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Published by: Jason Ciment 05-22-2012  |  POSTED IN: Traffic Tuesdays

4 Tips To Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment

 
Without a doubt, one of the greatest headaches for online retailers is shopping cart abandonment. Generating Traffic to your site can only go so far, and many retailers struggle to understand the cause of lost revenue when their customers fail to pull the trigger on a purchase. While it will always be an unpleasant part of running an online company, shopping cart abandonment can also be a helpful tool for understanding customer trends and creating new strategies for increased revenue. Here are 5 tips that will help you find and eradicate the causes of shopping cart abandonment. 
 
1. Clean Up Shop
 
Keep the payment process as clean and easy to understand as possible with efficient and direct web design. Provide a "Step" process with large and direct instructions that will let customers know where they are in the sale. Allow the customer to make edits to their shipping/billing information, purchase list, and payment information until the last step before their purchase. Customers will feel more in control of the sale if they know they can make decisions and fix mistakes before they choose to purchase. Also, don't clutter the checkout page with too many deals or offers that aren't easy to add on the same page. Instead of leading customers to move back a step to check out a new product, provide images and product links on the check out page so they wont lose their place in the process. 
 
2. No Surprises
 
The step from "completing a sale" to "completed a sale" is one a customer does not take lightly. In fact, this will be where many customers jump ship. Why? Each shopper is different, but many times this type of abandonment can be traced to a miscommunication in purchase information. For instance, a shopper can feel secure about the price of a product, only to find at the last step that the shipping and/or product fee is much more than they had planned for. Or a shopper will try to use a discount for a product and the find out that the discount they accounted for has expired. To reduce this anxiety, calculate fees and discount savings earlier in the process so they are aware of the amount they're spending. 
 
3. Avoid The Guilt Trip
 
One of the most important parts of a checkout process is getting the email address of a potential customer. So, get it as early as possible. If they finish the purchase, the confirmation email you send them will assure them that they've finished their purchase correctly. If they don't, you can send them reminder emails about the items still in their cart. If you do send these emails, however, its important to not annoy with an overflow of emails or guilt a customer into finishing their sale. Doing so will only frustrate the customer and make them less likely to finish the sale. Instead, remind them of their item, but include new enticements to gain their interest again. For instance, show them items that could compliment the item in their shopping cart, or let them know of new deals related to their leftover products.  
 
4. Make A Deal
 
A huge draw to an online customer to return to an abandoned shopping cart is if the products in it are suddenly listed at a better price than they would have originally gotten it. This doesn't mean you have to discount items in every leftover cart items, but a lower shipping rate can be the deciding point on finishing a purchase. Simply sending an email to customers with unpurchased shopping cart items about a new discount can both remind them of their items and give them the boost they need to finish checking out. 
Thanks for reading. Jason.
P.S. Don't forget to subscribe below to this blog.
 
About Jason Ciment
Formerly an attorney and CPA, Jason has been working online since 1997. His columns on affiliate marketing can still be found on www.Clickz.com and his book on search engine optimization can be found at www.seotimetable.com.

This blog is published 4x per week and covers website design and SEO tips as well as a wide range of tips and advice for working and living online more efficiently and enjoyably.
 

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