Wait! You’ve left your cart at the cash out!

Does your business sell products or services online? Are you tired of customers filling and their carts and then disappearing before paying? Here are some interesting facts that you might like to know:

• You’re not alone. The average website sees only a 2-3% conversion rate
• 7 out of 10 shopping carts never make it to the checkout
• Every year, approximately $18 billion are lost in sales
• Shopping cart abandonment is up to 75%
• 88% of online shoppers have disappeared before paying at least once

Why aren’t online shoppers making it to the checkout?

A 2-3% conversion rate is ridiculously low. So what could be wrong? Why are customers filling their carts, but not following through?

1. They’ve abandoned their cart to comparison shop. Some studies show that customers will use your site to comparison shop. They simply want to know the total after tax and shipping. Sometimes businesses offer sale items, but the mandatory shipping costs (especially international rates) outweigh the item’s worth and its savings. Customers like to know exactly what they’ll be paying beforehand. You can avoid this by being more transparent about the total cost ahead of time.
2. They’ve run out of time. Online shoppers are often in a hurry. If the buying process is too complicated or takes too long, they’ll leave the shopping cart full, click away from the site and carry on about their business. You may find that your conversion rates rise if you make the buying process easier and speedier.
3. Shipping costs are too high. Unexpectedly high shipping costs are a HUGE drawback. I once ordered something from the U.S. and paid for it online. The item then had shipping tacked on it, plus tax on delivery. It ended up costing a lot more than I was willing to pay. Since then I have been very careful about shipping costs, and I end up abandoning carts a lot because of them. If your conversion rates are low, maybe the problem isn’t the product, but the price it costs to get the product to the customer. Consider lowering your shipping costs.
4. The buying process is flawed. More and more often, people are wary of giving information out online. Suddenly they’re receiving phone calls and junk email from companies they’ve never interacted with. Why would a company need my mailing address and phone number for a download? Asking for too much information can lead to cart-flight. Only ask for what you need and never sell your customer’s information.
5. They’ve had technical problems. Every once in a while the buying process is met with technical difficulties. After all the hard work it took to get to that point, it’s highly unlikely your customer is going to do it all again – especially if the problem is at your end. Periodically check your site to ensure that everything’s working smoothly.
6. You’re out of stock. Unless you’ve got an extremely loyal customer on your hands, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be back if you’re out of stock. This happened to me just yesterday. I received an email about a sale for 70% off winter coats at Ricki’s and was super excited since I’m in the market for a new winter coat. I found not one, but two coats that I liked. I’d just gone through the process of figuring out my size and colour (I even convinced myself that I wouldn’t ruin a white coat), only to find out that both coats were out of stock. In fact, all of the coats on the site were out of stock. Needless to say, I won’t be back. A better way to deal with stock issues would be to put a SOLD OUT sign on the product, that way you avoid confusion and disappointment.