Shopping cart abandonment is a significant problem. In some market verticals between 65 and 75% of shoppers abandon their online shopping carts before completing the checkout process. Small business owners report rates as high as 82%. Here are 20 tips to help you reduce the number of shoppers on your site that abandon their online shopping carts.
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Check how many steps are in your checkout process. This is usually a prime "knee jerk" target for results, but it has been found that whether you have one step or seven steps in the checkout process is not all that critical (which goes against conventional advice by having as few steps as possible). We had one client with whom with whom we were able to bring the checkout process from six steps down to one, but there was no correlation in reduction of the abandonment rate to the number of steps. Note: In testing that I have done I also found this to be true. Once people find what they want, they are generally going to buy, regardless of the steps involved.
Recommendation from Jerry West: Look at the steps you have in place currently. Have a group of independent people look at the process and give honest feedback. Look for consistency in complaint - or praise. If your checkout process is very lengthy, consider a reduction to make it as smooth and painless as possible. As that is just good customer service and that is something we all need to focus on.
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Include a "Progress Indicator" (e.g. "Step 2 of 5") on each checkout page if you have multiple pages. No matter how many steps you have in your checkout process keep shoppers oriented by letting them know exactly where they are in the checkout process by step number. Be sure to clearly label the task to be completed at each step. Always give them an opportunity to review what they did in the previous steps and a way to return to their current step if they do go back.
Recommendation from Jerry West: This is only necessary if you have three or more steps in your checkout process.
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Provide a link back to the product. When an item is placed in the shopping cart, include a link back to the product page, so shoppers can easily jump back to make sure they have selected the right item. Your own experience probably parallels others. Recently, shopping for a CD/DVD printer, a shopper wanted to know how many and what color cartridges come with the printer. It wasn't obvious where they should click to review what came with the printer so they had to navigate using the back button until they were able to get their questions answered. Not all consumers are willing to take on this navigational challenge and choose to abandon their carts instead.
Recommendation from Jerry West: According my testing, having a link BACK to the product page and then relying on the customer to know what to do to get BACK to the shopping cart is just a bad idea. They can do it, sure, but at what cost? In fact, only 4% of users who clicked on the product link were able to get back to the shopping cart without causing a system error or adding a duplicate item to the cart. Instead: use a pop-up system to allow users to see more detail on the product without leaving the page. You may want to instruct them to press Ctrl as they click to override pop-up blockers that they may have.
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Add Pictures inside the basket. Just adding a link back to the product details page inside the checkout process reduces abandonment, placing a thumbnail image of the product inside the basket can increase conversions by as much as 10%.
Recommendation from Jerry West: If you are going to include a link back to the product details page, take some time and create a pop-up instead (as mentioned above), so the product details "hovers" over the shopping cart page so the customer can make the review and not get "lost". I tested the "link back" and it does not reduce abandonment.
[Via - StomperNet]
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