If you own an eCommerce business, there's a really good chance you've experienced abandoned cart issues. In fact, in 2021, Shopify estimated that nearly 70% of prospective customers abandoned carts and it costs businesses upwards of $18 billion a year in revenue.While it can be discouraging to learn that customers aren't following through on purchases, all is not lost. There are several ways to get these shoppers to not only return to their abandoned carts, but check out and complete the transaction as well. For more information, contact us for a personalized plan of action for your company.
What Is an Abandoned Cart?
An abandoned cart is when a customer visits your website, puts items in the cart, presumably with the intention to buy, but doesn't complete the checkout process. Instead, they navigate away from the website, leaving products in the basket, and they often don't return.
Why Customers Abandon Carts
There are a number of reasons why prospective customers don't follow through, abandoning their carts, including:
- Found a similar item cheaper
- Comparing prices
- Shipping prices and/or taxes were too high
- Shipping times
- Changed their mind
- Don't want to create an account
- Credit card declined
- Website errors
- Confusing process
It's up to you as a business owner to determine which reason costs you the most sales and find a way to lure those shoppers back in. Just because they left, doesn't mean they're necessarily gone for good.
Draw Those Customers Back
Sometimes, the reason for navigating away is as simple as changing their minds at the last minute and these may not be shoppers you can get to return. Other times, the problem is fixable, and if you have specific alerts turned on, you can offer the prospective customer a way to complete the sale and save money, without affecting your overall bottom line. The real trick of running an eCommerce business is not only identifying the reason but giving shoppers an incentive to complete the sale, even if they've already left the cart and website behind. In order to address the issue, though, you'll need to know exactly what your cart abandonment rate is, and most eCommerce software programs can do this for you. If you don't have that statistic available, simple math works. Calculate how many shopping carts have been created, then look at how many have completed purchases.
Cross-Selling vs Up-selling
You might've heard these two terms, sometimes even used interchangeably, but they mean different things. Up-selling, for example, means to expand on what they've already purchased. For some, this means a more expensive product that offers more features, or perhaps a higher class of membership (basic vs. premium). Up-selling is what will often increase revenue at a higher rate, but it's not the only method of increasing sales figures.Cross-selling, on the other hand, means to sell products that go hand-in-hand with what's already in their cart. These are often cheaper items, but ones customers may not have thought of. For some retailers, this is a service add-on, such as a product warranty or service plan. For others, it might be actual products — it all depends on what you sell.
Improving Sales Chances
When it comes to changing a prospective buyer's mind, it's important to employ strategies that work. Think about what other businesses do successfully, whether it's run a short-lived campaign or price-match, where available.Some strategies worth trying include offering discounts and/or coupons, streamlining the checkout process to include up-sell or cross-sells, and including several payment options.
Offer Coupons and Discounts
Granted, in order to keep your bottom line, you don't want to offer astronomical savings, but most customers aren't looking to get something for free. Offering a percentage discount is often enough to get them to change their minds and make the purchase. Consider 10% as your baseline, and try it out on a couple of orders when it seems the customer might navigate away — there's software to install pop-up messages that prompt the shopper to confirm they really want to leave and that closing the tab isn't a simple mistake. As an added bonus, offering a discount coupon, particularly one with a percentage off, often inspires people to shop even more, because the more they spend, the more they save. In this respect, you're cross-selling products without much effort or loss in revenue.Some eCommerce software makes it easy to email prospective customers if they've already provided you with their contact information. They'll get a "hey, you left this in your cart…" message or something along the same lines. This not only gives them a reminder in case they forgot, but also makes it easy for them to access their shopping cart with a direct link.
Add Pop-Up Windows With Corresponding Merchandise
Have you ever visited a website, and during the checkout process saw a pop-up window showing you products you might be interested in? This is how many eCommerce stores not only drive customers to complete the sales of what they have in their carts but also add more merchandise. The end result is a win-win for you. Think about it this way, if you sell kitchen goods and your prospective buyer has added a frying pan to their cart, there are a number of products that go well with frying pans. Think spatulas, oven mitts and specialized cooking tools such as egg rings to ensure a perfect fried egg every time. Tailoring these options only takes a few minutes, but it could mean a world of difference when it comes to your sales.
Streamline Site Navigation
One of the many reasons shoppers click away is because the site navigation is too confusing. Make sure everything on your site is organized well, in an easy-to-find manner. This means including several categories and subcategories, but it also applies to your checkout process. Streamline this part, especially. If shoppers have to jump through hoops and fill out a crazy number of forms before they can hit "buy," chances are they won't.
Tips for Up-selling and Cross-Selling
Once you've got the shoppers back on your site and their cart is within reach, now is the time you employ your strategic measures. Here are three tips to get them to buy even more: 1. Keep It Simple — Too many options will frustrate a shopper. Rather, offer them two to three really good options of a complementary product (cross-sell) or one that might offer slightly more incentives (up-sell) than what's in their cart. While you might be tempted to offer a higher number of products, doing so will only confuse or frustrate the shopper, and that chance you have for up-selling or cross-selling will go up in smoke. 2. Timing Is Everything — Don't beat the customer over the head with up-sell or cross-selling opportunities throughout their shopping experience. It's a real turn-off and will drive them away — this time for good. Rather, save the sales pitch for the end of the transaction, while they're entering their payment information or creating an account. This is the best time to implement extra sales strategies because they're already committed to buying.3. Offer Added Bonuses — One of the best ways to get your buyer to say "yes" is to offer an additional incentive that won't hurt your bottom line or their pocketbook. One of the most effective ways to do this is to offer to ship the product you're cross- or up-selling for free. Or, you can add a nominal discount for purchasing it today instead of separately at a later date. That 10% we mentioned before is a great figure to add because it's still a cost-savings and likely to inspire an "add to cart" reaction.
While an abandoned cart may be cause for concern, there are many tactics you can employ to get the shoppers to return, and in some cases, even buy more than they originally planned. Through strategic implementations of programs and cost savings, you may find your bottom line is a bit higher than you expected.When you're ready to tackle abandoned carts, contact us for a personal strategy call to discuss your needs.