One of the major challenges those who are operating on the online platform face is the issue of cart abandonment. The numbers are as high as 75%, and it goes without saying that it can have a devastating impact on any business. It is essential that business owners learn how to tackle the problem from the very beginning. You want to ensure that the customers will complete their purchases and come back for more. We will focus on WordPress in our article below. You can, however, use the information we will give you on other platforms, as long as it has compatibility with the different tools and plugins.

Understanding Shopping Cart Abandonment

Think about shopping cart abandonment in this way;  someone comes into your store, picks up goods, and puts them in a cart, but does not complete the purchase. If you are in a physical store, you may find trolleys upon trolleys full of products that seem to have no owner on the aisles.  It is also not uncommon to see the store attendance restocking items found in such carts.

The same happens in the eCommerce space where someone will fill their virtual cart but leave without purchasing anything. It can be frustrating for a business owner if this seems to be a recurring trend. Needless to say, you do not make any sales, and you need to know how to stop the issue as soon as possible.

Why Do People Abandon Their Carts?

There are various reasons why people will abandon their carts while shopping in your store. Some of the reasons are entirely up to you and while others are outside your influence. They include:

• Slow loading pages that account for up to 75% of the reasons why people abandon their carts
• 81% due to window shopping or research without the intention to buy
• 55% due to additional costs such as shipping or taxes
• 34% is attributable to the account setup process that some customers prefer not to go through
• A long or complicated checkout process resulting in 26% of abandoned carts
• Lack of trust in regards to credit card information resulting in 17% of abandoned carts
• Problems with the website resulting in crashes or errors accounting for 17% of abandoned carts
• 6% attributable to insufficient payment options

From the reasons above, it is clear that you will have to deal with cart abandonment at some point in running your online business. You can, however, stop or significantly reduce their percentages if you take some measures.

We will focus on some of the ways you can fix cart abandonment in your store below.

1. You Have Not Optimized Your Platform For Mobile

Statistics indicate that more than half the number of internet users will access the web on their mobile devices. You will find higher abandonment rates among mobile users.

Mobile abandonment is up to 85%, while desktop abandonment is at 73%.

You must, therefore, ensure that your eCommerce platform is mobile-friendly. Make time to test how friendly it is with the use of various tools on the online platform. You must also be keen so that you arrest any issues and fix them quickly so that it does not impact on the running of your platform on mobile phones.

2. Your Site Speed is Very Low

The speed of your website will determine whether or not people stay on your eCommerce platform. You must, therefore, ensure that you take all the measures to increase the page loading speeds. Your WebHost provider has a significant role to play. The package you choose and the technical support you receive will also matter. If you lack sufficient bandwidth, you will not be able to process the orders that come in quickly.  When you opt for shared servers, you will find yourself at the mercy of the number or website that you will be sharing the platform with. If it is a free web hosting provider, you will face certain limitations that could impact on the overall running of your online store.

To put it into perspective, eCommerce giant Amazon will lose up to $1.6 billion in sales due to any extra second in the page loading time. You must also pay attention to the type and number of plugins you download.

3. You must simplify the Checkout process

As we have already stated above, some shoppers will abandon their cards due to complicated checkout processes. You must ask yourself whether all the steps you require your customers to take have any actual use. Some checkout processes that require you to go through multiple pages before you can complete the purchase. It will work better for you if you can centralize everything into one place that you reduce the amount of time the customer will take in completing the purchase. Reduce the amount of information you collect by having the right tools in place to remember your customer information.

Another reason for abandoned carts is they need to open accounts every time a customer wants to make a purchase.  You can do away with this step entirely by allowing or enabling guest checkout. It means that you give the customer the option of opening an account with you or just purchasing a product without needing to provide their information.

You must also be careful about too many clicks that can be annoying for your customers. You should, for example, avoid taking people to the shopping cart immediately they add an item. With that, you make it feel like you are rushing them through the process, and not many people like that.

Ask your web developer to put a progress indicator, so that your customers always know what stage of the shopping process they are in. Split testing will also let you know whatever you need to improve upon to make the shopping experience more pleasant.

