GoECart's Shopping Cart Abandonment Solution Featured in Retail TouchPoints E-Newsletter

Retail TouchPoints is a leading online information network and weekly e-newsletter focused on helping retailers optimize the customer experience across all channels. One of their primary goals is to provide retailers with cutting edge insight into how to address some of their biggest challenges, and a hot topic of interest is shopping cart abandonment. Not surprisingly, their search led them to GoECart. One major way GoECart Ecommerce Solution helps merchants tackle shopping cart abandonment problems is through its unique One-Page Checkout capability. GoECart's One-Page Checkout addresses the challenges associated with shopping cart abandonment, the online shopping phenomenon where shoppers get to the checkout step of online shopping but then fail to follow through with a purchase. Further, GoECart's Rich Remarketing Emails further help merchants recover abandoned shopping carts by encouraging customers to come back to the site and complete their abandoned orders.

Retail TouchPoints newsletter circulates to approximately 15,000 subscribers comprised of retailers who are focused on strategies to acquire, service and retain customers across all channels. Read more...

Improve Shipping Options to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Imagine the following scenario: you visit your local supermarket, only to find that more than half of the shopping carts in the store have been left there in the store aisles, abandoned by their owners. Sounds a bit eerie, doesn't it? Well, according to current industry research, this is the sad reality for many e-commerce sites.

Recent reports from trusted sources such as the Yankee Group and DoubleClick show that more than 50 percent of online shopping cart sessions are in fact deserted. Among the top reasons cited for shopping cart abandonment: shipping options that are either too confusing or too expensive. Online store owners can improve their chances of order completion and get their e-commerce sites in "ship shape" by following this simple advice.

Five tips to streamline shipping options

1. Present shipping calculations to customers before check out.
Show the calculated shipping charges on pages that list the amounts of products purchased or on pages that appear even earlier in check out process . The goal should be to inform customers about shipping costs as early as possible. You should also ensure that all relevant shipping rates and information are placed in a prominent location in your store so visitors can review the shipping information anytime.

2. Provide real-time shipping calculators.
Offer web-based calculators from shipping providers so your customers can calculate shipping rates. Ensure that the calculators are linked prominently from the appropriate areas in your site.

3. Provide a variety of choices from popular shipping vendors.
Offer shipping services from reliable and well-recognized shipping carriers, such as UPS, DHL, and Federal Express. Show the rates for each delivery option like two-day shipping, overnight delivery, etc., and allow customers to choose the option which best meets their needs. A brief description of the features of each option should also be provided.

4. Offer live order tracking from your website.
Provide functionality that will let customers track the status of their orders right from your website. Shopping carts integrated with tools like UPS Online Tools offer more than just convenience-they also make the store look impressive and encourage visitors to spend more time on your site.

5. Streamline back-end order processes.
Unfulfilled orders do not promote a respectable image for your business. Streamline your supply chain, inventory levels, and order fulfillment systems before you begin taking orders. Then, follow through with each sale by ensuring customers get their merchandise in accordance with selected shipping and handling methods.

If it's free....

InternetRetailer.com informs, "This holiday season, free shipping tops the list of marketing promotions retailers plan to use, with 63 percent saying they expect to offer them."

If you decide to offer free shipping, it's important to do the math before you roll out a free or reduced shipping offer. For example, free shipping for a limited time on minimum order quantities and within a specific geographical region may help to entice new customers and increase sales.

Regardless of the type of promotion however, a careful profit analysis should be done to ensure that free shipping and other promotions will not adversely impact your online store's bottom line.

Shopping Cart Abandonment: Controlling the Uncontrollable

Listen To This Article

It happens all too often: a visitor adds products to the shopping cart in your online store but then leaves your site without completing the checkout process. In ecommerce circles, this peculiar phenomenon is referred to as "shopping cart abandonment," and it is a widely recognized problem throughout the industry. In fact, recent ecommerce studies have shown that between 25 and 75 percent of shoppers abandon their online shopping carts before completing the checkout process.

Here are some tips that will help you reduce shopping cart abandonment:

Make pricing clearly visible

The merchant should take special care to include pricing and any terms and conditions right on the product page. The idea is to provide a complete picture to customers so they can make well-informed choices before entering the checkout process.

Advertise the security features of your storefront

Apprehensive online shoppers will not enter their precious financial data on your site unless they are sure that it will not leak out or be inappropriately used. Early in the checkout process, emphasize to shoppers that your web storefront is secure. Be sure to include any relevant third-party security compliance; the VeriSign Secured Seal Program is a great example of how security features can be advertised to build trust.

Build a better check out page

You can increase the value of the page that summarizes your customers' online order by highlighting satisfied customer testimonials, special shipping options, and discounts. Having these "visual cues" on your checkout pages will go a long way to increase the overall legitimacy of your web storefront in the mind of your customers.

Provide competitive shipping options

Confusing shipping options and expensive shipping rates are two often-cited reasons that online shoppers abandon their shopping carts during the checkout process. (See Improve Shipping Options to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment.) For this reason, provide as many shipping options as possible, include various options for each shipping provider, and be sure to let customers compute shipping rates as early as possible in the check out process.

Streamline the checkout process

Make the checkout process simple and swift. Clearly label buttons for each step during checkout, and consider using a breadcrumb trail so that customers will know exactly where they are in the process. A lengthy checkout process will surely entice visitors to leave your store. Goal: Make it as easy as possible for customers to get to the final "buy" step!

Provide intuitive error messages

Customers and prospects will inevitably make mistakes when checking out of your web storefront. Help customers resolve errors via intuitive error messages that written in easy-to-understand language. Include a prominent telephone number for customer service in the event that customers are unable to help themselves. Prospects will surely leave your site if they are unable to figure out what to do next!

Track key shopping cart metrics

Track shopping cart metrics to determine at what stages the most common errors are occurring. Metrics that will help you combat shopping cart abandonment include the percentage of visitors that use the cart, the percentage of carts that become a purchase, the percentage of carts that start checkout, and the percentage of carts that start and complete checkout.

Listen to customer feedback

Soliciting and analyzing customer feedback will provide you with key insights pertaining to shopping cart abandonment from your online store. Some ways to get feedback include usability studies, focus groups, and surveys. You could also include a "Suggestion Box" that links to a web form on your site.

Listen To This Article