Running a successful e-commerce business is hard work. You may find that your shoppers respond well to your store but suddenly abandon their carts at checkout. What gives? According to a recent article on ZippyCart, several factors can lead to shopping cart abandonment. Studies regarding this issue vary, but reports show that anywhere between 35 to 75 percent of online sales are dropped when items are in the cart. You don’t have to be a math whiz to realize that’s a lot of lost business. High shipping costs, complicated checkout processes, a lack of trust or security, or simply a change of heart by the shopper can all lead to this occurrence.
The first way ZippyCart suggests you counter this is by cutting shipping costs. Offering low shipping across the board or incentives for free shipping will help keep consumers clicking in the right direction. From personal experience, the the only reason I bail from an online purchase is due to sticker shock from the shipping cost. Another primary consumer concern is security. Even if you already have enough security to keep out the most advanced hackers and thieves, make sure your shoppers know by showing them a verification seal and providing security information to ease their minds.
If you keep your shipping reasonable and security top notch, a simplified checkout process is the next key step. Too many pages or too much required information may lead shoppers to give up and try another store. Return customers should be given some sort of advantage, such as auto-fill of shipping information or other details that can help reduce transaction time. Finally, make sure the path to checkout is user friendly. Not everyone is a computer genius, so ask yourself, “Could my pet rat figure this out?” If not, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Read the full article at zippycart.com.
