Every retailer dreads the “abandoned cart”—a potential buyer almost makes a purchase but walks away at the last minute. It can happen at brick-and-mortar stores, but it’s especially prevalent among e-commerce businesses. Luckily, though, a few small improvements to your user interface can go a long way toward ensuring your shoppers complete their transactions.
By leveraging the right data and tech tools, e-tailers can determine exactly where buyers are dropping off and craft a communication strategy to reach them. Below, 12 Forbes Communications Council members share tips for doing just that.
1. Retarget Site Visitors
Once a customer visits a site, continue to show abandoned cart products through social media ads and helpful reminders. Keep the product top-of-mind for a few days and it’s much more likely you can make a sale! - Mandy Menaker, Shapr
2. Make The Shopping Experience Simple And Transparent
Companies should make sure their return policy, shipping information, etc. are all clearly stated and that there are no more than two screens from when you get to the cart until you complete the purchase. The more steps and screens the buyer has to go through the higher the “abandoned cart” rate. - Nishat Jones, Victory Packaging
3. Review Your Site Analytics
Many businesses aren’t tracking behavior to know where the fallout is happening. Enable enhanced e-commerce reporting in Google Analytics, for example, to track the checkout progress on your site. It might be that users are dropping off from the “View Cart” page to the “Checkout” page because it is difficult or not intuitive to remove items that are in the cart if they added too many. - T.J. Welsh, Stryde.com
4. Conduct A/B Tests To See Which Features And Offers Work Best
Want to avoid cart abandonment? Look deep into your data and gain insight into your customers’ behavior. In time, you’ll have enough perspective to predict behavior and churn. Prevent cart abandonment by communicating with the customer in real time with a special notification, pop-up or email with an offer to prompt their next transaction. A/B test to see what offers work best. - Pini Yakuel, Optimove
5. Adapt Your Site For International Shoppers
Make sure you present prices in the correct currencies for international shoppers, along with accurate shipping costs and timing estimates. These two simple things will mean your out-of-country shoppers will have confidence in what their actual costs will be, along with how long it will take to receive the items. - Candice Russell, Pitney Bowes
6. Put Your Call To Action Front And Center
Focus on a clear call to action in the shopping bag. If you have products that are a single purchase or stand-alone, drive the traffic directly to the checkout process. While in the cart, make sure only relevant products show as upsell opportunities, and apply intent identification scripts to engage the user if they are idle or show intent to leave without moving to the checkout. - Kobi Ben-Meir, Yalber
7. Give Them Options For Completing Their Purchase
The first step is to figure out why customers are abandoning their carts. Customer data reveals that some shoppers prefer to research products online and complete their purchases in store. An effective way to complete the path to purchase from online to in-store is to offer alternatives at checkout such as “find this item in store” or “save the item for later.” - G’Nai Blakemore, Mattress Firm
8. Automate The Product Search And Follow-Up Processes
Use artificial intelligence to help customers in their e-commerce journey. AI can help customers find products and guide them through the purchase. If the cart has been abandoned, AI also can follow-up via email or Facebook Messenger to remind shoppers about their pending purchases. - Kara Cowie, SkillPath
9. Give The Impression Of Scarcity
It may seem counterintuitive, but letting your customers know you’re low on inventory can sometimes be the very push they need to roll their carts to the finish line. Rarity is a proven psychological driver in consumer decision-making, so highlight this factor on your e-commerce interface: “Only two left in this size!” The immediacy and rarity of the sale will drive your customers to hit “buy.” - Melissa Kandel, little word studio
10. Develop A Personalized, Triggered Email Campaign
An email triggered after an abandoned cart can help maximize conversions, especially if it’s personalized and contains compelling copy and a high-quality image of what was in the cart. If that doesn’t work, a day later it can be helpful to send a similar email that offers a small discount to come back and complete the order (though it’s obviously important not to make this email predictable). - Cameron Conaway, Solace
11. Offer An Easy Payment Process
A common reason consumers abandon their cart is that they are ordering from a website for the first time and their credit card number and address are not stored, causing shopping fatigue. Consumers are more likely to finish their purchase if the site accepts PayPal, Apple Pay or Amazon Pay. Those are platforms consumers have already set up for payment. - Sherry Jhawar, Blended Strategy Group
12. Listen To And Learn From Customer Feedback
The user interface can make or break an e-commerce company. So how do you fix it? Companies should regularly listen to prospects and customers and watch them go through a buying experience. Through direct user testing, human insight helps you take the guesswork out of why your shopping cart isn’t converting. Learn what offers will be compelling, what converts and what you need to improve. - Michelle Huff, UserTesting
