Are you noticing that a large number of your users are leaving your website with items still in their cart? Those who own eCommerce websites will be familiar with the fact that this is all a part of the business. But it doesn’t mean that you are hopeless. There are plenty of things that can be done to reduce shopping cart abandonment and decrease your bounce rate.
Your goal should be to get all of your visitors to convert into customers. Although this isn’t entirely realistic, you do want to aim for as close as possible. So let’s take a deeper look at what shopping cart abandonment really is and what can be done to decrease the number of users leaving your site with items still in their cart.
What Is Shopping Cart Abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is when a user visits an eCommerce store, adds an item or multiple items to their shopping cart, and then leaves the site. This can be due to a variety of factors but indicates that the user had the intent to buy, but for some reason, didn’t go through with the actual purchase.
A study by Baymard in 2020 showed that 58.6% of online shoppers had abandoned a shopping cart at least once within the previous 3 months. This shows us that shopping cart abandonment is not an uncommon practice, but understanding why your eCommerce visitors are abandoning their carts is the first step to reducing shopping cart abandonment on your website.
How To Calculate Shopping Cart Abandonment On Your eCommerce Site
Calculating the rate of shopping cart abandonment is done with the use of an easy formula. You will divide the total number of completed transactions by the number of initiated sales (add to carts). You’ll then need to subtract the result from one and multiply the answer by 100. You’ll then have the rate of your shopping cart abandonment.
In order to find out how many initiated sales you have, you can log the “add to cart” button as an event in Google Analytics. This means that every time the event takes place, it is logged as an initiated sale.
If you are looking for an easier way to do this, then having integrated ERP software will be highly beneficial as you’ll have all the data you need right at your fingertips. But more on that later.
Reasons For Shopping Cart Abandonment
Like many things in life, there is no one size fits all. There are many different reasons that users leave items in their shopping cart. So it’s important to address everything that could be a possible issue on your eCommerce site to retain as many users until the end of the checkout process. After all, an ‘almost sale’ is not a sale and brings in no revenue for your eCommerce website.
Slow Website
There is nothing more frustrating than clicking on a website that appears in SERPs, and waiting a couple of seconds while it loads. This is one of the biggest reasons people bounce off a website. Studies have shown that 1 in 4 people will leave a website if it takes more than 4 seconds to load.
But the initial loading time is not the only frustration users have with slow websites. If an eCommerce store is sluggish and every click of a button induces a wait time, customers get annoyed and would rather spend their time shopping somewhere else – at an eCommerce store with a better user experience.
Inaccurate Pricing
If the pricing on your eCommerce website is inaccurate and the customer finds out when they are trying to check out, not only do they feel cheated but they lose their trust in your website. They could have added an item to their cart that they later find out they can’t really afford. Or they simply feel lied to and opt to shop somewhere else.
Because of the lack of trust that your customer now has, they choose to abandon their cart and go look for those items elsewhere.
No Inventory
Not having an inventory of the products displayed on your eCommerce website is a sure-fire way to drive your would-be customers over the edge. It doesn’t take long for an online shopper to get frustrated with a site that is unable to deliver what is displayed on its website.
If you have a big website, then it’s important to use back-end inventory managers that alert you when you need to order more products. This way you can avoid disappointing customers that have the potential to become lifetime buyers.
Lack Of Payment Options
There is nothing more frustrating than getting to the check-out page of an eCommerce store only to realize that they only offer one payment option, and it’s not one that’s going to work for you. For this reason, it’s important to have multiple payment options available for customers.
Remember, convenience is the key to landing sales in the online space, so it’s important to make the buyer journey as hassle-free as possible.
Shipping Duration
A lengthy shipping duration can put some online buyers off. This is because when you’re shopping online, you can often expect delivery within a few days. It’s become one of the most efficient ways to shop, but that benefit is taken away with a long shipping duration.
While this simply cannot be avoided for some products, it’s best to offer multiple shipping options – even if the faster shipping options come at an additional cost. Giving the consumer the choice is an important aspect of their online shopping experience.
Placement/ UX Of Cart
If a cart is hard to find on the eCommerce website, it can cause shoppers to bounce off the website and look elsewhere for their goods. The cart should be easily visible from every page on the website, allowing the customer to access the checkout page at any time.
Additionally, if the cart provides a bad user experience, with long forms and extended wait times, then shoppers are much more likely to bounce mid-check out. Creating a seamless experience without any hiccups along the way is the name of the game.
Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment for eCommerce Stores
Now that we’ve taken a look at the problems you may run into that cause shoppers to bounce off eCommerce stores, it’s time to learn how you can prevent this from happening in the future.
Performance Monitoring Analytics
Performance monitoring analytics provide valuable insights into how users are interacting with your website. Which is the key to finding out where your eCommerce store is going wrong so you can rectify these issues in the future.
Monitor Analytics To Keep Track Of Cart Abandonment
Integrating an ERP system with your eCommerce store is a great way to manage the back-end of your business. But knowing the analytics of how users are interacting with your site is also important. The easiest way to do this is by using Google Analytics to monitor which events are being triggered by users. This will also allow you to see which stage of the checkout process the majority of users are bouncing from.
You will then need to practically go to that page and find what issues users might be running into. If you are still stumped, installing heat mapping software to that page for a period of time will allow you to monitor user interaction with the page, and give you a better indication of where your eCommerce store could be going wrong.
If you’re looking for integrated eCommerce solutions, feel free to book a demo of our products:
- ERP platform integrated with Sage eCommerce
- ERP platform integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 eCommerce
Navigation and User Experience
How users navigate and interact with a website is extremely important. You want them to have a great user experience at every step of the customer journey. Let’s take a look at a couple of ways you can do just that.
Clear CTAs
At no point during the customer journey do you want them to have to guess at what they need to be doing next. This will cause them to bounce quicker than you ever would have thought. Adding confusion to the customer journey is a sure-fire way to get customers to bounce from your checkout page, leaving items in their cart.
Make sure that you have provided customers with clear CTAs every step of the way. This way there will be no confusion and increased chances of customers finishing their check out.
Multiple Choices For Delivery Method
Multiple delivery options give shoppers the option to negotiate a better price for their products. They can choose between paying more and receiving faster delivery, or opting for the free shipping method which may take a little longer. Either way, you are leaving the customer with all the power to make a decision for themselves.
Another thing to take into consideration is that some shipping companies are better at handling certain types of goods than others. So giving your customers the ability to choose their shipping method is the best option, allowing them to make a decision for themselves.
Some shoppers also prefer to pick up their items from a local drop-off point. This could be for a variety of reasons but often allows them to cut back on costs. So providing your shoppers with the ability to choose only makes their chances of reaching the end of their check out that much greater.
Provide a Progress Indicator On The Checkout Page
Nobody wants to fill out form after form in the checkout process. It’s tedious, and not knowing how long the checkout process is can cause some shoppers discomfort. So put their mind at ease with a progress indicator on the checkout page to show them just how far they are in the checkout process.
Provide Guest Check-out Option
Many eCommerce websites require their shoppers to log in, or create a profile on the website before being able to add items to their cart, or check out. While this is a great way to get user details for remarketing purposes, it does mean an extra step in the checkout process.
Many users are averse to adding any extra steps to the process, so providing shoppers with the ability to use a guest profile that doesn’t require signing up is a good idea.
Allow For Navigation Between Cart and Store
User experience is key when it comes to the navigation of an eCommerce store. It needs to be quick and easy for a shopper to navigate between their cart and the store. This is important in case they wish to add more items to their cart. It also means they can initiate the check-out process at any time during their shop, without having to navigate to a specific page.
The best way to do this is to have a cart icon visible at all times. It’s also recommended to have an indication of how many items are in the cart at any given time as it works as a constant reminder that there are items waiting to be checked out.
Optimize Page Load Speed
One of the biggest influences on bounce rate is slow loading speeds. This is just as important when the user first opens your website as it is while the user is checking out items that they’ve put in their cart.
If at any time during the checkout process a page starts lagging, users start to feel frustrated and are likely to leave the site with items still in their cart. Shoppers also tend to have less trust in websites that are slow, which might prevent them from entering in their payment details which they otherwise would have been happy to do.
There are a couple of ways to optimize your site’s load speed, but reducing the size of images is a great place to start. If you haven’t yet built your eCommerce store, then ask your developers to build the site with page speed in mind. If an eCommerce store is created around the idea of user experience, it’s less likely to go south later down the line.
Have An Easy Check-out Form
While having ALL of your shopper’s details may help you with your marketing process, it’s not always necessary. And having long forms to fill out will often prevent a shopper from completing their check out.
