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SaleCycle Ecommerce’s stat report revealed that three quarters of shoppers abandon their carts before checking out. That’s over three quarters of sales being missed! That’s a huge amount of revenue that your business could be benefitting from. This blog aims to help you understand why carts are being abandoned and, most importantly, start reducing the number of your clients that don’t follow through on their purchases.

There will always be some level of abandonment. We’ve all had a quick browse to kill some time, added things to our cart and then decide to close the browser and get on with something else. However, there are reasons that people intending to make a purchase decide they don’t want to complete it.

One reason is having to sign up and create an account. Accounts can be really useful, but having to set one up, think of a password and verify your account via email is a hassle! Offering a guest checkout option allows people the choice and gets them through the process quicker.

A major factor in not following through is concerns about security. If a site doesn’t have an SSL certificate or just seems like it doesn’t have the best protections in place for sensitive data like credit card information, consumers are unlikely to want to share that information and potentially put themselves at risk.

If there are hidden fees like taxes or shipping rates that are higher than expected, people are likely to decide they’re not interested in paying more than they expected! Plus, if shipping takes a long time, many consumers decide they’re not willing to wait that long for their product. Making returns difficult also turns customers off the idea of buying from you. People want to feel supported and assisted when shopping in person or online.

Now you know the major problems, you can work on fixing them. Ensure your site is secure and has an SSL certificate so people know they can trust you with their payment details. You should also make your shipping prices as transparent as possible and automatically apply tax to your products.

You can also add an extra level of trust by filling your site with reviews, endorsements and your full contact information.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, the nature of the Ecommerce cycle means there will always be some shopping cart abandonment. This means it’s important to recover as many of these sales as possible.

Some people will automatically come back after having had some time to think. Others need a little bit of prompting. You can try to entice them with a good email turning the failed transaction into a way to showcase your customer service skills and maybe even get a conversion.