‘Tis the season to be shopping online! Now that November has gotten underway, we can safely say that the holiday shopping season is practically here. Retailers all over Canada are about to experience their busiest time of the year. This is certainly true for e-retailers as well. In fact, with each passing year, online shopping only gets more popular. The problem some e-commerce stores find, however, is cart abandonment.
Cart abandonment refers to when an online shopper begins the checkout process for an online order but then drops out of the process before completing the purchase. Items left in the virtual shopping cart are considered “abandoned”. In other words, the company makes zilch!
Here are three steps to preventing cart abandonment in your online store:
1. Enable a guest checkout feature.
Many website visitors don’t want to have to set up accounts in order to complete their purchases. It is true that, by having an account, an online shopper can process transactions much quicker in the future. However, many people would prefer to simply go through the buying process in as few steps as possible. A guest checkout feature can help for purchases to be made faster.
“A majority of customers, especially first-timers, don’t want to bother with making an account when buying online,” says Mansoor Ahmed Khan of Cloudways, “Enable a guest check-out to improve sales. It shows that you value potential customer’s time. It can help you reduce cart abandonment rates considerably.”
2. Increase your website speed.
When a visitor of your site clicks on one of your webpage links, how long does it take for that page to appear? Believe it or not, even a few seconds can be too long for an online shopper. Quick and easy navigation is expected from today’s consumers. If your site is taking too long to load its pages, it may be costing you customers. Jolissa Skow of MonsterInsights reports that the majority of online shoppers make online buying decisions based on website speed.
“Have you ever walked into a store to shop (or just pulled into the parking lot), saw how busy it was, and turned around and left without doing your shopping?” she asks, “People do the equivalent of this online all the time. A whopping 70% of online shoppers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer.”
3. Utilize exit-intent popups.
Sometimes, online shoppers are ready to leave online stores without even putting anything into their shopping carts. An exit-intent popup can help to prevent that from happening. According to Khan, an exit-intent popup works as bait when online prospects are about to leave your web page.
“When they hover to another tab or they wish to close the existing tab, you can activate your exit intent popup and make them an offer they cannot refuse,” he writes, “You must put exit popups on every web page if you want to bring down ecommerce cart abandonment. To effectively use these pop ups, you can add them to your product and checkout pages alongside providing a deal, a coupon, or additional information.”
Is your company in need of a safe and secure e-commerce solution?
Maximize your holiday sales! You can seamlessly integrate Unity Payments’ online payment gateway into your website or mobile application to facilitate secure credit card transactions. To learn more, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca!
