned their cart because they could not use their preferred payment method. Your e-commerce sales will grow when you make your products available to all kinds of buyers, people who use online cash payments, online debit, Paypal and the like.

Tip #3: Don’t Hide Decisive Information

No one likes hidden fees. In e-commerce, when information is provided too late in the checkout process, it can come across a hidden or surprise fee. Business Insider reports that 37% of US shoppers abandoned their cart because shipping was listed too late.

Pro Tip: Be accurate with the number of items left in stock. This could urge someone to buy sooner if they know there are only a few orders left.

Tip #4: Offer Free Shipping

Shipping is a major decisive factor for most e-commerce consumers. Among US shoppers, 58% abandoned their cart because shipping was more than they expected. In Brazil, the largest e-commerce in Latin America, shoppes have a similar sentiment in regard to shipping. According to Webshoppers, 52% of Brazilian e-commerce consumers did not pay for shipping in all of 2015. Clearly, fair shipping prices or free shipping can make or break a purchase.

Tip #5: Simple or Guest Account Sign-Up

Simplify your sign-up process to keep customers from leaving your site early. Guest checkouts are a great way of making sign-up simple, getting the most relevant information from your potential buyer, and allowing rushed customers to focus on shopping. Give guests the option to add more information as they go along to make their next purchase faster.

Tip #6: Allow Shoppers to Save their Items

Sounds obvious but not all e-commerces allow their shoppers to save their cart for later. A guest or simple sign-up will facilitate this process and give your shopper the chance to think over their choices before they complete the purchase.

Tip #7: Send Email Promotions & Reminders

A guest or simple sign-up will facilitate you to sent email reminders and promotions for specific items that were saved in a customer’s cart. Although they weren’t ready to buy right away, that doesn’t mean they forgot what they were shopping for just yet. Sometimes a friendly email will do just the trick.

Read also: 10 Email Capture Strategies for E-commerce Business

Tip #8: Secure Your Checkout Page

Many e-commerce consumers avoid accessing, let alone buying on unsecured websites. If your checkout page is not secure, it begs the question of whether or not you will keep the customer’s data safe. Establish your credibility as an e-commerce merchant by securing your checkout and letting customers know you will protect their data somewhere on your site.

Tip #9: Optimize Checkout for User Experience

One of the most effective ways to combat a high shopping cart abandonment rate is optimizing your checkout for user experience. A smooth sequence and simplified checkout process can make all the difference in converting those quick-to-click or lazy form fillers (even the best of us can fall into this category). For more detailed checkout page best practices, visit our other blog post.

Although many e-commerce merchants face a high shopping cart abandonment rate, it’s a lot more easily reduced in comparison to other metrics. Most of the work is done, that potential customer already moved down the pipe toward being an almost-a-customer. Work on implementing these best practices and leave your success stories below. 

EBANX enables international e-commerce merchants to offer the most relevant payment methods in Latin America. Find out more.