Summary
Reduce cart abandonment with check out optimisations
Simplifying the consumer journey
Accept a range of payment types
Reassure customers with social proof and security
Sharing reviews as social proof
Active and available customer service
Transparent pricing and delivery timelines
When it comes to reducing cart abandonments, there are many things you can do to improve your e-commerce strategy to optimise the customer checkout journey, and enhance their online shopping experience.
From adopting a mobile-first check out process to providing transparent pricing and delivery information, to accepting a variety of secure payment options, here are our easy check out tweaks that can help you to reduce cart abandonment and improve your conversions.
Reduce cart abandonment with check out optimisations
When it comes to reducing cart abandonments, there are some key optimisations you can make to your consumer journey and check out process, including:
Simplifying the consumer journey
Creating a clear path to purchase and simple check out process can help you to increase conversions and decrease abandoned carts.
Firstly, it’s important to make it easy for customers to add your product to their basket, with features like ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Add to cart’ on catalogue or search results pages of your e-commerce site.
Having clear CTAs (Call To Actions) on landing pages will sign post customers to key stages of the purchasing journey and move them through the purchasing funnel.
Reducing the amount of distraction on your website can help reduce customer drop off. While upselling products, or newsletter sign up pop-ups can lead to increased AOV (average order value) or CRM growth, it can detract from a streamlined path to purchase.
Having clear primary objectives and KPIs for your website can help you to understand what is most important, and guide your decision making when it comes to choosing whether to keep elements like this active at the potential expense of abandoned carts.
Mobile-first UX
With almost 70% of UK online orders being made on a mobile phone, it's vital that your website, and especially your check out process, are optimised for mobile.
Prioritise the user-experience by ensuring that your check out is optimised to a range of screen sizes, from desktop to tablet or mobile. Consider things like font size and legibility as well as colour and contrast, as this can not only improve the customer experience, but also improves your website accessibility and usability.
Reduce the amount of data-fields at each stage of the check out process and have clear prompts to move forward through the purchase journey. You may also want to enable autofill to make data entry quicker and more convenient for the customer.
Guest check out
Another contributing factor to customers abandoning their purchase is overly complicated check out processes with multiple stages and excessive data-collection stages.
Offering a simplified guest check out option will give customers the option to have a faster checkout experience, but it presents an opportunity to encourage full account creation.
While customers may begin their checkout journey with guest check out, you may be able to convert them into creating an account by demonstrating the benefits that account holders receive, such as exclusive discounts or free shipping.
Accept a range of payment types
Payment is usually the final stage of check out, and presents the last point where customers may drop off.
By accepting a range of payment options, you can appeal to a broad range of customers, providing them with various options to consider, catering to a range of customer personas with different shopping or spending habits.
From traditional credit or debit card payments, contemporary consumers also expect options for digital wallet payments, like Apple or Google Pay, or even Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) to be available to them.
Undertaking consumer research with prospective or existing customers can help you understand what payment methods are popular with your target consumer, and allows you to provide payment options that resonate with them, increasing your conversions.
Reassure customers with social proof and security
Increasing customers' trust in your brand and products, and in your ability to securely handle their data in the check out process can also help to reduce cart abandonment.
Displaying security badges
Alongside offering a range of payment methods, providing customers with a sense of safety and security when handing over payment details, increasing their confidence and encouraging them to complete their check out journey.
Displaying your security credentials, such as up-to-date security badges or SSL certificates, and having trusted payment provider logos at the point of check out will increase confidence in shoppers.
Reinforce this with positive and reassuring wording throughout the check out journey, such as ‘secure checkout’ or ‘check out securely’.
Sharing reviews as social proof
Increasingly, social proof is one of the best ways to promote trust in your products and reiterate your brand and product reputation.
Collecting and displaying customer reviews and ratings on product pages and other areas of your website, such landing pages or in the footer can help to reassure customers that they are making a recommended choice.
Integrating with a trusted reviews platform, such as TrustPilot will further reinforce consumer trust and may help to improve conversions, reducing the chance of cart abandonment.
Active and available customer service
Clearly displaying customer service contact information throughout the customer journey, including at the checkout stage, can help customers find information that may be pivotal in their decision to purchase, or not.
Having a live chat function, like SmartChat, allows you to provide 24/7 customer service, enabling you to answer any customer questions and enquiries whenever they occur.
Similarly, signposting to content on your website such as your returns policy, shipping details or FAQs may help customers find answers in a self-serve approach, again reducing the risk of them abandoning their basket.
Transparent pricing and delivery timelines
Unexpected additional costs, such as taxes or high delivery fees, or long delivery timelines can contribute to customers deciding not to continue with their purchase.
Offering free delivery on all orders, or orders over a certain value, and clearly communicating this on product pages and in banners on your site can help to reduce cart abandonment.
Clearly defining what each level of shipping costs, and when customers will receive their order, as early on in the purchase path as possible can also improve the customer experience and lead to more check out completions.
Recover abandoned carts with multi-channel marketing
Even if you implement all of these optimisations, sometimes potential customers may still abandon their basket. In this case, you can adopt a multi-channel marketing approach to encourage them to return and complete their purchase.
Retargeting ads
Advanced retargeting ads can be used to strategically target potential customers on a variety of other platforms and placements, such as Meta or Display advertising, to remind them of the products they’ve added to their basket but have not yet purchased.
As you are targeting people who are recent website visitors, you know they have high intent, meaning they are bottom-of-funnel customers. This means your ROAS (return on ad spend) is likely to be much higher than other upper funnel, awareness or prospective ads, meaning this is a really effective use of your marketing budget if conversions are your main goal.
Abandoned cart emails
Depending how far through the check out journey the potential customer has gone through, you may have captured first-party data that allows you to follow up with an abandoned cart email.
Consider A/B testing different subject lines to refine your messaging and understand what copy encourages customers to complete their check out.
Final thoughts
By reducing blockers in the shopping and checkout process, reinforcing trust and confidence as a brand and retargeting cart abandoners via paid advertising and email marketing campaigns, you can unlock more sales in an effective and impactful way.
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