Did you know that many businesses, even top ones, suffer some percentage of shopping cart abandonment? So dry your tears; you’re not alone. The average shopping cart abandonment rate ranges between 55-75%, but here are ways you can keep yours below those metrics.
1. Run Extensive Tests
What you need to do is to test your customer’s confidence and ease of shopping on your site. No, we’re not talking about the regular testing. You need to hire testers or use real customers for the test; you need to use your own money and set them actual purchase scenarios. This means you get honest, real feedback on your shopping process and the reason for the cart abandonment.
2. Test Personal Data Security Issues
Ask your test subjects what kinds of security measures will give them the confidence that their data is safe with you and that they can safely transact on your site. Your customers will feel more confident if they see trust symbols and verified payment gateway symbols while shopping. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for third-party verification by VeriSign and other trust authorities.
3. Test Purchase Confidence Issues
First-time users may read the privacy policy to see exactly what measures you’ve taken to protect their data, but that might be it. The privacy policy is more of a placebo in most cases, because it lets people know that you’re concerned about protecting user data. Keep your branding consistent on partner interfaces such as vendors and payment gateways. This assures customers that their data is safe even when they’re not on your site.
4. Test Customer Confidence On Return Policy And Guarantees
Check if your testers are easily able to locate your return policy, your price match guarantee and satisfaction guarantee. Find out if their fears are addressed, or if you should work more on them. Then check out the return policies offered by some of the top online stores. Look up placements – many retailers place a link to their return policies in every page header and in the shopping cart.
5. Test Your Customer Service Availability
Customers feel good when FAQs and knowledge-bases are available, but they are more assured to know that real people are on hand to provide customer service. Test your customer service – how long does it take to get a response via email? Do you need to incorporate online chat service? How about placing a 24/7 support icon on the shopping cart?
6. Test Your Pricing
It’s easy to compare prices these days, especially if you’re in a very competitive market. If your customers are uncertain about your site or its offerings, they will check out your competitors’ stores. So be sure to test your pricing against those of your main competitors, and ask your test subjects for their honest feedback on your pricing strategies.
7. Test Your Order Accuracy
Find out if your test subjects are comfortable with their orders, or if they have any confusion regarding taxes, discounts, totals and so on. Are they able to pose questions quickly? Get them to explain order elements that they don’t understand. You may need to cut back on other shopping cart elements and provide greater transactional clarity.
8. Test Your Overall Purchase Value
Ask your customers if they feel satisfied at the value they’ve received? Make sure the order summary points out shipping discounts, discounts and the total savings. Offer a low-price guarantee and observe their reaction. Check if people feel that they’re getting a raw deal if they don’t have a coupon code. Maybe your coupon code field is too prominent? Maybe they’re able to find the coupon field?
9. Test Shipping Efficiency And Pricing
Do you charge shipping prices? Do you offer free shipping if the value exceeds a certain amount? Can you offer free shipping to achieve greater customer satisfaction? For a person wanting to buy a $15 item, shipping charges of $10 or a minimum purchase amount of $50 for no shipping charges don’t seem reasonable.
10. Test Ease of Use
Did your customers find your site and your shopping process easy to use? Did they have to constantly navigate back and forth from the shopping cart to the previous page? Were they taken back to the main product listing page when they exited the shopping cart, or did they go back to the previous item page? Analytics won’t give you all the answers you seek. Your customers can.
11. Test Payment Method Convenience
Are you offering too many payment options (causing confusion and redundancy) or too few (causing frustration)? Are customers able to make quick transactions using your payment options? Are they being held up at any stage? Are they facing transaction loss or server jamming issues somewhere? Pose these questions to your test subjects; make them purchase various items using multiple payment channels and note down the transaction time, errors and so on.