Related Read: 12 Proven Lead Generation Strategies For ECommerce Store In 2019

4. Pay Attention To The Analytics

One of the fundamental things you need to do when doing anything in the digital space is to keep track of the metrics. You have tools such as Google Analytics that will help collect relevant data to allow you to take care of your website accordingly. It will tell you things such as bounce rates, how many people visit your site, and what kind of content they interact with. You get all the information you need to determine shopper behavior, sales performance, check out, among other things. If you ignore this essential step, you will not have any information that will help you improve the performance of your eCommerce platform.

5. Show The Customers You Are Trustworthy

Many people like to shop on the online platform, but they must trust you because they share a lot of information with you. The customers also need to know that they are spending their money without any risk. You must, therefore, take steps to increase the level of trust amongst customers. It is as simple as having the right web design; no one wants to deal with an eCommerce platform that looks hurriedly put together and does not communicate well. You must also include your contact details so that your customers know that they can reach you in case of anything. Have a clear privacy policy and also give assurances with regards to returns or money-back guarantee.

Take advantage of the benefits of social proof through the use of customer testimonials, success stories, endorsements, and associations, among others. Remember to include any certifications and vital statistics that will show that your business is trustworthy. You must prominently display any positive reviews because up to 88% of online buyers will buy a product depending on what other people have to say about it. WordPress has several plugins that you can use if you need a way to get reviews for your products.

6. Take Care of Shipping

Another major reason why people will abandon their carts is because of the cost of shipping. It may not surprise you that many customers will pay keen attention to the different aspects of shipping. They will look at how fast you will deliver the goods, and how much it will cost them. If you can absorb the cost of shipping, it would not hurt to offer free shipping to your customers. While it will not always be possible to provide everyone the benefit, you can look for options that can significantly decrease the amount they will need to pay to have you deliver the goods to their doorstep.

You must also be transparent about any hidden costs so that you do not surprise your customers with such fees. Many customers will stop the purchased product if they have to pay for things they did not factor in. You will find plugins that you can use to help your customers calculate how much it will cost them to ship the products. Platforms such as Woocommerce have this facility so that a customer is aware from the very beginning what they will need to pay.

7. Utilize The Power Of Abandoned Cart Emails

When people come to your platform, you collect certain information from them. Such information includes telephone numbers and email addresses. So if you find that a customer did not complete a purchase, you can send them an email as a reminder to come back and finish the process. Email communication is a powerful tool to use if you do it well. With automation, you can collect relevant information that will let you know the behavior of your customers. You can then use this information to come up with the right kind of emails that are specific to that particular person.

You may consider adding incentives so that you create interest and a sense of urgency amongst your shoppers. Emails are also a fantastic way to make product recommendations based on a data-driven understanding of the customer’s behavior. Make sure you do it well because many people tend to trash or spam emails that have no relevance to them.

8. Increase The Number Of Payment Options

A customer should be able to complete their transaction using several payment options. It is especially essential because if you operate on the global platform, you cannot quite determine which payment option someone will go for. There are so many payment options you can consider, including Amazon pay, PayPal, Stripe, Payfast, square, among others. You must also have credit and debit card options because many people use them. Talk to your customers and do a small survey to truly have a good knowledge of what kind of payment options your customers prefer.

9. Take Advantage Of Exit Popups

Going back to our original point of why people may abandon their carts, one of the critical reasons is window shopping and research. They do not always have the intention of buying the first time around, and may just be making price comparisons to know where to purchase the products. You will, however, find that sometimes what the customer wants is just a little push to buy. Enter exit popups, which will appear when the potential customer is about to leave your website. Use them for promotions or any other incentives to generate the right level of interest and possibly conversion.

Useful Read: 10 Common Ecommerce Problems & Mistakes One Should Avoid In 2020

Final Thoughts

We have shared nine fantastic ways to decrease the number of abandoned carts in WordPress. By taking some of the steps, we have highlighted above; you will significantly reduce the amount of business you lose due to abandonment. It requires that you choose the right web host provider who will give you sufficient bandwidth to ensure you have fast loading speed. You must optimize your site for mobile so that you take advantage of customers who will shop and search for information from their mobile phones. Pay particular attention to the Checkout process and let go of anything that will complicate it. You are dealing with people who have so much variety and options, so you do not need anything that will have them running to your competitors.

Look at how you can take care of the shipping costs by either absorbing it all or looking for ways to reduce the cost. It all comes down to improving efficiency and giving your customers a good experience when they are on your platform.