Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment Essential Strategies to Convert Lost Customers

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by: Sudar Ganes by: Sudar Ganes

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment Essential Strategies to Covert Lost Customers

by: Sudar Ganes

The standard in user feedback Contents

Introduction 3

SCA as an Opportunity 4

UX Versus CX 5

Customer Experience (CX) Solutions 7

User Experience (UX) Solutions 14

Conclusion 19

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 2 Introduction

Thank you for downloading our new ebook.

Shopping Cart Abandonment (SCA) is the rising phenomenon of users fill- ing their virtual carts with everything they want, but leaving your site before they complete their purchase.

This increasingly-common disruption is costing you potential customers, valuable opportunities and most importantly, it’s costing you money.

This ebook will address the common problems eTailers face and give the essential (and easy-to-implement) strategies to combat Shopping Cart Aban- donment.

We hope you enjoy it :)

About the author About the author Sudar Ganes UX ResearcherSudar Ganes & Marketer at Usabilla As anUX experienced Researcher researcher & Marketer in the at realmsUsabilla of marketing,As an experienced sociology and researcher UX, he isin intrigued the realms by of the waysmarketing, in which userssociology think and and UX, interact. he is intrigued Transcribing by the ways thesein insightswhich users ultimately think and helps interact. in better Transcribing product these development and marketing. insights ultimately helps in better product development Find andme onmarketing.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 3 SCA as an opportunity

Business Insider UK reports an expected $4 Trillion dollars worth of products will be abandoned online in 2015. Shopping Cart Abandonment (SCA) is rising each year as more and more people are making the move to shopping online. In fact, there has been a 2-3% rise in SCA annually since 2011.

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Fear Not! An abandoned cart does not necessarily mean a missed opportunity. A re- ported 75% of shoppers claim that they will return to the cart to complete the purchase. Now, how can we go about securing and even increasing that percentage? There are a wide range of actions you can take in order to miti- gate SCA.

Below I have divided these solutions based on Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX) best practices.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 4 UX Versus CX

Before we dive in, we need to quickly establish the definitions of User Ex- perience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX). cX UX

CX includes every interaction a UX is the totality of end-users’ shopper has with your brand, from perceptions as they interact with a the start to the end of their journey. product or service. These perceptions include effectiveness, efficiency, CX can be measured through fac- emotional satisfaction, and the tors such as overall experience, the quality of the relationship with the probability of the customer to con- entity that created the product or tinue using your website and the service (Kuniavsky , 2010). likelihood they will share your site with others. UX can be measured using metrics such as success, error and According to Beyond Philosophy, abandonment rates, as well as the CX is a blend of an organization’s time it takes to complete a particular rational performance, the senses task and the ease of use rating. stimulated and the emotions evoked and intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 5 not this OR this OR EVEN THIS BUT THIS cX & UX UX cX UX cX cX UX

Now we must ensure to not mistake UX for CX. Essentially, UX is a more specific component within CX, primairily concerned with the usability of your products or website. On the other hand CX encompasses the expere- ince of your entire brand. This image above depicts the distinction clearly:

Customer experience (CX) is an emerging trend in the world of business. Customer experience can be considered a derivative of customer service, but can still stand on its own as a discipline to be valued.

Practicing good CX can be a way to alleviate and prevent shopping cart abandonment. In the next section, we look at various methods to perpet- uate good CX in ecommerce.

Key Takeaways | CX Versus UX

• UX is an embedded component of CX

• UX is the quality of experience a person has when interacting with your product

• CX encompasses the entire experience your brand provides to the customer

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 6 CX Solutions

Offer Support

Making it easy for your customers to get in touch with you is paramount for creating customer loyalty and practicing good CX. With regards to customer support, you should provide various options and allow the consumer to select the one that best fits their needs.

Email, contact forms, social media, phone and live chat are the main chan- nels usually provided by ecommerce websites. Make sure these options stand out especially on product and checkout pages.

Good CX in this case means being there for your consumer every step of their buyer journey. This makes the consumer feel assured and more in- clined to complete their purchase.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 7 Guest Checkout

Have you ever found something cool online, and were really looking forward to buying it, but then halt- ed at the sight of a “login” prompt? Prompting users to make an ac- Avoiding ecommerce count in order to purchase goods user registration can significantly reduces conversions. boost conversions by A solution is to allow the user to 45 percent. checkout on your site as a guest. Guest checkouts will allow your Source: UI Engineering customers to initially visit your site to make a quick purchase with tweet this minimal barriers to conversion. A study by UI Engineering showed a 45% increase in conversions when user registration was avoided.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 8 Offer Free Shipping

