Few things are more frustrating for an eCommerce store or site than an abandoned shopping cart. Yet customers do it all the time. The good news is, there are smart ways for you to prevent shoppers from leaving their carts – and win them back when they do.
Start by making sure your checkout process is short and simple to understand. Eliminate any unnecessary steps in order to create a clear path to the checkout page. That includes enabling shoppers to check out without requiring them to create an account or sign up for emails before making a purchase.
You can also eliminate customer confusion by avoiding surprises, such as unexpected shipping costs or fees that increase the expected total amount.
Here are four activities you can apply right now to help you streamline your store's checkout process and improve your shopping cart experience to keep shoppers engaged.
1. Create A Branded Checkout
Beyond looking great, your store's design can make a big impact on your bottom line: Branding is critical at every part of the shopping process, including checkout. A branded website domain, like this one from Ecosox, creates consistency with the logo and marketing used throughout your site and your social media campaigns. It also adds a more professional look to your store.
To avoid confusion for shoppers, create an integrated shopping cart with checkout on your branded domain (available on the business plan). Customers won't think they've accidentally landed on another site and will be more likely to finish their transactions.
2. Show Off Your Cart
Hidden shopping carts negatively impact sales. Make sure shoppers can easily locate your shopping cart and checkout page at all times. Start by using a highly visible shopping cart icon. An oversized button also makes the cart easy to access, and item counts help customers keep track of what they are buying. Many themes offer this icon automatically, including Slick and Superset.
Try storing the shopping cart icon in your navigation, and making it sticky so that the cart follows customers as they shop, like Dharma Yoga Wheel does in its store. Adding an item to Dharma's cart also activates a dropdown menu that includes a helpful “Checkout" button. You can also create a similar mini cart that shares the look and feel of your site.
3. Add Trusted Security
The McAfee SECURE website badge lets shoppers know that your site has been tested and certified by an outside (and globally recognized) security brand. After all, over 60 percent of shoppers say they've abandoned a site because it didn't have a similar security seal.
Don't let potential customers get spooked by security concerns. Find the McAfee badge in the App Center along with other trust-building apps for your store to help boost shoppers' confidence when they're making a purchase.
4. Provide Incentives
It's easy to send emails through Weebly Promote with incentives that encourage shoppers to return to abandoned carts. Your call to action could be a discount offer, a reminder that there are alternate forms of payment, or a notification that the item they were considering is now on sale.
Be sure you know which shoppers you want to bring back, reports Entrepreneur, rather than blasting a push notification to every customer who abandons a cart. Consider targeting customers who searched for multiple items, read reviews, spent at least one minute looking at the items they selected, added a high value item to the cart, or are previous customers, the magazine advises.
With these helpful strategies and great features for your store, it's easy to encourage shoppers to stop abandoning their carts -- and to make that final sale.
You can also eliminate customer confusion by avoiding surprises, such as unexpected shipping costs or fees that increase the expected total amount.
Here are four activities you can apply right now to help you streamline your store's checkout process and improve your shopping cart experience to keep shoppers engaged.
1. Create A Branded Checkout
Beyond looking great, your store's design can make a big impact on your bottom line: Branding is critical at every part of the shopping process, including checkout. A branded website domain, like this one from Ecosox, creates consistency with the logo and marketing used throughout your site and your social media campaigns. It also adds a more professional look to your store.
To avoid confusion for shoppers, create an integrated shopping cart with checkout on your branded domain (available on the business plan). Customers won't think they've accidentally landed on another site and will be more likely to finish their transactions.
2. Show Off Your Cart
Hidden shopping carts negatively impact sales. Make sure shoppers can easily locate your shopping cart and checkout page at all times. Start by using a highly visible shopping cart icon. An oversized button also makes the cart easy to access, and item counts help customers keep track of what they are buying. Many themes offer this icon automatically, including Slick and Superset.
Try storing the shopping cart icon in your navigation, and making it sticky so that the cart follows customers as they shop, like Dharma Yoga Wheel does in its store. Adding an item to Dharma's cart also activates a dropdown menu that includes a helpful “Checkout" button. You can also create a similar mini cart that shares the look and feel of your site.
3. Add Trusted Security
The McAfee SECURE website badge lets shoppers know that your site has been tested and certified by an outside (and globally recognized) security brand. After all, over 60 percent of shoppers say they've abandoned a site because it didn't have a similar security seal.
Don't let potential customers get spooked by security concerns. Find the McAfee badge in the App Center along with other trust-building apps for your store to help boost shoppers' confidence when they're making a purchase.
4. Provide Incentives
It's easy to send emails through Weebly Promote with incentives that encourage shoppers to return to abandoned carts. Your call to action could be a discount offer, a reminder that there are alternate forms of payment, or a notification that the item they were considering is now on sale.
Be sure you know which shoppers you want to bring back, reports Entrepreneur, rather than blasting a push notification to every customer who abandons a cart. Consider targeting customers who searched for multiple items, read reviews, spent at least one minute looking at the items they selected, added a high value item to the cart, or are previous customers, the magazine advises.
With these helpful strategies and great features for your store, it's easy to encourage shoppers to stop abandoning their carts -- and to make that final sale.
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