Keep your forms short and simple, capturing only the most necessary of details. This seamless user experience will ensure that happy customers come back over and over again. Ultimately, creating lifelong customers that are sure to sing your praises to their friends, family, and colleagues.
Provide The Customer With The Option To Ask For Help
Customers love to feel that they are a top priority. After all, they are what makes your business run in the first place. It’s important that they can easily get help while navigating your eCommerce store, and the best way to do this is with a chatbox.
You can use chatbots for frequently asked questions, but any more complicated issues may need a human on the other end, helping your customers find a solution. Having a chatbox icon that is present on every page of your website ensures you are easily contactable when your customers need you the most.
Simply having the chat box icon is perceived as added trust, and any bit of added trust can help lead to a sale later down the line.
Fix Usability Issues
It’s important to problem solve any usability issues that could cause users to bounce off your website while there are still items in their cart. This could be a whole host of issues and could require testers to attempt to use your website the way a customer would in order to find the problem. But here are a couple of the most common usability issues, they provide a great place to start looking:
- Poor system feedback – the user performs an action and there is (or appears to be) no effect.
- Missing CTA – some websites fail to add a CTA to their products, leaving customers with no way to add an item to their cart. Alternatively, you have to enter the product page to add the item to your cart when there could be an ‘add to cart’ button on the product icon.
- Issues with search – there are a couple of issues that can go wrong with the search. One of them is that if nothing matches the user’s search, they are presented with a blank page. This is a great opportunity to add suggestions to the page that could be similar to what the client is looking for. It’s also a good idea to add filters to the search page to help the shopper navigate to what they are looking for more quickly.
Remove Irrelevant Copy
There is a certain amount of copy that is necessary to explain to users and Google crawlers what the product is and what it does. This should include the details and specifications. However, it is unnecessary to present the user with a blog post of content as a product description. Keep your descriptions short and concise, as when users see too much content that they don’t feel like reading, they will often opt not to buy the product.
It’s important to keep things simple to create a user experience that shoppers are willing to come back for.
Personalization
Personalization is an important aspect of getting users to stay on your site. It aids in making your customers feel that they are valued every step of the way and that they are not just another number. These are a couple of ways you should consider personalizing your eCommerce store to every visitor’s needs.
Have Thumbnails To Display Items In The Cart Throughout The Checkout Process
These thumbnails make the customer experience more personal, and act as a reminder that there are items in the shopper’s cart. This means they are far less likely to bounce off your site having forgotten that there are items in their cart that haven’t been checked out.
Make Use Of Conversion Messaging
Conversion messaging is the personalized messages that pop up on eCommerce stores when you first open the store. These messages are used to hook the visitor and convince them into staying on the site and browsing the products available. Conversion messaging can contain any of the following:
- Deals
- Discounts
- Promo codes
- Sales information
These items not only catch the user’s eye and convince them to browse the site, but also increase the likelihood that the customer will make a purchase. This is because they are now in possession of a special advantage (deal, discount, promo code) that would be a waste to leave without using.
Provide The Option To Save The Items In Your Cart
Some shoppers like to add items to their cart, but don’t want to make a purchase immediately. This could be because they need time to think about it, or they are waiting until after payday to make the purchase.
But we don’t want them to have to go through the hassle of having to find the items in your store all over again. So, provide users with the opportunity to save the items in their cart, encouraging them to come back at a later stage to make the purchase.
Payment
One of the biggest pain points shoppers go through when doing online shopping is the payment part of the process. Nobody likes to part with hard-earned cash, so it’s important that this part of the process is as seamless as possible.
Don’t Be Ambiguous About Total Costs
The easiest way to lose your shopper’s trust is to add hidden costs to their total order without letting them know about these hidden costs beforehand. When it comes to the price of an item, it’s important to be upfront about it from the very beginning.
If there are any additional costs that come along with the item being ordered, you need to make this clear from the very beginning. This way, you don’t waste your shopper’s time or create untrust in the process. Once you have lost a consumer’s trust, it’s unlikely that you will ever receive a sale from them.
Allow For Multiple Payment Methods
Not every shopper has the same preference when it comes to paying for items in the online space. So it’s important to cater to a variety of needs. While credit card payment remains a firm favorite, not everyone has, or wants to pay using their credit card.
