How to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

There are a lot of things that both shoppers and online retailers (or merchants) can do to improve trust in the buying process. Buyers and online stores both have responsibilities when it comes to online shopping.

One of the most crucial issues that online businesses face today is shopping cart abandonment. There’s a significant number of shoppers who leave the site before finishing the transaction, and as a result, the e-commerce stores lose tons of potential sales.

Every online business with an e-commerce store should take measures to reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate, and in this article, we’ll discuss some of the best ways to do that.

1. Use Exit-Intent Pop-Ups

When a user is about to leave a certain page without making a purchase, an exit-intent pop-up can be useful. It sends a pop-up message to the customer and essentially encourages him/her to stay by offering exclusive deals, helpful information of some kind, or discounts. Some websites even display a more targeted message, depending on what the shopper has shown interest in.

2. Make it Convenient for Shoppers to Navigate from Shop to Cart

When consumers make a purchase, they don’t usually do it in a linear, predictable fashion. However, your site can make it more convenient for customers to move between their cart and the store. It should not be a tedious task for the customer to save their carts-in-progress and then go back to shopping for more items. If the shopping and checking out process is done efficiently and in a more streamlined manner, it will be easier for customers to stick with the shopping process, and eventually check out and purchase items from the store.

3. Eliminate Surprises

Many customers are put off with unexpected extra costs of products. Customers don’t want to be surprised when it’s time to check out. They want to know exactly how much they are paying for as they are navigating through the site. The price of what they’re buying should be reflected, and transparency is important to them. With this in mind, online retailers and merchants have to be crystal clear about all the costs and eliminate surprises, especially shipping charges. Hidden shipping charges are one of the biggest reasons for cart abandonment, and in many cases can cause disputes between merchants and buyers (In those cases, you can use third-party services to resolve them more quickly, see this Purchase Guard review to learn how).

4. Build Trust in Your Transaction Forms

Customers need to be assured that their hard-earned money is protected. It is very recommended to include trust signals such as security logos in a place that can easily be seen on the purchase page. The logos should be recognizable and highlighted. Some of the most trusted logos are Norton Secured, McAfee Secure, Trust-e Certificate, and Accreditation from the Better Business Bureau.

5. Offer Various Checkout Options

The checkout process should be painless and convenient for the customer. You don’t want to force customers to create an account before checking out – that is a major and quite common deterrent for completing a purchase. As a general rule, don’t ask for too much information and make checkout overly complicated. Guests should have several checkout options that make it more convenient and simpler for them to make the final purchase. Make it easy for people to buy from your online store. The easier it is for customers to buy from your store, the more sales you’ll make.