Consumers are abandoning shopping carts at an accelerating rate. In a recent survey conducted by Paypal and Comscore among ecommerce shoppers, forty-five percent of the five hundred and fifty three people surveyed had abandoned multiple shopping carts in the previous three weeks. The survey ranks a variety of reasons for abandonment: - High shipping charges: 46 percent - Were comparison shopping: 37 percent - Could not afford the product: 36 percent - Went looking for coupons: 27 percent - Wanted to shop offline: 26 percent - Preferred payment option not available: 24 percent - Item unavailable: 23 percent - Could not locate customer support: 22 percent - Concerned about security of credit card data: 21 percent The average cost of abandoned goods in US shopping carts is $109. The main reaction to almost all of the reasons for shopping cart abandonment in the survey is frustration. The customer gets to the check out and a problem arises, the buyer gets frustrated and does not finalize the purchase. On-line business owners need to make some changes to their current business practices to reduce the number of customers that get away. The following solutions may turn those abandoned shopping carts into purchases. 1. Soften the Reality of Shipping Charges Let the customer see an estimated shipping cost before the payment process. There are hundreds of shipping system software packages on the market that interface with your existing website design and can give an estimate of the shipping cost before the final payment step. Post those shipping and handling fees on the webpage before the final step of the purchase. If your business can not handle the expense of delivery system software, be wary of inflating shipping costs to make extra cash. Remember almost fifty percent of shoppers abandon a purchase because they think shipping costs are too high. Implement some new innovative ways to soften shipping charges by offering free shipping for a larger amount purchase. Try a discount on the shipping charge for a larger quantity of items purchased or free shipping on specific items purchased. A time limit should be placed on these shipping specials so you can evaluate your sales during this trial period to determine if a shipping promotion works for your business. Keep the Comparison Shopper The majority of potential buyers are comparison shopping. Everyone is in search of a bargain. That means that sale items are especially influential. Customers will remember that they purchased from your business at good prices and come back. As an online business owner you need to take a page from your customers' playbook and comparison shop your own products at the competition's websites to see what they see and react accordingly. Promote a price match policy. In order to win purchases from a competitor, a price match program needs to have a simple and almost immediate process implemented for contact and a quick response to the customer for the price match. If price adjustments do not get back to the customers quickly they will become frustrated with the process and purchase from the competition. Since you cannot eliminate comparison shopping, turn it into an opportunity, if you can afford to do so.
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