The 10 most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment & tips against it
You're unhappy with your sales figures? That doesn't mean that no customers come by, but in most cases it means that your customers don't "take the shopping cart to checkout". Generally the problem the non-binding nature and "consistent opening hours" of online stores. In case customers enter a ''real store'', they will buy something with a 30% chance. When it comes to online stores, it drops down to only 3%. In this article, we will tell you the most common reasons for shopping cart cancellations and what you can do about it!
1. Delivery methods are too expensive (most common reason)
By far the most common reason for a shopping cart termination is the overly expensive offers of delivery methods. Unfortunately, due to the shipping price dumping of Amazon and Co, online shoppers are used to a delivery price of € 3.99 and cheaper, and free shipping from € 50 at the latest. Of course, you shouldn't take any loss by shipping too cheaply, but try not to add any profit margins in order to not make the process of purchase-closing unnecessarily insecure. In addition, you may also offer more expensive "express shipping", a cheaper standard shipping looks like an even better deal next to it. If you want to offer free shipping from a certain amount of money, you can advertise it on your homepage to motivate your customers to make a bigger purchase. You can set the free shipping function by editing your delivery methods.
2. Customers are being forced to create a customer login (second most frequent reason)
Another situation that possibly discourages your customers is a shopping process that is lasting too long , where your customer has to log in with personal data to create an account. Since many customers are rather sceptical about this data request, we at branchbob thought we should leave out such a forced customer login. In addition, the checkout process for a branchbob store is limited to exactly one step, which should keep the termination rate lower than for similar stores.
3. Not the desired payment method (third most common reason)
The problem should be resolvable as simple as possible. Since we as branchbob have interfaces to all common payment methods from PayPal to Amazon Pay and cash payment on delivery, it is only in your hands to make these possibilities available for your customers.
4. Products are too expensive compared to the competition
A further reason for shopping cart abandonments can be the sales prices of the products themselves. Either the offer does not correspond to the customers' willingness to pay, or there are competitors on the market who offer the same or a similar product at a lower price. Therefore, it is recommended to start with small price margins (and thus lower sales prices) when opening the online store in order to attract many new customers. That gives them the opportunity to get to know you and your products. If you have built up a pool of customers, you can think about increasing individual product prices a little or introducing new products that are a bit more expensive and offer you more margin.
Another possibility to attract new customers can also be offering coupon codes, for example via the social media account of your store, an e-mail newsletter or directly via your store. Should your products appeal to these buyers, there is a high chance that they will buy from your store again. If your products are nevertheless more expensive than those of your competitors due to special product features such as a high quality or fair trade conditions, you should explicitly point this out. For example, on your ''About us'' page, through high-quality product images, or in a detailed description of your products.
5. Lack of trust
You have to earn people's trust. This applies to everyday life, but also to the operation of an online store. If a customer is a guest in your store for the first time, without knowing your company and without prior recommendation from other satisfied customers of your store, he will firstly look around with a certain skepticism. In order to eliminate them as quickly as possible, you should make sure that your online store makes a serious impression. All necessary legal pages should be filled and equipped with the appropriate attachments. In addition, the information provided should be accurate, and also creating a blog, "About Us" page or home page text can ensure that the customer gets a serious first impression of your store, which increases the likelihood of a purchase. Adding a certificate such as TrustedShops.com can also increase the seriousness of your store in the eyes of visitors.
6. Missing product details
At a time when all the information is just a click away, customers are already assuming that they can view all the necessary product details directly on the product page and don't have to search long or even contact the store operator to get this information. This includes information such as dimensions, weight, the exact color of a product and so on..
The product images also play a decisive role: you should make sure that your articles are photographed from all important perspectives in order to give the customer a clear picture and to leave no doubts. When taking photos of clothing, it is also important to add pictures of clothes that show the garment being worn as well as product pictures on hangers. A nice extra would also be some information about the dimensions of the model on the product pictures and what size he/she is wearing to give the customer an even better idea of the proportions.
7. Product is not available in desired size/ colour
If a customer decides to buy one of your products, but cannot find it in his favorite color or size, it is very annoying. On the one hand you miss a sale, on the other hand this could put your store in a bad light with this customer and make sure that in the future he decides to buy from one of your competitors. Therefore, always try to make sure that you keep an eye on your product inventory. An easy way to do this is to tick the 'automatic stock management' box and regularly display all 'low stock' products to ensure early replenishment. You could offer an additional service by leaving an email address in the product description that your customers can use to get in touch with you and make special requests that you can fulfill if possible.
8. Product is not available within the desired delivery time
If you have followed all previous advice, there is a high probability that you will convince some visitors of yourself and your products and that they will order one or even more items. Since many Amazon & Co customers are used to receiving their goods within a few days, you should also try to keep your delivery time as short as possible. In general, it should not take longer than 5-7 days for your customer to hold his product in his hand. If the delivery of one of your articles takes longer, you should make it transparent in your store and not gloss it over so that your customers don't have to wait.
You should also consider the option of offering an express shipping service in addition. Although this is relatively expensive, individual customers who have a particularly urgent need will be happy to have this option.
9. Confusing shopping cart because of missing pictures/ product information
You don't have to worry about that with your branchbob store. As long as you add all the information such as weight, dimensions, product photos, etc., the customer automatically receives everything in his shopping cart at a glance. The expected shipping costs are also displayed so that there are no unpleasant surprises during check out. Shopping cart abandonments should therefore not be a problem for you in this respect.
10. No or unsatisfactory information regarding returns
If a customer should be dissatisfied with one of your products, or decides for example for another size , it is important that your information regarding a return is easy to find and above all completely available. Therefore you should have filled out all legal pages and additionally linked a form for the revocation with the point ''right of revocation''. It is best to add this information (e.g. how long a return of the product is possible) to the product information and link the form. In this way, the customer receives all the information he needs at a glance and does not have to do any research.
Tip:
Activate Google Analytics to get more information about customers who cancel their shopping cart. You may discover that e.g. more of them are from abroad and you can easily fix it by offering your store in English as well. You may also discover that the majority of abandonments only occur for a particular product. In this case you could take a closer look at the product and edit the description, product photos or other features. This tool also tells you how much time a customer actively spends in your store. In such cases, it is usually about customers who are actually interested in buying something. You should take a close look at them, especially if the shopping cart is getting abandoned despite this interest.
Do you have topics about which you would like to read more? Then send us a mail support@branchbob.com and we will realize your contribution idea.
Marek Thiel & Lisa Weber