Oh, the disappointment of it!
For any ecommercebusiness, nothing perhaps is more frustrating and disappointing than finding abandoned carts. Abandoned carts are those items that a visitor to the ecommerce website puts into the cart (virtual basket), but forsakes without completing the checkout. In other words, an abandoned cart is an incomplete sale, and this can hurt an online business. It is akin to the situation of a person checking into a physical store intending to buy items, selecting them and not going ahead with the purchase, except that this is a more common phenomenon in ecommerce businesses.
Some reasons
Extensive research has been carried out to zero in on the reasons for which people abandon carts. The most commonreasons for which shoppers abandon shopping carts include:
• Finding a better or better looking product and changing the mind
• Design of the product is another reason for abandonment
• Lack of clarity about the next steps
• Being confused at the last moment about whether this product is exactly what they were looking for
• Running out of patience during the checkout time if the page is slow to load
• Apprehensions about passing confidential credit card details to an unknown entity
Difficult to fix exact reason
For shoppers to abandon a cart is easy, but unfortunately, for en ecommerce business to prevent it is not!There is no one reason for which a shopper does this; this makes the job of fixing the problem all the tougher. Each abandoner could have a unique reason. An ecommerce business would ideally have to go to the root of every act of abandonment and find out the reasons for abandonment and then take steps to prevent such an occurrence. This is easier said than done. Yet, despite the diverse nature of the problem, a few generic steps can be taken. These could reduce the rate of cart abandonment.
Working on reducing cart abandonment
As we have seen, although there are a wide range of reasons for this act, some common reasons for which people abandon carts can be worked on.
A good starting point would be to track the buyer. Recent upgrades into buying software incorporate a feature by which the email id of the visitor is obtained before many of the long processes take shape. This may not be the perfect solution, since it is always easy to leave a phony mail id or a proxy one. Yet, this gives an address to contact the customer. A follow up email could go some way in understanding the reasons.
Software that offers verified security, both at the level of the ecommerce website as well as third party payment gateways, is another way of assuring the online shopper that the payment is going to be safe and that her identity is not going to become public.
Making the ecommerce website shopper-friendly from as many perspectives as possible is also another step. Proper design, right placement of the right product and relevant and precise information about the product are some of the ways in which the online shopper will not feel like leaving the site in a hurry.
For any ecommercebusiness, nothing perhaps is more frustrating and disappointing than finding abandoned carts. Abandoned carts are those items that a visitor to the ecommerce website puts into the cart (virtual basket), but forsakes without completing the checkout. In other words, an abandoned cart is an incomplete sale, and this can hurt an online business. It is akin to the situation of a person checking into a physical store intending to buy items, selecting them and not going ahead with the purchase, except that this is a more common phenomenon in ecommerce businesses.
Some reasons
Extensive research has been carried out to zero in on the reasons for which people abandon carts. The most commonreasons for which shoppers abandon shopping carts include:
• Finding a better or better looking product and changing the mind
• Design of the product is another reason for abandonment
• Lack of clarity about the next steps
• Being confused at the last moment about whether this product is exactly what they were looking for
• Running out of patience during the checkout time if the page is slow to load
• Apprehensions about passing confidential credit card details to an unknown entity
Difficult to fix exact reason
For shoppers to abandon a cart is easy, but unfortunately, for en ecommerce business to prevent it is not!There is no one reason for which a shopper does this; this makes the job of fixing the problem all the tougher. Each abandoner could have a unique reason. An ecommerce business would ideally have to go to the root of every act of abandonment and find out the reasons for abandonment and then take steps to prevent such an occurrence. This is easier said than done. Yet, despite the diverse nature of the problem, a few generic steps can be taken. These could reduce the rate of cart abandonment.
Working on reducing cart abandonment
As we have seen, although there are a wide range of reasons for this act, some common reasons for which people abandon carts can be worked on.
A good starting point would be to track the buyer. Recent upgrades into buying software incorporate a feature by which the email id of the visitor is obtained before many of the long processes take shape. This may not be the perfect solution, since it is always easy to leave a phony mail id or a proxy one. Yet, this gives an address to contact the customer. A follow up email could go some way in understanding the reasons.
Software that offers verified security, both at the level of the ecommerce website as well as third party payment gateways, is another way of assuring the online shopper that the payment is going to be safe and that her identity is not going to become public.
Making the ecommerce website shopper-friendly from as many perspectives as possible is also another step. Proper design, right placement of the right product and relevant and precise information about the product are some of the ways in which the online shopper will not feel like leaving the site in a hurry.
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