Cart abandonment is a critical problem for all e-commerce stores.
The average cart abandonment rate is about 76%, which means 76 out of 100 shoppers walk away from the store without buying anything. The number is quite depressing.
Luckily, there are some surefire strategies that help battle the high cart abandonment rate and successfully bring the shoppers back to complete their purchase.
Make total price transparent
One of the major reasons for shoppers to leave their carts is hidden extra costs: shipping, taxes, etc.
When the users go to the cart, they should be able to see/calculate the total price, including:
- product cost,
- shipping fee,
- taxes,
- any other additional costs.
If the user sees one number at the beginning of the checkout and then a drastically different one upon the payment confirmation, this will come as an unpleasant surprise and most probably drive the users away from buying.
The simplest solution is displaying all the extra fees right at the checkout beginning. You can add a shipping fee calculator so the user can independently figure out the total price.
Also, you can offer a discount on shipping or any other suitable incentive in case of a high total order price. This will encourage the user to continue shopping and will contribute to building loyalty towards your Magento store.
Dismiss obligatory registration
Shoppers expect their online experience to be lightning-fast. When your store asks for obligatory registration before the checkout, chances are high the transaction will not happen.
There are a few reasons why shoppers are so reluctant to create an account:
- lack of time,
- lack of trust towards your store,
- unwillingness to receive newsletters and emails.
Here are two great ways to resolve this issue.
Guest checkout
Guest checkout does not require any extra moves: it asks for the email only. Email is needed so the user can access the cart from any device and browser.
Social media login
Almost all of us are present on social media so enable the social media login on your site.
It’s a win-win both for you and the user. You will get access to the user’s data for further use in your marketing strategy and the customer will be able to log in to their account from any browser and at any time.
Optimize the checkout
This issue relates to UX and can heavily impact shoppers’ buying decision.
As we already mentioned, customers don’t want to spend too much time on the checkout process. They want it to be fast and frictionless – but the reality is often the opposite.
Many Magento stores have the following issues with the checkout:
- too many/useless form fields,
- too many checkout pages,
- lack of optimization for mobile,
- too many exit points.
The complexity of the checkout process scares the shoppers away – and drastically reduces your sales.
What you need here is checkout optimization. It includes:
- adding a progress bar to keep the shoppers aware of their progress,
- eliminating useless form fields and minimize them (the optimal number is 8),
- minimizing the exit points to prevent users from leaving,
- keeping the checkout at 1-2 pages at most.
Build trust
If it’s their first time at your store, shoppers may hesitate to give away their private information and credit card details.
Considering the level of fraud and cyber-attacks, their fears may be justified. How do you convince the users not to worry?
To make it clear from the start, incorporate security badges to your page. The visual confirmation will help users feel more secure (make sure your Magento store is actually secure, too).
Make sure you provide a clear and reliable return policy where all the options are visible and clearly explained.
Another thing that can help establish trust is offering customers numerous ways of contacting you: a chatbot, email, phone, Skype, or any messenger. By doing so, you will show that you are 24/7 available to your shoppers and are ready to resolve any issue they may have.
Fix the store performance
Many users say they did not intend to leave the store but had to because of shopping cart crashing or site malfunctions.
The site performance depends on many factors: code quality, image optimization, plugins and extensions, server load. It would be quite difficult to independently identify the issues and fix them.
The best thing you can do is to contact an experienced development agency and ask to conduct a performance audit. The professional audit and further optimization will help you significantly boost your site’s speed, eliminate any errors, and optimize Magento for further efficient work.
Offer multiple payment options
Imagine that the shopper has many items in the cart, loves your store, and plans to become a regular customer – but you don’t offer a suitable payment option so the disappointed user leaves.
It is crucial to provide numerous payment options that your shoppers will choose from. And to do no guessing, conduct research on your audience first to learn more about their shopping habits and preferable means of payment.
What else you can do with the store to start selling more
The tips below will significantly improve the checkout experience and help you boost the conversions in no time.
Use analytics to learn about shoppers’ behavior
Analytics is your best friend when it comes to getting insights about your shoppers, their preferences, and behavior. We highly recommend integrating Google Analytics in your store to always monitor the shoppers’ journey and adjust marketing strategy correspondingly.
As for the checkout, analytics will help you see at which point most users leave the site and what actions they perform. These insights will help you precisely pinpoint the problem and fix it.
Make your store mobile-friendly
The study by OuterBox states that 60% of users shopped in e-commerce stores via their mobile devices in the last 6 months. Impressive enough to start thinking about mobile optimization for your store. And don’t forget the mobile-first indexing, introduced by Google in 2018.
A mobile-friendly store has quick and intuitive navigation and clear visual elements. The checkout should be hassle-free as well and involve as little steps as possible.
Tips for checkout optimization for mobile:
- implement autofill,
- eliminate dropdowns if there are less than 4 options,
- replace placeholders with labels,
- use correct input type for different entries.
Use abandoned cart emails
Abandoned cart email is a powerful tool that helps you retain customers and keep the conversions going.
Such emails are sent as a follow-up after the user added items to the cart but did not proceed to the checkout. And studies show that 50% of the users who opened abandoned cart emails, eventually completed the purchase.
The abandoned cart email usually contains a reminder about the items in the cart and often creates a sense of urgency by stating that the item will soon be out of stock.
Abandoned cart emails work like charm so if you don’t use them yet, it’s about time you begin getting more conversions.
Use remarketing
Facebook remarketing is another amazing way to get the shoppers back to your site even if they left the cart without buying.
The Facebook tracking pixel, placed on your site, analyzes the user’s behavior and, based on that, helps you create a 100% relevant ad for the target audience. By showing such ads to the users, you remind them about the items they left in the cart and encourage to get back and complete the purchase.
Once again, do not overlook the impact of the overall user experience on the shopping behavior. Once the customer hits the landing page, everything should be intuitive and appealing to guide the customer towards the purchase.
If you feel that your store can perform better, contact us and we’ll revive your conversions in no time!