Shopping online versus bricks and potential customers from finding mortar retail has its benefits; the what they need elsewhere. If they main one probably being the ability are satisfied with what they find on to shop around in a virtually limit- your site in terms of products and less marketplace, all while in the costs, then they won’t have to turn comfort of your home. Users can to your competitors as their alter- compare sites with similar invento- native. ry to find competitive prices. How- If they are already on your site ever there are several differences looking to buy, then why not just that can make or break the experi- sweeten the deal and provide a lit- ence and impact conversions. tle push towards a successful conversion. Shipping and handling (S+H) fees are a main concern for the modern 32% of users were found to aban- online shopper. These fees can add don their carts as a result of the an unanticipated sum to the total overall price being too expensive. cost of the user’s cart. Suddenly, Free shipping can offset some of a $20 purchase can become a $30 those costs and push the consumer purchase, which can negatively further down the funnel. impact user expectations. 56% of users did not convert when What can you do to maintain cus- they were presented with last-min- tomer satisfaction? Simple. Add ute fees that were not displayed free or express shipping to their earlier in the checkout process. purchase. Help them get acquaint- That is why it is important to dis- ed with their products sooner, fast- play shipping costs earlier in the er and for less. If you can afford to checkout process if you can’t offer take this route, it will prevent your free shipping.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 9 Feature Customer Reviews

Users often have internal and personal inclinations that convince them not to complete a purchase. Sometimes it is a matter of cost and sometimes it is a matter of doubt or lack of faith in your product.

An easy way to address this, is to feature customer reviews and testimonials on the product page. Social proof directly impacts conversions. According to an article by eConsultancy, 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates, as well as an average 18% uplift in sales.

Ensure that there are areas on your site to provide customer reviews. It is also important to follow up via email after a customer makes a purchase, in order to encourage them to provide a review. Offering a discount coupon or incentive can motivate the user to do so.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 10 Offer Price Match

With the ever-expanding ecommerce landscape, you are up against an array of competitors. Consumers are going to do their best to seek the best deal possible. 36% of users abandoned their cart as a result of finding competitive prices on another site. Offering a price match service can assure users that your website is competitive and encourange them to complete their purchase.

Voice of Customer Tools

As a company you want to provide the best experience possible to your customers. Think about it, you spent a lot of time creating a platform to market and sell your products, but what if your customers see an issue with your page and leave immediately? Wouldn’t it be nice to know why they left so suddenly?

Voice of Customer or Feedback tools are a great solution for gain- ing user insights. Anything from bugs on your site to the quality or variety of your product selection . Besides, your users know what they want, so listen to them. Usabilla provides an industry lead- ing solution for both websites and apps to get user feedback at the click of a button.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 11 Ad Retargeting

Ad Roll claims that 2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store but the other 98% can potentially be reclaimed through ad retargeting. Business Insider UK states that of all the abandoned carts, 68% can be recovered by savvy online retailers.

Ad Retargeting can be a powerful and effective tool to recover those missed opportunities by drawing the attention of fleeing customers back to your products. Retargeting tools keep track of people who visit your site but then bounce. These tools then expose your lost customer to ads specific to that product or product category while they visit other sites. Some tools for Ad retargeting include Google AdWords, ReTargeter and AdRoll.

37% of users abandon their cart as a result of casual browsing. Ad retargeting has been proven to be effective in bringing window shoppers back while simultaneously boosting brand awareness.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 12 Email Recovery Campaigns Abandoned Cart Emails are another solution that can be quite effective for drawing customers back to your site to complete purchases. You can set up these emails to be sent to customers who did not make it through the checkout process. These emails can be quite effective as 46% of customers open these emails, and nearly 35% of these opened emails lead to a com- pleted conversion.

Here are three best practices to keep in mind for recovery emails:

1. Provide a reminder of what the customer has left behind.

2. Include images of the products they’ve abandoned.

3. Pay attention to the copy in the email as it is a second chance to market yourself and the product. What you say must be compelling and the email should be visually stimulating to the reader.

Some tools to help you with Email Recovery Campaigns include: Shopify, Cart Rescuer and ReJoiner.

Key Takeaways | CX Solutions

• Offer a variety of support • Offer price match services options - always make it easy for the consumer to get in • Utilize customer feedback tools touch • Make use of ad retargetting • Offer guest checkout option • Follow up with missed • Offer free shipping if possible customers using recovery emails • Feature customer testimonials & product reviews

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 13 Now that we have UX Solutionsgone through the nitty gritty details of how to please customers with good CX, I will quickly outline some UX suggestions to give your website a quick makeover. Think of this vsection as a checklist that your site needs to delight your users.

The surface or the visual elements of your website is what will make or break the experience for the user. They don’t necessarily care about what is under the hood. They came with a purpose to either browse or buy. If your site has good UX then the experience will be uninterrupted and seamless to the user. But rest assured that if your site has poor UX, this will directly impact the user‘s overall experience and result in an increace of abandoned carts.

