How Smart Is Your Cart? Ecommerce Hosting Info.

For online businesses whose main goal is to sell products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss.

When you enter a brick and mortar retail store, which cashier do you select? All other things being equal, you are going to the checkout area with the shortest line. Your online customers are no different. When they are ready to check out they want convenience and if you don’t provide it, somebody else will.  That’s why it is so important that you streamline every aspect of your website from alpha to omega with special emphasis on a checkout process that flows seamlessly and ensures your customers that they are in good hands.

While marketing experts go to great lengths to maximize the effectiveness of  landing pages, getting more and more people to advance to subsequent pages, the average ecommerce shopping cart is abandoned nearly 60% of the time. Knowing why visitors leave your website is just as important as knowing how to lure them there in the first place.

Basically, shopping cart abandonment is when a visitor initiates your checkout process but leaves before completing the purchase. When you understand why customers are leaving your online business you will have insight into what you can do to keep visitors from abandoning your website and taking their business (and money) elsewhere.

According to a 2006 study conducted by Cambridge-based Forrester Research, more than 88% of online shoppers say they have left items in shopping carts before completing an online purchase. For online businesses whose main goal is to sell products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss. The same survey revealed that less than 50% of e-tailers know the shopping cart abandonment rate for their business.

According to online customer surveys, password login issues account for 20-25% of abandoned shopping carts. Many checkout processes require a visitor to register as a new member before they can begin the actual checkout process. A principle of selling is never to stall a customer from buying once they’ve made the decision to do so. Instead of asking for a password, support their decision to spend money with you by quickly and conveniently leading them through your checkout process. It is important to let visitors know how many steps are in your checkout process. Make sure a progress indicator is located at the top of the checkout pages and that it is clearly numbered with the current step highlighted.

Some experts recommend that websites eliminate links that take shoppers back to the main site during the checkout process. That’s because customers who get linked back to the main sites might never come back to the checkout page. Keep your visitors single minded and focused. The shopping cart should be easily editable. Users should be able to easily change quantities, remove products or add them to a wish list.

The font size and color of your copy may influence your visitor’s desire to complete their purchase. If your font size is too small or the color is too difficult to read your potential customer is likely to give up and go somewhere else. This is especially important to remember for online businesses that are marketing to older populations.

Because comparison shoppers account for so many abandoned carts, create a saved-search function that allows customers who are comparison shopping to easily and quickly return to your website and pick up exactly where they left off.  If you offer multiple shipping methods then default the shipping cost to the one that is most popular among your customers. Place your guarantee, privacy, delivery, customer services and security policies in relevant areas throughout the checkout process.

After the sale is completed is the time to offer your customer the opportunity to register. Since you have their personal information online from the purchase, you can pre-fill much of the information to streamline the registration process. This enables customers to view registration as a valued benefit instead of a shopping barrier.

Your web host can be a critical source of information about shopping cart abandonment. Most reputable web hosts have considerable experience in the field of ecommerce and they have learned from experience what works and what falls flat. Your web host knows that your checkout page is every bit as important as your landing page.

While patience is a lovely virtue it is in decidedly short supply among the savvy online shoppers who have come to expect instant results. Don’t make your competitors the beneficiaries of a bogged-down checkout process.