Six ideas for reducing cart abandonment
Cart abandonment is a constant bugbear for any online retailer, and for good reason. Salesforce’s Shopping Index1 (which captures insights from over 1 billion shoppers across 61 countries) revealed that the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) cart abandonment rate for Q1 2022 was 81% for desktops and 86% for mobile. That’s a lot of missed opportunities!
Getting the checkout experience right is one of the best ways you can see your customers complete their purchase and, hopefully, return at a future date to do it all over again. It all starts with creating a frictionless process that avoids unnecessary steps and form fields so customers can make a B-line to the checkout.
Creating the path of least resistance
1 - Pre-populate fields with customer details
Make it easy for your existing customers to do repeat purchases with you by pre-populating their shipping and billing information. Give them the option to checkout by signing into their account, where all their information is securely stored. Doing this will result in a faster checkout and give them fewer fields to complete, so there is less risk of them walking away too early. Afterpay’s Express Checkout can do this for you and it’s super easy to set it up.
2 - Remove unnecessary fields
When it comes to converting a sale online, you want to minimise distractions and reduce friction so a customer can get through the checkout as quickly as possible. Make sure you’re only capturing data that you need to fulfil the order. Don’t be tempted to ask marketing questions or add in ‘nice-to-have’ fields. Save these for follow-up emails.
By reducing the number of fields they need to complete, you can increase the likelihood of them making a purchase.
3 - Create targeted cart abandonment emails
There are so many reasons why customers fill their carts only to abandon them. But sometimes it’s because they’re called away from what they were doing. Their intention always was to checkout; they just didn’t quite get there.
For these customers, a follow-up reminder email can be just what they need to return to your store and complete their transaction. And it’s a good idea to sweeten the deal by offering them something extra like a discount, coupon code or free shipping. But you need to act quickly. The longer you leave it, the less likely they are to return.
Here are some examples of cart abandonment emails that you can use.
4 - Add a cart abandonment pop-up
When displayed at the right time, an abandoned cart pop-up can be highly effective. They can help overcome common shopper objections and nudge them back on track to finishing what they started.
A great way to encourage them to checkout is to offer a discount or free shipping. But only for a limited time. You need to create that sense of urgency to compel them to take action straight away.
You could also consider adding a pop-up that captures their email address in return for a coupon code that they can use next time they return to your online store. With this email on hand, you can market to them later.
5 - Retarget via social media
Retargeted display and search ads can be a powerful way to bring back your abandoned-cart shoppers. They work like a reminder that pops up whenever your shopper visits certain sites. For example, a Facebook ad that says: “Return to your cart and take 20% off” or shows images of items that are in their cart.
Retargeting ads are typically more effective than regular display ads because you’re speaking to shoppers who have already shown an interest in your products. And if you link the ad directly to their abandoned cart, you can increase your chance of them checking out.
6 - Offer a guest checkout
Customers are often time poor, so you don’t want to slow things down by forcing them to register and validate an account before they can checkout. And let’s face it, not everyone wants to, even if time isn’t an issue.
Offering a guest checkout lets them get what they need when they’re ready to buy without the hassle of signing up. This is particularly important for first-time buyers, who may not be loyal to your brand or familiar with your checkout process.
If you’re worried about them not signing up, you can always ask them if they’d like you to save their details for future purchases. And if you’ve captured their email address as part of the guest sign up, you can send them communications encouraging them to sign up. Once again, offering an incentive to do so, like a discount coupon, might be all they need to become a regular customer.
- The Shopping Index: Global online shopping statistics and ecommerce growth trends, Salesforce, Q2 2022.
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