7 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment and Bounce Rate in 2020

What do you do when your store’s website traffic is climbing, but your sales aren’t?

Running an online store is a constant battle for sales. You might be doing everything right to get traffic coming in, but when that traffic doesn’t convert into sales and revenue for your business, it’s time to make a change.

We’re going to share some insights into how you can optimize your store for the right kind of traffic, get more people to stay on your site, and encourage them to complete their purchases. Let’s dive in!

7 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Finding ways to increase sales is likely at the top of your to-do list as the holiday season approaches. You’re considering many different options to help you boost your business and leverage the buying frenzy — but which ones will actually produce results?

8 out of 10 customers will add products to their cart and then leave without purchasing them. There are a wide variety of reasons for this and addressing them can help you recover those lost sales.

So let’s take a look at 7 things you can do to reduce shopping cart abandonment.

1. Know Your Audience

Determining your target audience is the most important thing you can do for your business in terms of marketing. It’s the key to creating products that your customers want to buy. The more you know about your target audience, the more you can anticipate their needs and be there to fill them.

When you understand the way your customers think, you can empathize with their perspectives and craft a journey that ends in a purchase.

You can write product descriptions that fulfill their expectations and convince them that your product will benefit them.

So, how do you figure out who your target audience it? Check out this detailed guide from Hootsuite: How to Determine Your Target Market – A Guide to Audience Research

2. Use Google Analytics Tracking

Google Analytics Enhanced eCommerce tracking is a must-have for your business. The information gained from analytics tracking will be vital for your marketing efforts. It allows you to see how customers are navigating your site and gives you the ability to spot leaky pages.

What are leaky pages?

A leaky page is a page on your site where a high percentage of visitors exit your site. Something about that page is causing your customers to leave — so it’s important to identify those pages and fix the leaks.

It could be a broken URL, bad copy, or a broken page design that sent them packing. Picking up on this early and getting it fixed will help you reduce the amount of missed opportunities to sell to your visitors.

Recommended Reading: How to Write Product Descriptions that Boost Sales

3. Establish Trust

It is crucial that you establish trust with your online shoppers. You have to make your customers feel safe about giving you their credit card information and creating an account on your site.

Trust is essential in all of the interactions they have with you.

• They need to know they can trust you with this sensitive information.
• If they have a problem with their order, they should feel confident that you will make it right.
• All they have to go on to make a decision to purchase is the pictures you post, the product description you write, and the other information you have listed on your website. They are trusting that you represented your products accurately.

There are some simple steps you can take to help your customers feel more comfortable with giving you their business.

• Implement a transparent shipping and return policy — include the link to that information on the checkout page.
• Add security badges to your checkout page. Some examples include:
  • Google Trusted Store
  • Better Business Bureau
  • SSL Certificate Seal
  • PayPal Secure Checkout Badge
• Offer a money-back guarantee and state it clearly on product and checkout pages.
• Make it clear how they can contact you if they have questions or need help placing an order. Live chat or a phone number is ideal, but email will work too.
• Add a FAQ page that would answer some of the common questions they could have about your products, the check out process, payment options, and placing an order.

Recommended Reading: How Web Copy Can Help Boost eCommerce Sales

 

 

4. Make Shopping Easy and Keep it Simple

The easier it is for your customers to navigate your site and place an order the better. You want to remove as many obstacles between them and placing their orders as possible.

Simplify Your Checkout Process

Don’t make your customers have to click more than once or twice to get to the checkout page. There should never be any more clicks than just “Add to Cart” and “Checkout Now”. If you are making them click more than that, fix it!

Use a Progress Indicator

You could also consider adding a progress indicator to help reassure them they are on the right page and let them know how many steps are left before their purchase is complete.

Keep the overall process quick and easy. The fewer steps you list the better. An example would be, “Shipping > Payment > Review & Place Order”.

This creates less anxiety for them because they know what to expect and reduces hesitation about completing their purchase.

Shopify will allow you to customize your checkout process, but you may have to increase your subscription to Shopify Plus for some options.

Use a Guest Checkout

You can also consider adding a guest checkout so they don’t have to fill out all their info and create an account. This gives busy shoppers a chance to still place their orders before getting distracted and moving on to the next thing.

Let Them Save Their Cart

Don’t forget to give them the ability to save their cart. Maybe they have to get off the computer or phone and they can’t checkout now, but they want to come back later. Make it easy for them to click one button and save their cart.

You also can collect their email address to save their cart — this will allow you to run automated campaigns to recover those sales later.

If you’re using Shopify, saving your cart is mostly automatic thanks to cookie tracking.

Include Multiple Payment Options

The last thing you want is a shopper leaving your site because they couldn’t pay you. If you are only offering one payment method, you are missing out on potential sales. A prime example of this is a shop that is only offering PayPal.

There are a lot of people who use and love PayPal, but there are just as many who absolutely detest and ashore it and WILL NOT use it. They may love your product, but they hate PayPal more. Do them a favor and include some other payment method options like Stripe, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.

5. Eliminate Surprises

Don’t make additional fees a surprise! Be upfront about any shipping and handling fees or taxes. Make sure you have delivery estimates stated clearly on the different shipping options you make available.

Consider offering free shipping on all orders or when they place an order for a minimum amount. Most places offer free shipping nowadays and if you aren’t, you are missing out on some potential sales.

6. Leverage Your Web Design

Make the most of your website by utilizing exit pop-ups, email reminders, push notifications, and remarketing ads.

Pop-Up Ads

Offer a coupon code or other incentive for them to complete their purchase with an exit pop-up. This gives you one last chance to persuade them to buy before they leave your site. Set up email reminders to notify them of abandoned or saved carts.

Remarketing Ads

Remarketing ads can target previous cart abandoners and remind them of products they added to their cart in a prior visit.

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Ads

Create a sense of urgency with a ribbon or banner ad. Say something like, “limited stock – order now” or “sale ends in 24 hours”. This puts them in the mindset of needing to buy your product now instead of waiting until later.

7. Consult an eCommerce Expert

Reducing shopping cart abandonment is a lot of work. There is the time spent researching what to do and how to do it — not to mention the actual time spent implementing all the strategies. A busy shop owner like yourself should be spending your time and effort on what you do best. Let us help!

Schedule a meeting today and we will help you put a plan in place to supercharge your eStore!