Optimising Your Checkout Process To Reduce Cart Abandonment

Worldwide, the average cart abandonment rate for online retailers is around 70%. This is stark. It’s the equivalent of going to Tesco Extra and for every three full trolleys that made it through the checkout, seeing another seven abandoned in the supermarket aisles. The fact that this doesn’t happen at Tesco Extra but happens all the time online is a major pain point for digital businesses, and points to a pressing need to optimise the checkout process for higher completion rates. In this article, we’ll look at practical ways that you can reduce cart abandonment and improve your customer experience.

Simplify Your Checkout Process

One of the main reasons that online shopping carts are abandoned is a complicated or inefficient checkout process. For many retailers, this is partly a design problem, and partly an operational problem. On the design side, a user-friendly UI (user interface) should seek to remove any unnecessary steps and keep the checkout process as streamlined and straightforward as possible. If you’ve got a high abandonment rate, start by evaluating your current checkout workflow and identify potential areas where customers may get stuck or frustrated.

For example, the increase in abandoned shopping carts may be linked to a growing number of retailers making their customers create accounts to complete their purchase. Customer accounts are a strong marketing tool, but there should also be the option for customers to access a single page checkout where all the necessary information can be entered in one go, without having to create an account. The quicker, easier and more self-contained the process, the more likely customers are to follow through with their purchase.

Operationally, checkouts are also often slowed down by multifactor security checks. Again, these serve an important cyber security function – but it’s essential that any security tools you use are customer friendly and work correctly on all devices. Customers shouldn’t have to spend five minutes identifying American school buses or fire hydrants in grainy images to spend money with you – and may not want to use multiple devices to complete their purchase, either.

Give Your Customers A Choice Of Payment Options

Limited payment options are another common reason for cart abandonment. Modern customers expect a variety of payment methods, including debit and credit card, ApplePay and PayPal. You don’t have to use them all, but by offering a choice of payment methods, you empower your customers to choose the one that is most convenient for them at the time. Some payment processors – e.g. PayPal – also allow an express checkout purchase using the customer’s saved billing and address information, so they don’t have to fill out a form on your site. This improves your customer experience and also increases the chances of completing their purchase.

Implement Trust Signals

A customer may abandon their cart if they don’t trust your website or feel unsure about the security of their personal data. To counteract this, it’s important to implement trust signals throughout your checkout process. These can include credible third-party security badges (e.g. Verified by Visa), clear privacy policies, and transparent customer reviews and ratings. Trust signals help to build consumer confidence in your business and reassure your customers that their identity, address, and card details are safe.

Use Exit-Intent Pop-Ups

Sometimes, customers may abandon their shopping cart due to unexpected costs, such as shipping or handling fees they weren’t expecting, or because they got distracted during the purchase. Exit intent pop-ups are overlays that appear on a user’s device screen when the website detects that the user is about to leave the page. On a laptop or desktop, this may be triggered by the movement of the mouse cursor towards the browser’s close button or the back button.

Exit intent pop-ups can be configured to incentivise the customer to complete their purchase through a special offer, discount, or personal message aimed at retaining their custom. Exit pop-ups can be a strong conversion tool. However, it’s important to use them sparingly and strategically, and not bombard customers with too many offers. Otherwise, they may have the opposite effect and drive business away. Sometimes, no just means no.

Test And Improve Your Strategy

Keep track of your cart abandonment rates and regularly test different elements of your checkout strategy to see which ones are the most effective at reducing abandonment. Your data will show you what’s working and what’s not, helping you identify areas for improvement and showing you the path towards success. Also, listen carefully to customer feedback and behaviours, and take comments on board to improve the process to maximise conversions.

What Next?

To find out more about shopping cart optimisation and how to increase conversions in your business, please contact one of the e-commerce specialists at JDR today by clicking here.

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