Tired of seeing abandoned carts pile up? Learn the preventable causes of lost sales and the best ways to streamline your checkout process.
There is no such thing as half of a sale. Abandoned carts combine the thrill of having supplied a product that people are interested in with the dread that you did something to extinguish that interest along the way.
Thankfully, considerable research has gone into the top causes of abandoned carts. Many of those factors are beyond a merchant’s control, and have to be considered part of the psychological cost of doing business. If a non-customer is unsure if they are ready to purchase, or if they are using the cart as a way to price check or build a wish list, there is little that the checkout process can do to convert that person.
But what about the remaining factors? Three major leaks in the checkout process can be patched with very simple changes.
1. Shipping Costs
The chief reason for abandoned carts—the biggest leak—is the cost of shipping. Even if a storefront makes no attempt to hide these costs, seeing the price at the end of the checkout process is the biggest mental obstacle preventing visitors from becoming customers. This culprit is responsible for 44% of all failed transactions.
The best way to patch this leak is by setting a threshold for free shipping. Yes, it may cut into your margins, but it is a smaller price to pay than a lost sale. If you offer free shipping for all orders over $100, you may find that visitors are more willing to pay that $100 if it means more products than they would if that total cost only covered a single product and its shipping. If you can’t afford to, then focus on adding value to the shipping in other ways, such as same-day shipping. Match added costs with added value.
2. TMI
Another common culprit: lengthy forms that require too much information. Yes, you may want this information for future marketing, but you will lose more leads than you gain by requiring birthdays, pet names, personal interests and other invasive information. Only ask for the information that you need to get the product to the customer, and autofill this information when you can—guest checkout options are a wonderful way to accomplish this.
3. Complexity
Our internet-induced short attention spans do no not suddenly disappear when we pull out our credit cards. A lengthy, complex checkout process dissuades visitors and threatens sales. A one-page checkout is as simple as it gets, and it should be your first choice in combating the problem. However, if there is simply no getting around the need for multi-page information, the second best option is to provide checkout step indicators. Steps such as Shipping > Delivery Options > Billing > Order Review > Receipt keep visitors aware of the stage that they are currently finishing and how many steps they have left to go. If you can’t provide them with a final page at the beginning, let them know how close the final page is.
If you are looking for more ways to streamline your checkout process and make it easier for visitors to buy, check out one-page checkout video series.
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