Discover 7 Proven Shopping Cart Enhancements to Increase Your Sales

For online businesses with their main goal of selling products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss. But since recent surveys suggest that less than 50% of retailers know their shopping cart abandonment rate, let's review what it is and why it is important to know.

What is "shopping cart abandonment"?

Basically, shopping cart abandonment is when a visitor initiates your checkout process but leaves before completing their purchase.

Why is it important to know?

Industry publications report a 70% average shopping cart abandonment rate for the majority of retailers. Since, on average, websites convert visitors-to-sales at a rate of 1% to 2% then 98% to 99% of the visitors to your website leave without purchasing!

These percentages identify an enormous improvement opportunity for online businesses.

A Traditional Retail Example of Shopping Cart Abandonment.

Let me illustrate shopping cart abandonment using a traditional department store.

Imagine walking into your local department store to pick up a gift for a friend's wedding.

You find the three items you want but together the price exceeds your budget so you drop one of them and head with just two to the checkout counter.

When you get close to the checkout counter, you grow frustrated with the long lines ahead. After a ten minute wait in line, the cashier asks you to complete a membership form before they will compete your purchase.

The membership form requires your driver's license information so you pull out your wallet while people behind you start huffing impatiently.

As you register, you mind lingers about whether two items is just too much for your friend's wedding gift. "I mean they only gave us one item for our wedding" you think. So you ask the cashier to remove one of the items.

While ringing up your one item, the credit card reader fails. After the fourth swap by the cashier, you panic wandering if your card has just been charged four times.

At this point you give up and leave the store empty handed. While storming out you wander if the department store up the street will make your purchase any easier.

Know These Top Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

This example is filled with some of the top reasons why visitors to your website may abandon their shopping carts. A recent study by Vividence Corporation, a Customer Experience Management company, reported the most significant reasons for Internet shopping cart abandonment are:

? High shipping prices or long delivery times

? Comparison shopping and browsing

? Changed Mind

? Total cost of items is too high

? Checkout process is too long

? Checkout requires too much personal information

? Site requires registration before purchase

? Site is unstable or unreliable

? Checkout process is confusing

Seven Shopping Cart Abandonment Solutions for Your Online Business

Although some of these reasons may be outside your control such as a visitor changing their minds, the majority is manageable and can be reduced by incorporating seven improvements into your current shopping cart process.

1. Remove Member Registration until AFTER the sale is completed.

Many checkout processes require a visitor to register as a new member before they begin the actual checkout process. A principle of selling is to never stall a visitor from buying once they make the decision to do so. Instead support their decision by clearly and conveniently leading them through your checkout process.

After the sale is complete then offer your customer the opportunity to register. Since you have their personal information from the purchase, you can pre-fill the information (or request less of it). This enhancement removes the visitor's buying barriers and enables them to perceive the registration as a value-added customer benefit.

2. Show shipping costs and other costs (i.e. applicable taxes)

Show the visitor all costs associated with their product purchase either in the first step of the checkout process or even in the product description. If you offer multiple shipping methods then default the shipping cost to the most popular one. If you apply taxes for certain States then communicate this early in the checkout process. Sometimes, retailers it is relevant for their market to ask a visitor for their zip code which can be used for calculating tax.

3. Build Confidence and Trust Throughout the Checkout Process

Place your guarantee, return, privacy, delivery, customer service and security policies in visible and relevant areas throughout the entire checkout process. Adding the policies at the very bottom of the web page is not effective since you are causing your visitor to search for it. Add the individual policies next to the information field or line item where it is most relevant to the visitor.

For example, add the privacy policy next to the email address field in the checkout process and add the delivery and return policy next to the shipping cost line item. In addition, add your security policy next to the "checkout" button.

Also, add your physical address and other contact information at the bottom of every web page. Usability studies suggest adding an "About Us" and "Contact Us" links to your navigational structure to build confidence and trust as well.

4. Add a progress indicator on each checkout page

Is it important to let visitors know how many steps are in your checkout process and to show progress as thy work through it. A progress indicator is commonly located at the top of the checkout pages and is clearly numbered with the current step highlighted.

Make sure that you provide visitors the opportunity to review what they did in previous steps without erasing the information they had already entered.

If a visitor enters information incorrectly or forgets a required field, have your checkout process remember their correct information and identify the missing information clearly. Do not make people repeat an entire step because of a missing field.

