The shopping cart is one of the final hurdles an online visitor has to jump over to convert into a sale.
This hurdle is so big intact that 88% of consumers have completely abandoned an online shopping cart without completing a transaction.
There is obviously opportunity here on any site to improve cart conversions and overall revenue. But first we must understand the 4 little know reasons why people leave their online shopping carts without buying.
1. Shipping and Handling Costs
44% of visitors abandon because of shipping shock. You’ve heard of sticker shock right? Sticker shock is a feeling of dismay or surprise at the price of an item. People often experience sticker shock when they expect one price and the real price is higher than what was percieved or expected.k
Shipping shock is no different. Shoppers are savvy, they kind of know what’s reasonable for shipping, if it’s outside of that zone, they bail.
Here a a couple of things you can test to reduce shipping shock and increase your shopping cart conversion rates.
- Show shipping option costs up front at the beginning of the process.
- Offer Free shipping or reduced shipping if you can make the economics work.
2. Not ready to buy
41% of visitors that add something to their cart are believe it or not, not ready to buy.
There could be any number of reasons for a visitor is not ready to buy. To correct for such a broad reason, you can explore testing the addition of elements to incentivize like get a discount right now usually tied to an up sell in the cart or an element of scarcity, like a countdown clock for the offer or something as simple as the item will be removed from the cart by…
3. Wanted to compare prices on other sites
27% Of visitors leave to compare prices. It’s true online shoppers today are more savvy then they were a few years ago and this number will continue to grow with mobile taking a bigger role in price comparison offline, leading more sales to move to the online space. But all that aside. These shoppers are considering more than just face value cost, everything is factored in or at least thought about in a holistic view, delivery cost, how easy it is to buy from you vs another site that may already have their credit card on file, the trust of your site, etc.
4. Item was priced too high
25% of cart adders feel the price is too much to pay. The underlining psychology here is that price is on one fide of a see saw fulcrum and something unknown is on the other. If you increase the weight on the other side of the fulcrum you’ll push more people over to converting. Sometimes that other element is trust and other times it’s the product value proposition, you have to do a series of tests to find out.
What can you test to capture more of those type of abandoners?
– Display customer support contact information in the cart.
I’ve also had success in cart tests including testimonials and other trust marks including guarantees and social proof, right in the cart itself. It makes sense if you think about it. My hypothesis was the prospect needs reassurance at the point of purchase. Without knowing what reassurance your need you are better off correcting for multiple needs rather than just one.
Bonus 5th Little Known Factor That Could Increase Your Cart Conversion Rate
5. Provide options to save your cart contents
Simply put, this makes it easier for a prospect to buy later. A few less steps for them to do if they decide that your price is the best or if the competition is less trust worthy, or appears to be anyway. Plus if your cart is set up in the right way to capture emails before entering a credit card or if they have already logged in from a previous purchase you have the perfect opportunity to reach out to them with an email nudge to get them back and recapture that lost conversion.
See the full Infographic here from KISSmetrics
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