On average, 70% of customers abandon their online shopping carts. That’s quite the alarming statistic. What’s more, that statistic hasn’t changed in ten years. The problem continues to exist, mostly unchecked, even though technology does exist to solve these old problems.
At root, shopping cart abandonment is a user experience issue. There are a number of reasons why users might abandon their carts. The most common are high shipping fees, having to create an account, a complicated checkout process, websites with errors, lack of trust, slow delivery, unsatisfactory returns policies, limited payment methods, and a conspicuous lack of order-related information.
And, yes, there are useful reactive ways of dealing with some of the above shopping cart abandonment issues. These methods directly tackle some of the issues mentioned above. But frankly, e-commerce websites that aren’t already utilizing these methods are lagging far behind. Google search “shopping cart abandonment,” and almost every article lists the same tired old tips. Every savvy online retailer is using email retargeting by now. The industry standard has risen, but the shopping cart abandonment problem persists. Now, how can your website continue to rise beyond the standard?
Make Your FAQ Page Dynamic
When users have to leave the page they are on and navigate to another page, your website has let them down. If users make the trip to your Help Island and have to shift through line after line of random Q&A to find that one nugget of information they were after, chances are one of two things will happen; They will abandon your site or contact your customer support. These are two outcomes you and your customer want to avoid.
Customers prefer to be entirely informed before they go through with a purchase. When consumers are informed, they feel empowered to make decisions. This is especially true when it comes to online shopping. But it is distracting and counterproductive when customers have to navigate to an entirely different page, the FAQ or the product details page, on your website to find that information.
Don't Fix Your Content, Fix Your User Experience
Instead of forcing customers to find your help island, make all the information available right where they are.
Build help into the shopping experience. If a buyer wants information regarding their order, they should have that information available to them right there on that very webpage and in context to what is on the page. For precision, make your content contextual to the relevant buying stage, like MOO did above.
What’s more, when a website isn’t upfront with order related information, customers only have more reasons to mistrust. Research by the Department of Commerce found that half of American Internet users are “deterred” from online shopping because of privacy and security fears. Offering information makes the company seem transparent and trustworthy.
Answer Hesitation Questions at the Point of Need
The moments right before a purchase are always the most crucial. In the shopping cart is exactly the spot where you do not want them to leave the cart to answer a hesitation question. With contextual self-service the users can access the dynamic Q&A tab without interrupting their cart or the buyer form.
Staring at that order price, many users are just looking for an excuse to not order. So don’t give them that excuse. For instance, don’t wait until the last second to tack on shipping costs to the customer’s order. In fact, such a practice would actually deter purchases.
Conversely, if you offer free delivery make sure to highlight it, like TireBuyer does in the image above. Drive home to the customer that they’re getting a good deal. Include estimated arrival dates and all other shipping information.
Remember, customer empowerment is the priority at every single buying stage.
Aiming for Success
To succeed here, you must be proactive. You must be able to anticipate customer informational needs before they even occur. We recommend implementing a contextual self-service solution at checkout. AnswerDash is the leading brand when it comes to contextual self-service.
Past results speak for themselves. TireBuyer’s AnswerDash integration (see image above) increased revenue per visitor 13%. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Sales conversion uplift results with AnswerDash are consistently remarkable. You can find more information regarding AnswerDash product success here.
By successfully contextualizing informational needs on the checkout page, AnswerDash made sure that customers were ready to follow through with their purchase and feel good about it. AnswerDash empowers your customers to find answers, by themselves and on the same page, to any questions they may have about their purchase. AnswerDash provides customers with quick and relevant answers so that they can finish doing what they came for: Purchasing from you.
It’s time to move past the ancient methods e-commerce and change the game. Shift some of your shopping cart abandonment spending to technology that can actually achieve the results you want. Getting your shopping cart abandonment rate below 50% is achievable!
Written by Pranav Shivanna