according to research done by the baynard institute that looked at 41
different studies on cart abandonment stats
the average shopping cart abandonment rate is an absolutely brutal
69.57% think about that for a moment if your
site for example currently converts say 1 000 customers a month you're
missing out on another 3,216 who abandoned their carts
3,216 if you're able to improve your checkout
rate by just 10% the result would be over three hundred
extra purchases a month would those additional customers have a
noticeable impact on your business we think so at iwd agency we've been
helping e-commerce companies improve their sites and revenues since
2001. during that time we've worked with
countless clients who weren't completely thrilled with their cart abandonment
rates if your site's checkout page is turning
away more customers than it converts don't worry we're here to help we've
compiled 20 of the best ways our agency has learned to drop shopping cart
abandonment rates for e-commerce clients across a number of different
industries this is a four-part series made up of
short videos packed with insightful tips and tricks
to help you plummet that abandoned cart rate
be sure to check out the other parts linked in the description below
to learn all the tips and tricks we have to offer
now let's dive in number one use social proof to make purchasing an easy
decision one of the best ways you can keep your
customers from getting cold feet at the checkout page is by addressing it before
they ever get there in other words you want your customers
to know they're making the right decision the moment they decide to buy
to do this we highly recommend you leverage the power of social proof
if you're not familiar with the term it's just a fancy way of saying that
people tend to more readily adopt the same opinions as everyone else
for example if you drive by a new restaurant and see that it's line is out
the door you're likely to assume it must be a
pretty good restaurant even if you otherwise know nothing about
it you'll be far more likely to visit it now
right likewise if your customers see that a lot of people like the product
you sell they'll be more inclined to think it's
worth purchasing this is why product reviews are an absolute must for your
e-commerce company especially if customers regularly
abandon their carts according to a report by bizrate that
looked at the power of customer reviews 92 percent of shoppers report reading at
least one before making a purchase if you don't have that information ready
for them don't be surprised if they decide to look elsewhere for it
and make their purchases elsewhere too the good news is that it's never been
easier to leverage the social proof power
of product reviews once the sole domain of a little site called amazon
there are multiple product review plugins no matter what platform your
site is built on here's an example from runners athletics
of how simple it is to use effective product reviews
right when potential customers visit this page they see proof that 46 people
have purchased their sunglasses and absolutely loved them
does this increase the chance of a sale absolutely
runners takes it one step further though while this won't be realistic for every
company if at all possible take a page out of
this company's playbook and show how happy your customers are when using
your product for a lot of products including lengthier customer
testimonials is an absolutely powerful way to get them excited about their
purchase before they're on the checkout page
considering whether or not to continue with their cart
you can have them on a separate page but i'd recommend at least including a quote
and a link on your product page that entices shoppers into learning
why other customers love your product so much
we're going to cover a lot of cart abandonment tips that involve the actual
checkout page too but we can't stress enough how important
it is to set up that page for success if you want more buyers show them they
won't have to worry about buyers remorse number two keep navigation simple
simple simple kiss isn't just an awesome cool pretty good band it's also
very good advice for a successful checkout page
keep it simple stupid or as we prefer to say
keep it simple sir or ma'am the simpler it is for customers to navigate to your
checkout page and navigate back to product pages if
they decide they want to keep shopping the less likely they'll be to ditch
their carts according to that baynard institute
study we cited at the beginning 26 of shoppers abandon their carts
because the checkout process is either too long or too complicated
what does it take to kiss this problem goodbye
first don't make customers use the back button if they decide they want to add
more to their cart it should be a seamless process to click
keep shopping and get right back to your store we'll
explain this in section 4. second this means you need to prioritize
navigating your site if people struggle to view your products
they can't put them in your cart to begin with which will kill your
conversion rate the same problem will also skyrocket
your cart abandonment rate if customers leave to go find more products but have
a hard time doing so simple sites are almost always more
effective in terms of seo cro ux basically all of the
important acronyms but kiss is also a simple way you can
also improve your shopping cart's performance
number three include progress markers for longer checkout pages
now let's start talking about the actual checkout page itself
because even if you convince customers that your products are great and make it
easy to bring those products to the checkout page
high cart abandonment rates are still inevitable if that checkout page is a
mess our first tip here is a simple one if
your checkout page is actually a checkout page let
customers know right away ideally you want to keep your
checkout page short and sweet just like with the
navigation on your site simplicity leads to success that being
said multi-page checkouts have their
advantages and might make sense for some companies in that case let
customers know how many pages they have to go through
or even how many steps are involved in order to check out
otherwise they may decide not to and now you have an abandoned cart below is a
good example of what i'm talking about from soylent
see how they monitor your progress at the top
currently i'm on the information page next i'll fill out shipping
soylent is also a good example because it helps answer a question we get a lot
from clients our customers rarely abandoning their
cart because we don't show them how many checkout pages we have
remember the 26 of customers said they have abandoned carts because the
checkout process was either too long or too complicated so yes it definitely
happens however my feeling is that if you're
selling a one-of-a-kind product like soylent
people who have made it to your checkout page will probably stick around even if
you don't let them know how many steps more are coming
after all where else are they going to find something like that
on the other hand if you sell something that customers know
or at least think they can find on another site with less hassle
then they'll more than likely bail your site at the first sign of convenience
either way our advice is don't risk it as you can see
even the team behind the wildly unique soylent decided to add a progress
tracker to keep abandonment low do the same thing enjoy the same result
number four allow customers to save their carts
not all carts that are abandoned are abandoned permanently which means
there's still a chance for your company to close the sale
provided you let customers save their carts
this is also a great way to increase conversions and average order amount
while dropping your abandonment rate it may seem like an obvious step to many
of you it's another one right out of amazon's playbook but we've
actually worked with companies that have put it off
they reason that their site is easy to navigate their product is great and
their copy is fine-tuned to convert in their minds customers should have no
reason to put of purchasing and yet they still saw their carts
abandoned why because people love to comparison shop
according to research by kissmetrics 27 of people who ditch their carts
want to compare prices on other sites a streamlined website with amazing copy
tons of positive reviews and all kinds of detailed videos isn't
going to change this customers will still leave your site to
see what else the internet has to offer when they come to their senses and
realize how good they had it on your site welcome them with open arms
to the shopping cart they left behind kissmetrics found that an additional 41
of customers simply aren't ready to purchase when
they leave their carts behind so no they're not cheating on you with
another site they haven't necessarily given up on the
purchase either whether they're back the next day the
next week or even the next month make it easy for customers to pick up
where they left off by saving their cart
number five keep your cart where your customers can see it
in our opinion it's just as important to keep the cart visible on your site
especially for customers who may leave and come back
for example when i visit amazon here's what my cart looks like
if i'm only visiting to peruse with no real intent to buy
that might change now that i remember that i left some items in my cart last
time that said you can also reduce the
likelihood of that initial abandonment by prominently displaying what a
customer already has in their cart once again amazon does a great job of
this as i continue shopping there's a panel
on the right to show me what's currently in my cart
this also reduces the chances that i'll reach the checkout page
remember that i forgot something for example legally blindfold
and abandon my cart to go find it my cart
would still be waiting for me when i return of course whenever that is
but i'm sure amazon would appreciate the sale sooner
rather than later well folks that covers part one of this series
keep watching the next video for five more ways to improve your abandonment
cartrate but don't forget to like this video
before you do
you