How to reduce cart abandonment & increase conversion
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According to global remarketing specialist, SaleCycle, 74.6% of online UK shopping carts end up abandoned. It's a problem that affects online businesses large and small. To reduce this lost revenue, you need to optimise your checkout for conversion.
1. Display Security Badges
Building trust in the digital world is difficult, especially if you don't have an established reputation to draw on. Whether you're a known brand or a newcomer to the market, a security and trust badge can overcome customer uncertainty by guaranteeing that purchases made on your site are safe.
2. Share Genuine Reviews
More than half of customers are heavily influenced by online reviews – often prioritising them over recommendations from family and friends. For maximum conversion, put reviews on your product detail pages so that customers see them before they're tempted to bounce off to a competitor site.
Reviews are also a great starting point for broader improvements to your site. Monitor and analyse them to identify what your customers love and, more informatively, what you can do better.
3. Offer Help
Providing easy access to quality customer support boosts your credibility.
A live chat option allows you to immediately turn a browser into a buyer. 34% of cart abandoners are browsing – a little more information or reassurance can be enough to sway their decision.
If you can’t offer live chat, make sure your contact information is easy to find instead.
4. Add Guest Checkout
34% of abandoned carts belong to customers who stopped shopping when they discovered they couldn't complete their purchase without setting up an account. In other words, compulsory accounts could be costing you a third of your sales.
Accounts are still valuable so don't get rid of them altogether. Just offer guest checkout as well.
5. Streamline Checkout
Us humans are impatient and easily frustrated. Even one extra checkout step can be enough to make a customer think twice. Streamline the information you ask for and tighten up the structure of your checkout process and we're confident you'll see cart abandonment drop.
6. Offer Well-Known Payment Options
Trust is everything when it comes to payments. Ease your audience’s concerns by offering reputable payment options that give your customers freedom of choice and a strong sense of security.
Gone are the days of being limited to Mastercard and Visa; now you can offer an abundance of payment options from Paypal to Amazon Pay and finance options from Novuna and Klarna. And you should – around 6% of customers abandon their cart because of a lack of payment options.
7. Extend Delivery Options
23% of customers abandon their cart because delivery options and costs don't align with their expectations.
Consumers are changing. We work days, nights and weekends. As a result, named-day and even same-day delivery are becoming more popular.
No matter what level of flexibility you offer, be transparent about delivery costs before the checkout stage.
8. Offer Free Shipping
A retailing group study revealed that unconditional free shipping is the number one deciding factor for consumers looking to make a purchase. 73% listed it as “critical”. No surprise then, that more than 50% of ecommerce merchants now offer a free shipping option. And you should too.
9. Use Exit Popups
Exit popups help prevent abandoned carts before they happen – by using algorithms to determine when someone is about to leave. Just as they're about to navigate away, a popup appears.
This is your chance to keep the potential customer’s attention. Offer a discount to sweeten the deal. Collect their email address for future marketing campaigns. Or both.
10. Send Cart Abandonment Emails
Continue the conversation with customers who showed interest but didn't commit.
A simple nudge can be enough to bring customers back to buy the items they left behind. And a well-crafted email can strengthen the customer relationship, build loyalty and help you understand what stopped the customer from converting in the first place.
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