Does Your Website Have Shopping Cart Abandonment Issues?
I’ve done it before, and you probably have, too.
Maybe you’ve clicked through a company’s sale email and found a new favorite shirt on deep discount, but you can’t find anything else you like well enough to bring the total up to get free shipping. Maybe you just found that same tool set on a competitor’s website for less. Maybe you had second thoughts about the page’s security before typing in your credit card digits.
Or maybe you just left the tab open in your browser so long that your cart session timed out, and you were too lazy to go in and add the products back again.
Whatever it was, almost all of us have abandoned an online shopping cart at one time or another. As consumers, this isn’t a big deal, but if you’re the one running the website, it’s the stuff of nightmares. In 2010, shopping cart abandonment resulted in a loss of $2.1 billion US retail sales — we’re not exactly talking chump change, here.
Sales are never guaranteed. But the good news is, there’s a lot you can do to help encourage shoppers to complete their cart transactions. And thanks to KissMetrics, these tips are being brought to you in pleasing infographic form.
Did you know?
The top reason shoppers left their carts was shipping and handling costs.
Some of the ways to keep consumers coming back:
- Provide options to save the cart
- Don’t force registration before the sale has been made
- Show delivery and payment options upfront
- Offer free or reduced shipping
Read on for more!
Barbie Albury
I enjoyed these tips. I’m currently an Air Force pilot and officer but I’m planning on my career afterwards running a home-based web design business. I may not be taking the most direct path to that career, but I’m learning a lot of skills along the way that might seem unrelated, but aren’t.I certainly have the time management, can do attitude, and ability to know which tool is right for the job. I blog a lot in my free time and have realized the importance of writing as both a way to refine communication skills as well as self-promotion.What I’m missing are the technical skills. Not surprisingly, my current job hasn’t taught me how to code! What recommendation do you have for how to learn? I don’t have the free time available right to return to school, and my erratic schedule with deployments, etc. means I need to have a flexible learning environment such as an online course.
Amber Wallace
Thanks for the comments! There are a lot of great online resources depending on what aspect you’re interested in learning, and where you are starting. Then there’s a variety of delivery methods — blogs, videos, podcasts, etc.
For online courses, lynda.com is a good place to start. They have a lot of resources for web design and development, and they offer a free trial. The video courses are broken up in installments and include sample info.
If you’re looking for written info, W3C is one of the original providers. They offer a lot of information, though it’s presented in a very basic, no frills environment.
Then there are a lot of specific sites geared towards javascript libraries, CSS and general industry info. Some of my favorites are CSS Tricks and A List Apart.
Let us know what you try and what you end up liking!
Arianna Capobianco
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later. All the best.
imodelsholdings
Spot on with this write-up, I absolutely believe that
this site needs far more attention. I’ll probably be back again to read
more, thanks for the information!