10 Effective Ways to Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment
Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment by Reducing Checkout Friction
Businesses can prevent shopping cart abandonment by making the path from cart to completed payment easier to follow. Shipping transparency, payment security, checkout speed and convenient payment options can all influence the customer experience.
For online merchants, an eCommerce merchant account can support the payment infrastructure behind a secure and convenient online checkout experience.
Cart abandonment is one of the biggest problems plaguing online merchants, and 88% of all consumers have abandoned a shopping cart without completing the transaction at some point. That makes minimizing cart abandonment a key goal for online merchants looking to maximize revenues and profitability. Here are ten of the best eCommerce tactics merchants can use to stop cart abandonment and see more customers through to order completion.
1) Ensure customers know the shipping costs upfront.
The number one reason customers abandon shopping carts are being caught off guard by shipping costs they deem to be too high. The easiest way around this is to enable customers to check shipping costs prior to checkout. This can be easily done using the shipping estimation calculators built-in to many eCommerce platforms and also available as third-party plugins.
Giving shoppers cost information before the final payment screen can reduce surprises later in the checkout process. Merchants should make shipping information easy to find and keep any available estimates consistent throughout the customer journey.
2) Ensure customers feel totally confident in payment security.
Concern over payment security is a major reason customers abandon shopping carts, and there are a few tactics merchants can use to see those customers through to a successful purchase. The first is displaying all the security badging and trust-building logos (like “Verified by Visa,” for example) that consumers expect to see in online checkouts The next is to make it clear to customers that the website and checkout are fully PCI Level One compliant, meaning they meet all of the security standards set forth by the major credit card companies.
Updated security note: Visa now uses Visa Secure with EMV 3-D Secure for online authentication. Visa describes the program as a way to help reduce card-not-present fraud while lowering unnecessary customer friction. Merchants should also understand the PCI compliance requirements that apply to their payment environment.
3) Offer a guest checkout option.
One of the top reasons customers abandon carts is the requirement to create an account before paying. Many customers just want to make their purchase and leave, and forcing account creation is an annoyance and even a security concern for some who don’t wish to give out any more personal information than necessary. Providing a guest checkout option will make it easy for those customers to quickly make their purchases, reducing cart abandonment and boosting sales.
Merchants can still offer account creation without making it a condition of purchase. Giving shoppers the choice allows returning customers to use account features while keeping checkout accessible to first-time or occasional buyers.
4) Streamline checkout as much as possible.
The one seemingly harmless factor that can cause cart abandonment is too many screens or fields during the checkout process. Some checkouts have five or more pages that a customer has to progress through before they’re finally able to submit their payment and confirm their order. That’s a huge mistake, and all merchants should aim to collect only the information they need and to get the customer through the checkout process as quickly and easily as possible.
Online checkout technology continues to move toward fewer manual steps. Mastercard describes its move toward one-click online payments using technologies such as tokenization, Click to Pay and biometric authentication. These developments reinforce the value of reducing unnecessary steps between the cart and payment confirmation.
5) Offer a wide variety of payment options.
Today’s online shoppers expect options, and failing to provide them can easily result in lost sales. First and foremost, it’s a must to offer payment through all of the major credit card issuers – Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. Offering wallet and third-party options like Paypal or Google Pay is also a smart option, as a lot of regular online shoppers use those services and find them convenient.
An integrated payment gateway can help merchants connect their checkout with the payment processing infrastructure needed to support online transactions. Businesses should choose payment methods based on their customers, checkout environment and operational needs.
6) Make sure websites and checkouts are error-free.
Online payments are all about trust. When a website asks a customer to submit their payment information, to a certain extent, it’s asking them to take a leap of faith. A website with errors, either in the page loading, structure, or even just typos in the content, does not put forward an image of professionalism, and as a result, makes it harder for customers to put their trust in the security of the transaction. With that in mind, special care should be taken to ensure shopping carts and checkouts are perfect.
Payment security also goes beyond the trust signals customers can see on the page. The PCI Security Standards Council recommends a strong data security foundation built around people, process and technology. Merchants should maintain secure payment practices behind the checkout experience as well as clear customer-facing trust signals.
