How to Avoid Cart Abandonment in Ecommerce

Shopping cart abandonment It’s a painfully real challenge for retailers of all sizes and segments.

Fortunately, there are strategies ecommerce sites can adopt to prevent this from happening and increase conversion rates.

Factors that drive shopping cart abandonment

According to research UPS 2019 Pulse do Online Shopper, the four main factors contributing globally to cart abandonment are:

1. Delivery cost: Your customer is excited about purchasing the item, but you lose it at checkout when unexpected high delivery costs appear.
2. Out of stock item: The customer searches for an item, gets excited about the purchase and there is no product in stock, with no information on when it will be available again.  
3. Estimated delivery time too long: Waiting weeks to receive the order is unacceptable for many consumers, who end up abandoning the purchase because they need the product before the estimated deadline.
4. Preferential payment not offered: the morepayment options you make available better for your e-commerce, remember that not everyone can or wants to pay on credit. 

Solutions for shopping cart abandonment 

The good news is that retailers can change each of the scenarios presented above and recover abandoned carts.

Firstly, it’s important to know exactly who you’re selling to. If you have a variety of customer profiles, you should offer a variety of shipping options. 

For some, free shipping is more important than speed. For others, the priority is fast delivery, even if they have to pay a higher amount to do so.

There are some ways in which e-commerce offers the option of free shipping without losing money. The most used is free delivery from a minimum purchase value. 

It is very common for customers to add extra items to their cart to reach this limit. 

In other words, by providing more shipping options, your store not only prevents cart abandonment, but also increases your conversion rate.

Above all, value transparency at all stages of the purchasing journey, from navigation, product research and purchase. 

To manage the main causes of shopping cart abandonment, you need to:

• Display information relevant to shoppers, like free delivery for members or your loyalty programs, in a website banner. Likewise, make delivery information and shipping costs clearly visible on product pages. 

• Invest in inventory management systems that provide visibility to the buyer. If you don’t have the item they’re looking for in stock, capture your customer’s contact information and let them know you’ll get back to them as soon as the product becomes available.

• Offer a variety of payment options beyond major debit and credit cards. Payment slips and platforms such as PayPal and Stripe are also widely used solutions today.

In the end, it all comes down to keeping the customer informed throughout the purchase process, so that they are not surprised at checkout.

The power of customer loyalty

An often overlooked factor when it comes to reducing cart abandonment rate is customer loyalty.

By designing attractive loyalty programs, you not only help prevent purchase abandonment, but also pave the way for future sales.

Carefully consider how you build your loyalty program. 

“Older consumers are willing to accumulate points for some reward at the end, while the younger generation tends to want things more on a transactional level, like free shipping or discounts.”, says Alexis Cohen, global e-commerce and retail strategy manager at UPS.

Email can be a powerful tool to promote repeat business. From product notices to announcements of launches and offers, email marketing serves many purposes while creating a relationship with the buyer.

Making purchasing easier is another important factor in avoiding cart abandonment. 

If a customer is on the fence about a purchase, the last thing you want to do is make it difficult.

Be sure to reduce the number of clicks required to complete an order and let product reviews easily visible to increase customer confidence.

According to Pulse research, 8% of respondents worldwide abandoned their carts because they couldn’t remember usernames and passwords, while 16% abandoned a purchase because they needed to create an account but didn’t want to.

Top Tips to Increase Cart Conversions

Cohen advises retailers to follow some best practices to minimize cart abandonment rates and increase sales:

1. Ensure consistency in brand experience across all channels.
2. Prioritize transparency by providing buyers with relevant, accurate information upfront and throughout the journey.
3. Keep customer lifetime value in mind.
4. Align with strategic partners who help you focus as a retailer on what you’re good at. 

From order demand and payment processing, to management and delivery, rely on the expertise of others to help optimize the customer experience.

E-commerce platform, Delivery365 is an application that has tracking technology, its own online freight quote system and a wide base of registered delivery people.

Simply register your business on our app to have your own online store and, best of all, connect with delivery people ready to deliver your products.

To learn more, visit our website, learn about our services, and ensure the best delivery service for your customers.