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10 Effective Ways to Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment

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. 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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!