Let’s begin with what cart abandonment is. This is an eCommerce term that describes the act of a shopper adding items into their shopping baskets whilst browsing an online website, without making it to the checkout as they would exit the website midway, leaving their carts outstanding. These visitors desert their desires by leaving behind an incomplete transaction. Did you know that an average of 70% of carts get abandoned? Today, we will explore the trigger points that lead to carts being abandoned, and what businesses can do to prevent this matter.   Complex Decision-Making More and more companies transport online as the scope for a digital world continues to expand, with COVID-19 giving a kick-start to many businesses to prematurely enter this digital expansion. This lead to increased research phases spent by consumers when browsing for their desired product or service. Sometimes, the process becomes too long and tedious that the consumer eventually gives up and abandons their cart purely because they cannot choose out of far too many providers. When many companies begin offering such similar valuables, it makes the decision process much more complex for the customer who then drops the entire purchase due to their indecisiveness.   Stand Out! Well do you just sit around and let such reasons justify your cart abandonment rates? We don’t! When customers browse through tonnes and tonnes of websites for their desired products, but get stuck with the many similarities between them, what do you reckon they look for next? Customer value of course. They do not want to feel as though they are just another one of your thousands of customers, but they want to feel as if they were the customer that you were looking for. They want to feel valued. Uplift the value of these customers by personalising their website experience, offering products specially handpicked for them. Analyse their behaviour and learn their interests. Then use this information to take their website experience through a whole new dimension with the use of dynamic content and personalised messages. Showcase some of their favourite products on the landing page and promote some relevant hot deals to them. Throw in a personalised welcome message too using their name. It always works. Customers want to feel special; they want to be amazed. And you need to think about how you can give this to them, and more. If you can optimise your personalisation techniques, then consider yourself with another customer gained. Because, when these customers land themselves at the decision-making phase, they will remember you automatically as the one who valued them so they would feel more confident by purchasing from you.   Window Shoppers Many customers browse through websites in the hope to receive some ideas and inspiration with no purchase intention as they are simply not ready to buy yet. They are said to be ‘just looking’ as some time pass for ideas and to better understand what’s trending.   The Magic of a Wish List Don’t worry if you have people window shopping on your website; all they need is time, and we must respect this if we want to create a loyal B2C relationship. We have the perfect solution for you if you are stuck between letting a customer slip out your hands and trying to rush them into a purchase eventually to only scare them away. Create a wish list on your website. Often customers spot a product that picks their fancy, but they are simply not ready to purchase it yet. Many websites send them through a ‘buy or delete’ funnel with nothing in between, provoking them to disregard the item completely if they are not willing to make a purchase yet. What benefit do you reckon they get from that? Exactly, none! Offering a wish list option is a great tactic to implicitly encourage customers to reconsider a product later when they feel more ready. This prevents losing the customer entirely as they are not rushed to checkout, nor are they left with no option but to hit delete. This enables them to work at their own pace which is what many customers look for. To enhance this feature, you could create a popup on their next visit asking them to review their wish list as a reminder. Though, it should be noted here that buying intent matters. Yes, we want to acknowledge and capture all our website visitors whether they are or aren’t window shoppers; but we must prioritise too. We must prioritise those window shoppers who hold a high buying intent, by trying to lure them into our offerings and target them with relevant things of interest through the techniques mentioned in the section above.   Tedious Forms *Sighs* I am sure nobody likes a long form fill when all you are trying to do is purchase a pair of shoes. You would be surprised at how many online retailers require customer registration to complete a purchase. You would be even more surprised at how many customers exit the web page after seeing an endless form before them! Such companies would often find themselves with a higher rate of cart abandonment as customers are not prepared to fill in such long registration forms, or simply because they do not wish to register to the website.   Guest Checkout Experience Customers should be provided the alternative option of checking out as a guest, as this offers a smooth and seamless checkout process, especially for those seeking simplicity, convenience, and instance. You will find your cart abandonment rates to significantly drop once implementing guest checkout alternative procedure, as some customers prefer to cut out tedious tasks from their busy days. Just imagine – you and a competitor are offering the same or a similar product, but the competitor requires a big form fill as part of the checkout process whereas yours is only as short as popping in your email. Who do you think they will prefer to conduct the purchase with? However, I know what you would probably be thinking here, how do you track the behaviour of the customer if they do not register with you, right? Well, we have got you covered for this so worry you not. We can track every bone inside the movement of your customers regardless of whether they are logged in or not! Our clients find that they can target 400% more customers using our special feature of being able to track unregistered visitors, with 12% of their sales revenue coming solely from these users. So, you can still personalise and use dynamic content on unregistered customers whilst still offering them a convenient checkout process. Amazing, isn’t it?   Lack of Reliability There are many customers who highly rely on customer reviews and tend to step back when they do not find any available, as customers tend to rely more on other customers’ feedback with honest reviews. When customers browse a website and find a product that they are interested in, they undergo further research into it. Many customers will scroll down in the hope to see some reviews, but when they do not find these, they tend to abandon their carts as they become double-minded on whether the product will be the same as what the website claims it to be. This is because many retailers display their products with edited images making them look far better than found in real life; and this is the situation that such customers try to avoid hence why dropping the purchase. This is mostly found among fashion and apparel retailers.   Review Inclusive Go on ahead and don’t be nervous to pop in a customer review section! This will amplify customer assurance as they will see real life images from other consumers who are just like them, taking photographs from the comfort of their own homes. These images increase customer satisfaction as customers rely more on their own customer community when seeking honest reviews and unedited photographs. Customers feel a higher sense of assurance through this, but not only because they are able to compare the two types of photographs, but also because they are receiving authenticity and honesty from the retailer who is not anxious to allow its customer community to share raw images.   Cart Abandonment? Where? Cart abandonment is an inevitable human act which no business can claim to ever have completely resolved. However, what we can do, is decrease it. Adopting one or more of the techniques shared today will significantly decrease your cart abandonment rates, as well as increase the satisfaction of your customers. So go on and start whipping up some delicious recipes on how to get those baskets ringing! And don’t worry – you can thank us later when you see them checkout numbers increasing, because they will.