Ways to Stop Basket Abandonment at Checkout

Keeping it Clear and Simple

Many customers can be easily distracted and can be time-poor too. A variety of brands are after their attention too, which can have them easily look for alternative products.

Today’s average checkout process is 5 pages long, having a complex checkout system can drive-away sales and customers. This can result in cart-abandonment; Implementing a page or step-indicator, giving customers a clear view of which stage of the process which can help manage their attention during the process as-a-whole.

Minimise Queueing Time

Traditional brick-and-mortar shops aim to prevent customers from waiting in lengthy lines when making a purchase.

This same implementation must be applied online too. A “Guest Checkout” option can reduce the time of processing, allowing customers to purchase their items without having the need to set0up an account or register either.

Inconveniently, a third of retailers don’t offer this feature, which results in directly impacting on the number of sales that are converted from basket overall.

Gathering and capturing data by registration is still important, as it enables communication and personalised offers on a per-user basis for the future.

It would be best to offer both options and offer extra incentives for customers that proceed to sign-up using the regular registration process.

Avoid unexpected, last-minute surprises

At this pivotal stage in the customer’s journey, you should do everything to encourage a sale, avoid presenting the customer with unexpected costs at the final moment.

A powerful way to encourage customers to purchase from you is to offer promo codes/coupons as well as the option of free shipping if-possible.

Allowing the ability to apply coupon codes early-on in the process will avoid disappointment for the customer. This might create additional sales opportunities as customers find out that they can get more for their money too.

Surprising customers with total costs at the final checkout stage can put them off from purchasing as they will be paying higher than originally expected. Informing them of the total-cost at the basket-stage gives them a good inclination of how much they are expected to pay.

The majority of retailers display their shipping costs on the 2nd or 3rd page of the checkout process. There still remains a few retailers that display them on the 5th page, which can drive customers away due to not being informed earlier-on in the process.

An effective-way to convert a sale is to display a preview of the shopping basket with included shipping-costs as early as possible during the checkout process. This allows for the customer to adjust their preferences early-on.

Inform customers on what they are missing

There are a plethora of reasons that customers may abandon their carts. Even if you address the majority of reasons-why, the majority of retailers will still face cart-abandonment issues.

This however does not mean that the sale is lost, commerce marketing automation allows for making it far easier to follow-up with the customer and re-engage with them. Sending automated abandoned basket messages is a great way to re-incentivise the customer and remind them of why they were choosing your site initially.

Reminding the customer of their basket still being available can recover as much as 25% of potential revenue. Surprisingly, up to 59% of retailers do not use this strategy.

Up to 22% of retailers send only one reminder, even though data shows that sending multiple reminders is far more effective with gaining sales.

Keeping customers content at checkout, personalising the messages that are sent to those that abandon their basket can all go a long way to incentivising customers to choose your website design to come back to over and over again.