The Buying Process: Symptoms of Abandoned Cart Syndrome

| Posted: 25-04-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 8 | Rating: (50)

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The Online Shopping Cart is the virtual equivalent of a real world shopping cart. You put in items which you would like to purchase, then proceed to the checkout page where you submit your payment for the items in your cart. It's normal for a percentage of visitors to abandon their carts by exiting your website for different reasons. However, if you're seeing a large number of visitors abandoning them in comparison to your sales, you may want to investigate for potential problems with your checkout process such as:

The customer is not comfortable or has doubts about your checkout process.
There is a difficult step in your process which your visitors are having trouble figuring out or getting past.
Your visitor was somehow distracted from completing the purchase
Your visitor experienced hesitation due to a high price
Your visitor did not intend to purchase anything from your website

How to Minimize the Number of Abandoned Carts

Leading your customer successfully through a purchase and curbing how many carts get abandoned at the checkout involves having a thorough understanding of their mindset when theyre at this stage in the buying process. Once you have this understanding, you can now (re)design your purchase process around your customer effectively. The less resistance and more encouragement you provide, the higher the chances you'll get the sale. Try implementing these suggestions.

Perform a Usability Test - Find people in your target market to test your buying process on. Have them go through making a purchase with you present and then notice where they have troubles or spend a particularly lengthy time reading. DO NOT disturb them during the process. Make notes during the test and then ask them questions afterwards.
Keep it Simple - Reduce click-aways such as ads, popups, unrelated news/text, and other distractions during your buying process. Make it as short as possible. The only clickables on your page are the things that move the customer closer to the purchase such as a "Next" button.
Emphasize Value, Not Price - Whenever you display the price of the item, try to also display the benefits or features of owning the item. The best way to do this using C2 is to concentrate on emphasizing benefits in your product descriptions. Once the online invoice summary is displayed to the customer, theyll not only see the price but also be reminded of the reasons they're making this purchase.
Be Secure - See that the pages where a client is entering and submitting their private information are secure. Visitors want that reassurance they won't be handing over their credit card information to someone other than you. C2 uses the latest secure technologies available to ensure your identity doesn't fall into anyone else's hands.
Remove Risk - Add a guarantee that makes the visitor feel safer buying your product. Were not fans of the Lifetime Guarantee but its been known to work. We recommend something more reasonable such as a 90 day to 12 month guarantee. It's more believable and less hype'ish
Let Others Speak For You - Having a good quality testimonial from a satisfied (and if possible, well-known) client on the page during the checkout process can reassure your visitor further that they are making the right choice. It might just be the straw that tips the balance in your favor.
Take Privacy Seriously - Make sure that you have a prominent link to your privacy policy throughout your checkout process. Have the link open in a new window when clicked so that people will not be taken from the original purchasing page.

How to Use Google to Detect Abandoned Carts

Google Analytics has a "Goals" feature that you can use to detect abandoned carts. By specifically identifying each of your checkout pages as well as your final sale conformation page to Google you can track how many people make it to what page in the process as opposed to how many people exit and what page they exit from.For example: If you see that a large majority of visitors don't make it past your third step/page where they must enter their credit card information, it's a signal that there's a problem with that page you need to identify and correct. More often than not, it's a hesitation or a trust issue on the part of the customer. Regardless of what you think the problem may be, it's important that you find out for certain what it is and fix it so you can stop the leak. Following these tips, you should see a decrease in the number of carts that are abandoned and an increase in sales since more people are making it through the buying process. To find out more about Google Analytics or Getting the Goals feature set up on your website, contact us.

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Article Tags: Google Analytics, Website Traffic Analysis, Abandoned Cart

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Michael Dela Cruz is the Web Marketing Consultant for Canada's Web Shop, an Internet Marketing Company located in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada specializing in Winnipeg Web Design.

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The Buying Process: Symptoms of Abandoned Cart Syndrome

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