Marketing Pilgrim

People buying online are an impatient bunch. No waiting in lines and the checkout lane is always open. But customers do abandon their carts, and it’s something online marketers want to prevent. e-Consultancy has some tips to help you get customers to finish the sale. Research from MarketingSherpa put abandonment rates at almost 60% (read MarketingSherpa’s tips).

10 Tips to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

1. Security – You’ve got to build trust with customers. One way is to put third party logos on your site and (of course) use a secure server address (https).

2. Keep the process short. Keep it to as few steps as necessary. Any longer and customers could change their minds.

3. Let customers know where they are in the process. Use a status bar or tell them what step they are at out of the total number of steps.

4. Checkout isn’t a time to ask for user feedback. Wait until the purchase is complete so you can keep the process streamlined. Only ask for what is needed during the buying process and make it easy for customers.

5. Don’t make customers register on the site before they buy. Again, ask at the end.

6. Keep customers on track by putting no distractions in their way. Don’t put advertisements or any information that’s not important to the sale. Don’t link off the page. They suggest using popups for necessary information (like a privacy policy or terms and conditions).

7. Use established patterns and ways to collect information. In other words, don’t make customers think too hard or cause confusion or frustration.

8. Let them pay with PayPal. It’s a good option for customers who don’t want to enter credit card information they won’t have to. However, they do have to register first.

9. Give shipping information – customers want to know when they will get their items. Tell them when to expect their order and offer many shipping options. Amazon.com is good at pointing out how quickly you can get your package with express shipping. Shoppers can make impulse buys, give them the option to get their package fast. I would add how much is shipping and taxes - some customers are comparison shopping.

10. Give contact details – in real life it’s easy to know who to contract if you have problems or questions. Online it’s not. Giving contact information is another way to build trust with customers. That means a phone number, email address, and physical address.

One last point. Customers sometimes use shopping carts to save items that they aren’t ready to buy. That’s why I like sites that have wish lists.

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