According to Forrester research, the shopping cart abandonment rate is currently 71 percent. That means that more than 7 out of every 10 prospects that put one or more items in their shopping cart fail to complete the purchase. During 2009, 136 million U.S. online customers abandoned at least one online shopping cart. The big question eCommerce marketers should be asking is how do we get them back? These customers showed they have a very high intent to purchase if they put an item in their cart, but for some reason they abandoned the process.
eCommerce conversion rate optimization will only take your online sales so far. Beyond that you have to start looking at optimizing the conversion process outside of your website. What I recommend is a more comprehensive holistic look at conversion rate marketing that extends beyond the cart to influence the purchase after the prospect has left your site. If you approach conversion rate marketing as a strategy that incorporates into your other marketing optimization in a re-marketing campaign to the very best prospects you have, those that almost bought from you before. They just need a little nudge.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Reach out via email to those that have opted in to receiving messages form you and have added items to their cart recently but have not completed the purchase.
- Reach out to those prospects who have recently added items to their wishlist.
Image from Flickr used under creative commons license
Thanks for tweeting this post Karen. I appreciate the support.