Surprisingly, the number of steps in your checkout process may not have a significant effect on your visitors' commitment to purchase. Although for many businesses, a two to three step checkout process is ideal.

5. Provide purchase options

Offer your visitors the opportunity to call a 1-800 number for customer support or online chat like LivePersonTM (www.liveperson.com) during your checkout process.

Visitors may be uncomfortable with completing a purchase online or become confused during checkout so clearly present your 1-800 number and/or online chat support link on every page within your checkout process.

6. Clearly identify what your visitor should click nest to complete the step

Clearly indicate the "continue checkout" button. Make it obvious where the visitor should click to move forward in the checkout process and keep it consistent for every step.

7. Use a readable and clear font size and color

The font size and color of your copy may influence your visitor's desire to complete their purchase. If your font size is too small or the color is too difficult to read forcing a visitor to strain then the potential for abandonment will increase. This is especially serious for online businesses marketing to older populations.

Get to know your shopping cart abandonment rate and start implementing the above improvements. Most importantly, test different strategies and track which ones produce the greatest increases to your sales conversion rate.

Kevin Gold is a Partner and Co-founder of Enhanced Concepts, Inc., which specializes in turning website visitors into leads or sales through tested website conversion strategies and performance-focused search engine marketing. To learn how to generate greater performance from your search engine marketing and to turn more website visitors into leads and sales go to http://www.enhancedconcepts.com

---

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website

When designing your website, remember to avoid useless and confusing... Read More

Web Publishing Guide for the Beginning Entrepreneur (Part 1)

The best things don't come easy. - QuotedThe finished web... Read More

Your Website Visitors - Will They Stay?

I'm sure you've all heard the saying 'Build it and... Read More

Title Tags - How to Make Them More Effective

The title tags of your web pages are more important... Read More

Pop-Ups Still Work. At Least For The Time Being

Do you remember playing with the jack-in-the-box toy as a... Read More

Text Is King!

Are you building your website? If so, STOP! Take a... Read More

Simple Steps To Proper Web Design

Over the course of the last decade, the Internet has... Read More

Website Design Basic Concepts

So, what's in a website design anyway? And, how do... Read More

Creating Your First Website? Your Options

Creating your own website is great fun! But how is... Read More

How to Find Inexpensive Web Design

Web design is a very competitive area and there is... Read More

Some File Naming Tricks for Your Online Home Based Business Web Pages

Conventional Wisdom states you should use Sub-Directories to organize your... Read More

Free Web Design Advice

In this article I will give advice and tips of... Read More

Creating a Favicon

Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic... Read More

Increase Your Credibility With Web Site Awards

Web Site Awards are given from other sites to reward... Read More

Do You Hate Your Website? Web Site Sales To Hit $316 Billion Over The Next 6 Years

What dollar amount does your web site contribute to this... Read More

Hiring a Graphic Designer

You've come up with a great product. You've got the... Read More

Usability Lessons from the Hospital

Usability isn't only for Web design. It's also applicable in... Read More

How Important is Content to a Successful Website

Content is the most important part of any website.The Internet... Read More

Low Cost Web Design In Birmingham

There are many companies who build websites, all of which... Read More

Design With Purpose

If your website is falling through the cracks, the chances... Read More

3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website

Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the... Read More

The Top Ten Checklist For Low Web Site Sales

You have good traffic, but low client sign ups and... Read More

Browser Compatibility

Internet Explorer, created by microsoft has been the most popular... Read More

What Drives Repeat Visitors To Your Site?

There can be zillions of reasons why your visitors return... Read More

Website Background Colors and Graphics: What You Need to Know Before Designing Your Website

Designing your website means you have to be creative, plan... Read More

Custom Website Design - 3 Must Have Tools

Creating your own website can be fun and easy, as... Read More

Using Graphic Design on Your Website

Almost everything is available on the web? products, services, e-books,... Read More

Five Common Web Design Mistakes

There are often many mistakes encountered when creating a webpage... Read More

Are Web Templates Worth It?

First off, I am a designer. Now you're thinking, here's... Read More

Revising Your Site - What Happened To My Search Engine Placement?

As of September, Smartads went through what so many have... Read More

Online Advertising: 10 Tricky Secrets To Keep Visitors Glued To Your Website And Increase Sales

It is common sense.The more time people spend at your... Read More

Web Site Professionalism? What Is It?

Your web site should be-visitor friendly to navigatesearch engine friendly... Read More

Is a Web Site Builder Right for You?

A web site builder can be a real life saver... Read More