So, how can you begin to incorporate UX principles and UI elements to optimize your site for conversions?

Thumbnails

First of all you need to ensure that every single one of your products have thumbnails. Thumbnails are little images next to the icons of the listed products in a search query. Users will quickly scroll through that list and take a glance at the price and the image. Once they decide to click on something, they will arrive at the product landing page. What do they ex- pect to see? More images of the product with greater detail. There should never be any doubt or questioning in what the product is. Product images will allow the user to proceed to the checkout with confidence.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 14 Prevent Errors

Errors on your site can be quite information errors and user errors costly. An estimated $44 billion is important. One common exam- worth of revenue will be lost as a ple of site errors is misinformation result of minor errors. These can regarding the stock availability of include information mistakes, user a desired product. Be sure that errors or even flaws in the user updated item inventory is clearly interface. Regardless, an error will present on the product page. Frus- cost you and is something that tration will arise if the user arrives needs be monitored and addressed. at the final checkout point only to Having a dedicated person or team realize that want they wanted is monitoring and preventing both not available.

Progress Indicators

If your checkout process is mul- they should also be aware of how ti-page, then ensure that each many more steps are required to page is concise and only collects complete their checkout. In this vital information. 21% of users context, it is important to feature in a Statista Study did not finish a progress bar that informs the checking out because the process consumer on how far along in the was taking too long. As the user process they are, but also to indi- fills out the required input fields, cate how many steps remain.

1 Billing & Shipping 2 Review 3 Payment

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 15 Calls to Action

Remove from Cart Checkout Add to Cart

CTA’s are vital to keep the buyer For example, it would be foolish to journey alive and well. The user place the “complete purchase” but- cannot convert if there are no user ton next to the “remove from cart” CTA buttons placed throughout button. In order for these buttons the site to guide them through to stand out visually, ensure that their journey. These buttons need they are adequately sized in rela- to be concise, consistent and tion to the text and visual elements prominent, in order to be effective. on the page. The colour of the CTA Placement of these buttons are also should be contrasted with the col- crucial to success. our of the landing page.

Security Verification

Users need to feel secure when they are using your site. Especially because they are providing you with very personal and private credit card information. 17% of us- comfortable, there is a chance ers did not complete their purchase that seeing the placement of these as a result of security concerns. icons can suddenly bring forth Therefore, it does not hurt to test concerns they may have not even how your customers react to the considered before. Therefore this placement of security verification is a visual element that you need icons on your site. to A/B test with different landing Although this has the ability to help pages to determine what works users feel a little more best in boosting conversions.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 16 Diverse Payment Methods

As an ecommerce business, having not complete their purchase be- diverse payment methods is an ab- cause their payment was declined. solute must! This includes offering If you provide a variety of payment MasterCard, Visa, American Express methods, it increases the likelihood and Paypal, along with many other of the user finding the ideal option options. Ensure that the icons of for them, instead of leaving dis- these payment methods are clearly couraged. So by allowing customers displayed on the checkout page. In to choose their payment option, the Statista Study, 11% of users did you will see a decrease in SCA.

Cart Changes

Consumers can often have a change of heart at the last minute. It is important to be accommodating in this scenario, and provide them with the option to easily remove or add products to their cart. Place an “edit cart” or “revise items” button on the checkout page. The button should be both intuitive and easy to use.

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 17 Cart Saving

Unlike traditional retail stores, in what type of products they are in- ecommerce you have the ability to terested in. With this information, track what your users are leaving you can send follow up emails to behind. If your site can provide registered customers to remind the ability for users to save their them of their saved items. The CX cart for when they return, then company Monetate states that there is an increased probability “many customers use their shop- that they will complete their pur- ping cart as an idea collector for chase. When they return, notify the future”. According to Shopify, them that their items have been the easiest way to recover cus- set aside and what they selected tomers from SCA is through cart is right where they left it. This will saving and follow up emails. also allow you to keep track of

Key Takeaways | UX/UI Solutions

• Provide clear thumbnails of the products you sell

• Prevent both technical & UI errors

• Display a progress bar during checkout

• Have appropriately placed CTA buttons

• A/B test the placement of secuity verification icons

• Offer an choice of payment methods

• Allow for cart changes and cart saving

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 18 Conclusion

Conclusion

Thank you for downloading my ebook and taking the time to read it. This is just a starting point to gain some ideas regarding shopping cart abandonment and what you can to do address it.

There are many different solutions, and some not mentioned in this ebook. The solution you take and the path you choose to follow depends on your business goals and your products.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this ebook and can walk away with some new ideas that will help you conquer SCA and seize potential customers.

One last thing. Remember that unconverted customers are not a lost cause. You have the ability to aid them past the checkout. Sometimes you just need to know what they are thinking.

Take care for now!

Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment | by Sudar Ganes 19 The standard in user feedback

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