Web Hosting Tips - Ecommerce Website & the Point of Abandonment

Your Ecommerce Website - "So Near And Yet So Far"

This web hosting tips article will address the issues with ecommerce "the point of abandonment", your website and consumers' shopping experience.

The fear of abandonment remains alive and well in the hearts and minds of ecommerce website owners. And rightly so. Depending on which surveys you believe, the shopping cart abandonment rate is as low as 25% or as high as 59.8%. And the heartbreaking truth is that many of the would-be shoppers stay on line until the very end of the checkout process and click off just before the electronic currency changes hands.

Web hosting company explains "point of abandonment"

In ecommerce “the point of abandonment” is defined as the moment at which a customer makes the decision not to proceed to the next stage of the online purchasing process.  In recent years, thousands of articles have been written featuring ideas and advice on how to keep your customers in your online store all the way through the transaction.

Studies show that many savvy customers are using shopping carts to browse more than to buy. Frequent online shoppers know that shipping costs, handling charges, sales tax, product availability and delivery methods vary widely among online retailers, so they use shopping carts to compare vendors.

So what can you do to set yourself apart from the crowd and make your online store the vendor of choice? According to the marketing site “Taming the Beast” there are some common themes among shoppers who abandon their carts.

Some of those include:

• Comparison shopping: They may be choosing a few items, thinking about buying them, then waiting till later. (Some sites allow carts to remain available for up to 45 days. That way if a potential customer is comparison shopping they may return to your site at the end of their search and their "saved" shopping cart will make it fast and easy for them to complete their purchase.)
• Confusion: They may be unsure about how to complete the purchase.
• Impatience: The average time it takes an online shopper to leave a shopping cart is 12 seconds down from 30 seconds a few years ago according to Jupiter Research. If customers feel that it is taking too long to complete the purchase they will abandon you. For example, requiring people to register before they purchase from your site may make the process too time-consuming for some online consumers.
• Security Concerns: Some customers may be afraid of entering their personal/credit card details into your payment gateway because it doesn’t seem secure enough.

Web hosting tips - Improve customers' shopping experience

Most of the issues listed above can be easily remedied once you understand what makes your customers tick. Talk to your web host about how to avoid the pitfalls that turn your customers away. In order to improve your customers’ online shopping experience, you might want to ask yourself a few questions:

• Is your stock available? Let the customers know up front if stock is available (or if it’s not). Online shoppers become very annoyed when they discover that an item is “unavailable” after they have placed it their shopping cart. This can be a real turnoff that may very well keep customers from visiting your site in the future.
• What are your shipping charges? Potential customers want to know this up front because in some cases it may figure into their decision on whether or not to buy from you. Trying to conceal this information upfront will wind up annoying customers later on the process. (And “later on in the process,” when the customer is waiting with credit card in hand, is NOT the time to alienate them). Consider adding free plug-ins from major shippers like UPS or FedEx and allow your potential customers to estimate shipping costs based on the types of service they select.
• Is your site responsive? Patience is a virtue that is sorely lacking among internet users because they are used to “right now” virtual service. Don’t expect them to wait. They won’t. Make it easy and quick for them to load a shopping cart and proceed to the payment gateway.
• Is your web site user friendly for global customers? Consider listing prices in various currencies or have a currency converter on the site.
• Are your policies clear and apparent? Display your buying, shipping and return policies in a prominent place and in terms that are easily understood.

Web hosting goal for ecommerce customers

You spend a significant amount of time, money and effort luring customers to your site. Once you get them there, don’t let easily corrected issues cause them to leave. After all, your competitors are only a click away.

 

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