How to Reduce Abandoned Carts and Make More Money

Many of us have probably done this.

We're doing some online shopping to buy something we need or that caught our interest. We add it to the cart, yet we never push the "complete order" button at check out. Maybe we still had unanswered questions or rolled our eyes at having to create an account before buying. Or perhaps the shipping costs caught us by surprise.

The list of reasons continue, but either way, the item never makes it to our hands.

As a business, abandoned online shopping carts could be costing you a fortune in missed opportunities.

And while you may think you've perfected the online customer shopping experience because no one is complaining, those abandoned carts tell a different story. In fact, 96% of customers don't leave feedback, according to 1st Financial Training Services.

Deep diving into online shopping cart abandonment can reveal what customers aren't saying, and why your users are dissatisfied with their shopping experience. These insights can then be used to craft a better user experience.

But how do you extract feedback from sentiments left unsaid? Read on to find out where to look and what questions to ask to decrease online cart abandonment, and make more money.

1. Mine the Data

Analyzing website data with tools like Google Analytics will locate the points in the shopping experience where customers are failing to proceed.

While this will give you essential information, the data alone won't tell you what customers were thinking at the point they exited out. For that, direct customer feedback and user research are the other puzzle piece.

Ways to get information include distributing surveys, conducting user interviews, and openly inviting customers to leave feedback by embedding your Suggested project URL onto your website.

Once you have a clearer picture, those non-converting pages can then be worked to create a better shopping experience.

Troubleshooting questions:

• What pages are buyers getting tripped up on?
• At what stage of the shopping process are they stopping?
• Where are shoppers getting frustrated, and why?

2. Test and Tweak Your Content

Excellent content plays a crucial role in subduing your customer's fears about investing in your products, as well as providing critical answers they need before committing to a purchase.

According to a Shotfarm report, 30 per cent of people abandon shopping carts due to content-related issues. This means focusing on creating a stellar product page that elicits a positive response from shoppers is key to getting buyers across the finish line.

Troubleshooting questions:

• What queries about products do customers have that aren't being answered?
• Can your content descriptions be stronger or clearer? How can they be more enticing?
• Does there need to be more pictures showing product features? Do existing ones need to be more informative and higher quality? Would videos enhance your product descriptions?
• Is the shopping experience from the moment users launch your website until they complete their purchase on par with what you envision?

3. Experience the Experience

Eventually, you'll need to look at your buying process from start to finish with new eyes. Put yourself in your shopper's shoes and pretend you're a first time visitor to your site. Try to look at it as an outsider; when looking at your content descriptions, is all the information you need there? What about actually getting items into your cart and buying them? Is that experience what you hoped to achieve?

User testing sites can like UserTesting and UserBob can give you a true outsider's perspective of the customer experience across various platforms.

Also, keep in mind that 36 per cent of people abandon shopping carts when they see shipping prices, and another 37 per cent do so at checkout login, according to a Business Insider article. **

Troubleshooting questions:

• Is the checkout process too long?
• Are customers having to enter repeat information like shipping and billing address?
• Are shipping costs a surprise?
• Are customers being forced to login?

(Feature image via Pexels)