Consider adding some alternative payment methods to your site to make sure all your shoppers are using a method they are comfortable with:
- Credit card
- Debit card
- Digital wallets (such as PayPal)
- Direct bank transfer
This ensures that all your bases are covered and there is unlikely to be shoppers bouncing off your site because of a lack of payment options.
Security
Security is a very important aspect of shopping online. All customers want to feel that their details are protected. If they feel at any point that your eCommerce store is not secure, they are likely to bounce off your website.
Provide Security Reassurance
There are a couple of ways your site can provide security reassurance, but first and foremost you should make sure you are using an HTTPS website. This gives the website Google’s secure stamp of approval.
You can also display security logos on your eCommerce website as they will act as a constant reminder to shoppers that the site is secure and that there is nothing they should be worried about.
Make Sure The Site Looks Trustworthy
One of the biggest factors that shoppers look at when they are considering making a purchase on an eCommerce store is social proof. They look for the ratings and reviews left on the products by previous shoppers. If this is not something you are currently making use of it’s a good idea to start.
Omnichannel
Creating an omnichannel experience means that your eCommerce store is just as easy to use and navigate no matter what device users are accessing it from. This is important, especially in an age where over 54.4% of web traffic comes from mobile devices. So what can be done to cater to the ever-expanding omnichannel market?
Optimize Product Pages
Your product pages need to not only look good on desktops but on mobile devices too. And it’s something that needs to be taken into consideration when building or redesigning your website. Your CTAs need to be just as accessible on mobile devices, and your cart should also be present at all times.
While the look of your website will need to be slightly different on mobile, it’s important that the same user experience is delivered on all devices.
Inspire Visitors To Browse Your Site
There are many things that can be done to inspire visitors to browse your website, but great imagery is one of the biggest factors in whether or not a visitor stays on your site. They want to see high-quality images, product pictures from multiple angles and preferably want to be able to zoom in on product images.
Your website should be easy to navigate with categories and filters that make sense. This makes users want to click around and explore the different product options on your website. It’s also important to provide your eCommerce store visitors with a little inspiration – whether this is pictures, videos, or catalogs, you need to give them a reason to keep looking.
Providing inspiration for online shoppers is one of the biggest eCommerce trends of 2022 that we expect to see continuing well into the future.
Optimize Your Online Store with Commercebuild
Commercebuild has created a one-size-fits-all solution that aids in optimizing your website so that shoppers don’t bounce from your eCommerce store. We can help you to manage your entire eCommerce store together with your ERP system in one central location.
This means that you can control all customer pricing and discounting to optimize both revenue and margin. Our software also comes with a powerful built-in shipping calculator and integrates with popular carriers.
It ensures that your pricing is always accurate and inventory is up to date. You don’t have to worry about creating mistrust with your client base because our software keeps your eCommerce website accurate at all times.
It also makes back-end monitoring much easier with all the analytics you need to make the big business decisions that make a successful eCommerce website. By using our integrated software you can ultimately better optimize your website to resolve abandonment issues and improve your conversions.
Final Thoughts on Reducing Abandoned Carts and Bounce Rates
Now that you have a better idea of what you should be looking for in order to improve your bounce rate and shopping cart abandonment, you can get to work to optimize your website. There are many issues you can tackle single-handedly, but using integrated ERP software is a much easier way to go about it.
If you’d like to test out our software, book a demo of our products. If you’d prefer to speak to one of our knowledgeable team members, contact us to find out everything you need to know about our software.
About commercebuild
commercebuild is the missing piece in transforming your ERP data into a truly personalized eCommerce experience. Flexible and frictionless, our turnkey eCommerce solution delivers 24/7 revenue opportunities to you and your customers. Quick to deploy and easy-to-use, we eliminate the need for middleware between the storefront and ERP data to enable seamless online buying and selling.
Our solutions can be live in 30-days and offer complete eCommerce capabilities at a price B2B and B2C businesses can afford.
Drive revenue growth for you, and your customers, while enjoying rapid ROI for both. Go head-to-head with the online retail giants of the world, and win. Experience a solution that integrates with your ERP data and provides automagical cross-sell and upsell opportunities to every customer on your site.
At the height of ecommerce growth, commercebuild offers scalable, reliable, and robust eCommerce solutions for everyone.
If your business is using Sage 300, Sage X3 or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERPs, commercebuild can build a ERP-driven B2B and B2C eCommerce webstore or Customer Portal.