Your online store is getting visitors and they’re clicking on your products – but they’re not committing to making a purchase. Why is this happening?
There could be a number of reasons as to why you’re losing leads at the final hurdle. Here are just some of the reasons as to why customers may be abandoning their shopping carts and not completing their orders.
The checkout process is too complicated
Ever gave up buying a product in a physical store because the queue was too long? The same can be applied to online stores. A lot of modern customers value convenience – they may have only limited time to do online shopping and don’t want to be creating accounts and completing multiple pages of forms just to get to the checkout.
Offering a quick checkout option for guests can reduce sales lost by customers who don’t have the time to create an account. You should try to keep the whole process to no more than three pages and may want to consider adding a progress indicator.
Estimated delivery time is too long
It’s possible that when it comes to delivery options, you may not offer a fast enough shipping option. Many modern online shoppers purchase goods and gifts within a week of needing them. If you can’t deliver their product for several weeks, they may give up on the purchase – especially if they’re buying a gift for someone’s birthday in a couple days.
Next day delivery may be too expensive for some companies, especially when shipping over long distances. However, it’s reasonable for customers to want a product delivered within a week. Find an affordable courier that can enable this to happen. You may want to compare various shipping options and their prices. For instance, how much does freight class shipping cost? Could you benefit more from intermodal shipping.
There are extra hidden costs
Be wary of adding extra costs like service charges or delivery fees onto the price at the end. Advertising a price and then throwing in additional costs at the checkout could make some customers feel that they are being deceived or that their budget is being stretched too far.
Consider including these costs in the initial price – or simply detail information about them upfront alongside the price. You could even give customers the option to deduct these prices when they get to the checkout to make it feel as if they’re saving money (such as allowing them to switch from slow to fast shipping for a cheaper cost).
Other websites have better prices
Some savvy shoppers may have several tabs open on different sites so that they can get the best price. They may put an item in the basket only to then see a better deal on another site and shop there.
This can only be avoided by offering competitive prices. If you can’t reduce prices, consider whether you can throw in additional extras at a discounted price to make up for this.
The website is too slow/keeps crashing
Slow loading times or frequent crashes are likely to test the patience of your customers. Those with a poor connection may even find it impossible to reach the checkout and may be forced to give up.
There are many causes of a slow and buggy website. Make sure to look into these if you think this issue could be to blame.
