Paypal lately brought forward the best ways to avoid shopping cart abandonment if you own an online shopping website or a seller online. There are $4.6 trillion worth of merchandise will be left un-purchased in online shopping carts. Many business owners are all too familiar with consumers abandoning items in their cart, which unfortunately means never completing checkout.
There are a few key factors stopping customers converting all the way to purchasing items in their carts. According to the 2016 ‘Shopping Cart Abandonment’ report by Business Insider Intelligence, a huge 61 per cent of customers said it was due to extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees. Thirty-five per cent said it was because the site asked them to create an account, and 27 per cent said the checkout process was too long or complicated.
PayPal has pulled together four best ways tips to help optimise your checkout process, minimise cart abandonment and encourage shoppers to complete their purchases, resulting in improved sales for your business. Here is what the Paypal suggests:
Note that consumers are increasingly shopping across device. Unsurprisingly, giving customers several ways to find your store increases the chances of completing a sale.According to the International Council of Shopping Center, on average customers with multiple shopping channel options spend about three times more than single channel customers. So it means the more channels, the more sales. This includes a mobile-friendly site that is attractive and easy to navigate.
According to PayPal’s Australia mCommerce Index 2016, 71 per cent of Australians use their mobiles to make payments, but only 49 per cent of businesses are optimised to accept mobile payments. This gap highlights a huge opportunity for businesses to take advantage of the growing mobile trend.
Thus combined these individual platforms should create a seamless shopping experience for customers where they can access your store anytime, anywhere.
The number of steps to complete a checkout process is directly correlated to how likely a shopper is to complete the purchase. According to Business Insider Intelligence, over one quarter (27 per cent) of shoppers abandon an online cart because the checkout process is too long or complicated.
The Baymard Institute found the average retailer site has nearly 15 form fields throughout the checkout process, but the ideal number is seven or eight. Thus giving unnecessary time consuming forms to fill isn’t worth and therefore a hassle free and making things simpler is more appreciated by online buyers. When obligatory registration during checkout is removed, there is a 45 per cent increase in sales.
Reducing form fields or offering a ‘buy’ button can help solve these barriers to purchase. Another way to expedite the checkout process is through PayPal’s One Touch, a feature that allows users to complete purchases faster when checking out. Over five million merchants have opted into One Touch across 144 global markets, touching over 40 million customers, showing just how important simplicity, speed and ease of use is to consumers around the globe.
The online websites offering their business and products to sell should offer financial flexibility which is another great way to increase the likelihood of a completed sale, especially when selling internationally. This means offering several payment options at checkout. PayPal’s 2016 Cross-Border Consumer Research found that 41 per cent of cross-border shoppers chose convenience as a key determinate of cross-border payment method preference. In turn, thirty five per cent of merchants who sell cross-border already offer shoppers different payment methods in different markets, giving shoppers more choices to pay at checkout.
The more payment options you have, the more convenient it is for the customer, which increases the likelihood of them completing a purchase.
This way is being used when the shoppers abandon carts. According to a study from Smart Insights, retailers that send targeted emails to follow up on abandoned carts have a 21 per cent open rate and a 2.65 per cent click rate, which can lead to an online purchase.
Also consider display retargeting. This tactic allows you to directly target customers who have previously visited your site and serve advertising in their browser. Sometimes all it takes is a simple reminder.
With these best ways you can do the best to avoid shopping cart abandonment and help making your business run profitable.
