The Top Five Culprits (And Solutions) For Shopping Cart Abandonment

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November 5, 2010
Guest Post By Ariel Finkelstein – Co-founder and CEO, Kampyle

As e-commerce has evolved, the market has gotten quite good at seeing what consumers are doing.  Learning WHY those prospects make certain decisions, though, is a tough problem to solve, and one that applies directly to the most persistent problem in e-commerce.  Visitors hang out on your site, view a number of pages, enter the shopping cart, and then disappear.  Why?  Below are five reasons they may be leaving (and some corresponding solutions):

1. Your visitors are not shopping; they’re conducting research. Your customers are smart consumers. They compare notes with each other and fully check market and shipping prices before making decisions. These visitors are not afraid of adding items to the shopping cart solely to compare prices with your competitors.

Solution: Customers’ decisions to purchase hinge on emotional attachment to your brand and market research, so ensure that your site has as much comparative information and reviews as possible. Make these resources available to customers before they reach the shopping cart.  This will increase the likelihood that they will remain on your site rather than leaving to conduct their research elsewhere, improving chances that their visits will end with purchases.

2.  You don’t have the product users want. Check your marketing efforts.  Did users find your promotions misleading or confusing?  Were they surprised to find what was on your site did not match what you advertised?  Are users unable to determine whether your product meets their needs?

Solution: Don’t force customers to go through the shopping cart process in order to get detailed information about a product.  Make accurate, specific information as accessible as possible and clearly communicate your offerings to potential customers.

3.  Your shopping cart has a squeaky wheel. Have you ever gotten five minutes into a shopping trip, then realized your cart has a squeaky wheel?  Does that loud, persistent, grating noise make you want to just walk away?  Similar problems can occur online.  Maybe your website’s shopping cart isn’t making an irritating noise, but it might be too slow or the process for using it might be too difficult to follow.

Solution: Optimize your shopping cart. Too often, retailers spend so much time focusing on the look and feel of the cart that they fail to optimize it across as many platforms as possible.  Make sure your process is up-to-date and give customers the means to alert you about “squeaky wheels.”

4.  Potential customers are getting spooked about registration requirements. Asking your clients to register prior to purchasing something on your website and then asking them to fill out the same contact information again to purchase your product feels time consuming and unnecessary.

Solution: Reduce the number of steps in your shopping process.  Make it as easy as possible for customers to reach the point where they click “purchase.”

5.  Your shipping fees are costing you sales. The final culprit for shopping cart abandonment has to do with shipping costs and availability.  If your fees are too high or your delivery zone too narrow, your potential sales can become cart abandonments.

Solution: Manage expectations about products and services and ask visitors for their feedback on your offerings.  When they engage you in conversation, you gain the chance to learn and adapt or share your plans to expand shipping locations or introduce a new pricing strategy.

The number-one solution to shopping cart problems is straightforward: listen to your customers.  Give them a method to communicate with you, act on their feedback and meet their needs to ensure more complete conversions and fewer abandonments.  By focusing on these areas you can help convert those shopping prospects into loyal customers.

Author bio:

Ariel Finkelstein – Co-founder and CEO

Ariel Finkelstein brings expertise in sales, marketing and business management to Kampyle.  His experience gained in those positions contributes to Kampyle’s vision of bringing feedback analytics to every business.  Prior to Kampyle, Finkelstein served as the sales and marketing manager at Innovative Compliance Inc, overseeing the sales, marketing and operations strategies in the company.  Finkelstein also formed part of Innovative Compliance Inc.’s management board.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in law (LLB) from Sha’ arei Mishpat College in Hod HaSharon, Israel.

About Kampyle:

Kampyle has pioneered the field of online feedback analytics, delivering websites, online retailers and companies a powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to collect, analyze, measure and manage online user feedback on services, products and customer experiences.  Founded in 2007, Kampyle has processed more than 12 million feedback forms in over 60 languages, and amassed more than 45,000 customers in 191 countries.