Have you got abandonment issues?
Ecommerce offers endless opportunities to retailers, but it’s not without its challenges.
One major hurdle you’ve probably experienced is shopping basket abandonment.
According to a report by UX experts the Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate across all Ecommerce sectors is 70.19%.
This means that for every 100 potential customers who start the process, around 70 are leaving without making a purchase.
But a clearly defined strategy and support from Ecommerce experts like Ascensor can quickly turn that figure around.
Read on to uncover some common basket abandonment issues, and discover the real-world results we’ve achieved for our clients.
The most common reasons for basket abandonment
There are plenty of reasons why shoppers abandon their baskets, and understanding them can help you devise strategies to tackle them effectively. Here are a few to consider in relation to your own site:
Mandatory account creation
Account creation demands extra effort. Consumers might not see the point, especially if they only plan on making a one-time purchase.
Some businesses insist on account creation to retarget customers with emails and boost lead generation, but this can be a huge turn-off for users.
Allowing customers to simply check out as a guest can help prevent losing the sale altogether.
Long or confusing checkout process
An ideal checkout flow is a smooth, frictionless experience. The typical checkout process is: shopping cart > billing info > shipping info > shipping method > preview order > payment > confirmation.
A checkout flow that doesn’t follow a logical sequence of steps can deter customers - and so will asking for too much information to complete the purchase. Concise checkout forms with simple, easy-to-understand sections can reduce abandonment.
Longer-than-expected delivery times and unexpected costs
Some Ecommerce stores don’t reveal an item’s expected delivery time until checkout, plus nothing turns shoppers off more than seeing unanticipated fees tacked on at the end of the purchase process.
In fact, a recent study found that 48% of shoppers with actual purchase intent abandoned their basket due to extra costs (delivery and other fees) prior to completion.
Lack of payment options
Offering a wide range of familiar payment options can increase trust and encourage shoppers to complete their transactions, reducing the chances of basket abandonment.
Many ecommerce stores also offer buy now, pay later plans through third-party providers like Klarna, which make it easier for customers to afford larger purchases.
Payment security concerns
Red flags like outdated website design, unfamiliar brand names or an unfamiliar payment gateway can dissuade customers from making a purchase.
A lack of social proof — reviews, testimonials and other user-generated content — also makes it hard for customers to trust you and can lead to abandonment issues.
Site speed issues
If your site has a confusing interface or is laggy, people lose confidence in your product or service.
According to a recent study, 75% of consumers judge the credibility of businesses by their site design. Remember to upgrade your uptime and availability to coincide with peak shopping seasons.
Also, running cross-browser and cross-device tests ensures that your online store works correctly on all platforms.
You can use Google Analytics to find reports on website performance across devices by following this path: Audience > Technology > Browser & OS or Audience > Mobile > Devices.
Reducing basket abandonment at all stages
Preventing basket abandonment isn't just about the checkout stage, it's about the entire buying process.
Your product pages need to clearly display all necessary information, including price, delivery costs and product details.
Exit-intent pop-ups are a great way of helping users to pause and reconsider when they try to leave the site.
A pop-up can be designed to appear, offering a discount or special offer, which can entice the user to complete their purchase.
Retargeting ads also remind potential customers of the products they viewed or added to their cart. They can be incredibly effective - in fact, website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert.
Tangible results for real clients
We’ve recently had success helping a number of clients to reduce basket abandonment and boost conversion rates. Here are three great examples:
Wodar
Instant boiling water tap retailer Wodar achieved an ROI of 1211.4% in just one month after we created an effective basket abandonment workflow for them.
The Ascensor team set up a series of personalised emails to shoppers who abandoned their baskets, reminding them of what they left behind
Studies show that nearly half of all cart abandonment emails are opened, and over a third of clicks lead to purchases back on site.
Not contacting them means you’re missing out on potential sales from highly engaged website visitors.
This particular email series achieved an 82.6% open rate, compared to an industry average of 48%.
As one of the UK’s leading electrical wholesalers, YESSS Electrical recognised that customer drop-off and basket abandonment rates during the checkout stage could be improved, and we proposed a series of CRO tests to identify where key developments could be made.
We identified several short and long-term solutions and designed a series of split tests that could reshape key parts of the checkout process.
Our CRO team tested whether changing checkout T&C buttons, displaying clearer VAT-inclusive prices and free delivery banners could improve abandonment rates.
We saw an increase of 8% in the number of users continuing to the checkout stage and a further 3-5% more order completions across our tests.
For a major retailer, this represents significant potentially missed revenue that is now being recouped.
It was apparent early in our analysis of the Deal4Doors site that a large proportion of customers were abandoning their baskets, with less than half of users that started an order actually completing a purchase with the nationwide door supplier.
Using interactive heatmaps of clicks and actions and anonymous session recordings, we discovered that many users were being deterred when learning delivery costs after they’d added products to their basket.
To tackle the drop-off issue, we designed and rolled out a banner that clearly set out the delivery terms on every page of the site, which had an immediate impact on basket abandonment rates.
Alongside this we created a three-part email series that reminds users of the products still in their basket and offers a discount to complete the purchase. This proved to be hugely successful.
Our email marketing campaigns produced an incredible ROI of 1,251%, with the majority of the revenue originating from the basket abandonment automation series. That’s income that would otherwise be lost to Deal4Doors.
Following the rollout of the delivery banner, sitewide revenues and transactions increased by 106% compared to the previous six-month period.
Get specialist support and reap the rewards
Reducing basket abandonment involves understanding why it happens, using effective marketing techniques and optimising the buying process at every stage.
As we’ve shown with these most recent examples, implementing these strategies means you can significantly increase conversion rates and minimise lost revenue.