7) Make it easy to save the shopping cart.
Users leave websites and close tabs for a variety of reasons, and it’s extremely common for online shoppers to fill up their carts and then move on to something else prior to checkout. Upon return to the site, if all the work put into filling that cart has been wiped away, there’s a very good chance that sale is lost forever. Saving a cart’s contents makes it easy for users to return to a merchant and resume shopping right from where they left off, making closing the deal far more likely.
Merchants should test saved-cart functionality across the devices and browsers their customers commonly use. The goal is to make returning to an unfinished purchase simple rather than forcing the shopper to rebuild the order.
8) Remarket to ship-jumpers.
Just because a customer has abandoned their cart doesn’t mean they’re lost forever. Remarketing is a great way to remind customers of their abandoned purchases in the hopes of drawing them back in for a second chance. Facebook, Bing, and Google all offer remarketing tools, and many online shoppers are familiar with the experience of seeing a product they’d previously researched or put into a cart pop up as an ad.
Remarketing works best as part of the broader customer journey. Merchants can use reminders to bring attention back to unfinished purchases while keeping the message relevant to what the shopper previously viewed or added to the cart.
9) Display customer support information.
Sometimes online shoppers want to checkout, but for whatever reason, something gets in their way. Sometimes it’s a bug, and sometimes it’s just inexperience or confusion. Making them leave their cart to find support information is a surefire way to lose the sale. Shopping carts and checkouts should always display customer support contact information clearly so that buyers who need help can seek it out without having to leave their carts behind.
Support information should be easy to identify without overwhelming the checkout. A clear phone number, chat option or help link can give customers a path forward when a question or technical issue interrupts the purchase.
10) Keep things fast.
Website speed is a big factor in cart abandonment. Slow loading times not only annoy customers, but they also signal a problem with the website that could significantly undermine confidence in the security of the transaction. It’s incredibly important that merchants keep their checkouts optimized to respond and load as quickly as possible.
Merchants should test the complete checkout journey rather than looking only at the storefront home page. Product pages, cart updates, shipping calculations and payment submission all contribute to how fast the buying process feels to the customer.
Bring the 10 Strategies Together
No single change solves every abandoned cart. The strongest checkout experience combines clear pricing, convenient payment options, strong security, useful support and a fast path to purchase.
Merchants should also test checkout changes over time. Customer behavior, payment technology and the devices shoppers use can change, so the checkout experience should continue to evolve with them.
BAMS offers merchant services to online retailers looking for the most secure, lowest-fee accounts possible, and there are many benefits to BAMS merchant services that can assist with cart abandonment. Our accounts work with various gateways ensuring fast, smooth transactions. We enable stores to accept a variety of payment methods, including all major credit cards, and we work with you tirelessly to ensure the highest possible transaction security, enabling you to reassure your customers of the safety of every transaction.
If you’d like more information on how BAMS merchant services can help solve your cart abandonment issues and save you money on your transaction fees, contact us today!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is shopping cart abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment occurs when a customer adds products to an online cart but leaves before completing the transaction. It can happen at several points between product selection and payment confirmation.
How can merchants make checkout easier?
Merchants can reduce unnecessary fields, offer guest checkout and make costs clear before the final payment step. A simpler path can give customers fewer reasons to leave before completing the order.
Why should shipping costs appear early?
Showing shipping costs before the final checkout stage gives shoppers a clearer view of what they will pay. This can help prevent unexpected charges from appearing at the last moment.
Does payment choice affect cart completion?
Customers may have different preferences for cards, wallets or other payment methods. Offering appropriate payment choices can make checkout more convenient for a wider range of shoppers.
How does payment security affect checkout?
Customers need confidence when entering payment information online. Merchants should combine clear trust signals with appropriate security controls throughout the payment environment.
Why is website speed important during checkout?
Slow pages can make the purchase process frustrating and interrupt the path to payment. Merchants should test the full checkout journey and address performance problems that delay customers.
