Abandoned Shopping Cart Blocks Road to Success

By Paula Mariedaughter and Jeanne Neath

Every shopper is looking for products to buy. And your financial interest depends on finding willing buyers for your services and products. What keeps you apart? What causes a visitor to choose items, add them to the shopping cart, and then to abandon the cart? Abandoned shopping carts litter the Internet. What can you do to avoid this roadblock to a financially successful web site?

Make your products irresistible
If you are bored with your products, don’t expect your visitor to purchase one of every color. Share your enthusiasm for each product you place on your web site.

Your visitor depends on you to paint a word picture describing the valuable features of each product. You may even have to do a bit of “educating” in your description. If this machine comes with ten detachable sewing feet including a walking foot, mention this popular feature. If the hand dyed fabrics are of a higher thread count, let your customers know. Mention the designer or manufacturer whenever appropriate.

Give your shoppers an excellent picture of every product. Good photographs, on the conscious level, convey details of the product. Carefully edited photographs indicate, on an unconscious level, your concern with offering quality products.

Make your prices irresistible
High product cost or high shipping cost are the two most often cited reasons shoppers give for abandoning a shopping cart. Offer bargains whenever you possibly can. Access to a bargain price for a valuable product can create customer loyalty. Once a visitor has decided to purchase one item, their buying resistance is lowered. You may take a loss on a single item that draws a hundred new customers to your business.

Placing information about the shipping fees you charge in a prominent place is an important communication with your customers. A major customer gripe is unknown or unreasonably high shipping rates. Savvy shoppers will comparison shop for the best shipping rates.

Make checkout irresistibly easy
Many visitors will make a quick exit from your site if you attempt to gather personal information too soon in the check out process. Many visitor enjoy the chance to do some low pressure, anonymous browsing. Some use the cart as a way to gather all the products they might be interested in purchasing in one place, with plans to review the contents of the cart and then choose the most desirable items. Once the purchase decision has been made, your asking for billing information is a welcome part of the process.

No one wants to give credit card information to a potentially unreliable merchant. Give your security assurances early and often. Provide a phone checkout procedure or a mail-in form. Make your checkout instructions clear and concise. Simplify your checkout procedure as much as possible.

Pave the Road
Pave the way for repeat business by carefully packaging the order and by shipping quickly. Consider offering inducements for additional business. Perhaps you might offer a 10% discount on their next order or free shipping over a certain amount. Do you have scheduled sales or special events? If so, let the customer know about the potential to do business with you at a bargain price. Offer every customer the chance to sign up for your email newsletter. To minimize abandoned shopping carts anticipate your customer’s preferences. Make it easy to fill their shopping cart and hard to abandon their desired purchases.