Stop Losing Revenue: Learn How to Combat Abandoned Carts in E-Commerce!

Did you know that the US and UK alone are losing a whopping $738 billion in e-commerce revenue every year due to abandoned carts? Crazy, right?

And the average rate of abandoned carts is almost 70%.

There are a bunch of reasons why this happens, and some myths to debunk.

But one thing is for sure, if your checkout process isn't up to snuff, it could be holding you back from growing your business.

Two essential things to keep in mind before we discuss tactics to reduce abandoned carts are:

High abandoned cart rates do not necessarily mean there is an issue with your cart or checkout process. Generally, more people buy lower-priced items than high-priced items, so it's not fair to compare to the industry average.

Customers often make purchases subconsciously, driven by "purchase intent momentum." If your landing page and product description provide plenty of information, visitors are more likely to complete the purchase. Those who aren't interested won't add items to their cart.

Reasons for Abandoning Cart During Checkout

#1 IS UNEXPECTED FEES BEING TOO HIGH (SHIPING, TAXES, FEES, ETC.)

One of the primary reasons for high cart abandonment rates is unexpected fees, such as high shipping costs or taxes. Unfortunately, there may not be much you can do if your business requires expensive shipping, especially for international or heavy products. However, you can test the effectiveness of your free shipping threshold, which is the minimum purchase amount required to receive free shipping. You can use a tool like http://intelligems.io (for those using Shopify) to test different thresholds and find the sweet spot that encourages customers to complete their purchases.

#2 IS CREATING AN ACCOUNT

Another reason for high cart abandonment rates is requiring customers to create an account before making a purchase. Most e-commerce stores don't require this, and if you do, it's best to stop. There's usually not much advantage to having a customer account that you can't get from an email address or phone number unless you run a subscription-based business. Surprisingly, this is a common issue leading to abandoned carts.

#3 IS SLOW DELIVERY

Another reason for high cart abandonment rates is slow delivery. To address this, it's important to manage customer expectations. In today's world, where Amazon Prime offers lightning-fast delivery, waiting for 5 business days for a package can feel slow. One way to combat this is by offering express shipping, which usually takes 3-5 days. By being transparent about shipping times and offering faster options, customers won't be surprised or disappointed with slow delivery.

One way to reduce cart abandonment due to slow delivery is by using more appealing names for shipping options. For instance, customers may prefer choosing "Express Delivery" over "Standard Shipping," even if they both take the same 3-5 days to arrive. By using more attractive names for your shipping options, you may be able to decrease the number of abandoned carts.

#4 TO #10

Many reasons for abandoned carts come down to two things: customers not trusting the website or finding it difficult to use. These are separate issues that can be solved by simply running a test transaction on mobile and buying your own product. Put yourself in your customer's shoes and think about what can make it easier for them to trust and use your website. Remember that a lot of conversion rate optimization (CRO) can be as simple as experiencing your website first-hand.

To improve trust, you need to use social proof. Social proof can come from media outlets, famous influencers, testimonials (video/photo/text), and ratings/reviews. You need to determine which one works best for your checkout.

Statistics Source: Baymard Institute, Split Testing

Call to Action – A Must Have for Every Page of Your Website

On-page content is not something that can be executed formulaically; there isn’t any defined outline for webmasters to plan their on-page material.  All websites need to be different based on the nature, product, services & location of businesses. With that said, there are few elements that all websites have in common. One of them is compelling ‘call to action’ on every single page of the website.

Websites that have ‘Call to Action’ on particular pages only are missing major opportunity.

What is a Call-to-Action?

It is very unlikely that a child will take the trash out unless he is asked, and in the same way, visitors are less likely to do what you want them to do unless you push them to do.

Call-to-Action also knows as CTA is text, button, banner, or some other type of graphic on website that prompts a user to click and execute the action you want them to do.

Following are some examples of Call-to-Action:

1)

2)

3)

 A good Call-to-Action has several characteristics. Some are:

• Color contrast: It should stand out from surrounding elements of website.

• Give a few details : Briefly give information that fits in button place and looks good.

• Don't make it scary : Avoid such terms that people seem to shy away from.

• Keep distractions to a minimum : Adding a lot of stuff; ends up loosing the effectiveness.

• Use white space : Blank or empty space surrounding Call-to-Action element on your page will make it stand out.

• Put it at the top of the page: If feasible, put Call-to-Action element "above the fold".

• Give more than just one option: What if visitor is not ready to 'Buy Now', give him a chance to 'Learn More'

• Give the button a "hover" feature : An attractive way to let users know that it is a button they can click on.

Why Every Page?

The more consistent you are with the call to action, the more likely it is that the message will sink in and users will do what you’re asking them to do—simple as that. 

There is no guarantee that visitor will not land on a page which hasn’t Call-to-Action element, someone might Google or Facebook their way to any random page or blog entry of your website – so don’t you want to have that strong call to action there to greet them?

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Step-by-Step Guide to Add Google Authorship Markup in WordPress Blog

Google has offered a new feature that allows publishers to add “rich snippet” meta-data to their web material. This is a highly effective as this can help in developing brands more effectively — Google will show author information in search results if metadata has been properly labeled via Authorship Markup.

The main benefit of adding Authorship Markup is that as you publish more content with your name, your picture or logo keeps popping in Google search results. This is one of the ways you can display your personal brand in front of people, and it is not difficult to implement in WordPress. 

Getting Started

There are simple baby steps so there is no need to worry.  It doesn't require getting hands dirty with coding. 

Step 1: Google Plus Page

You need a Google Plus page for this work. If you haven't then Signup for a G+ Page. 

Step 2: Contributor 

It is time to officially inform Google that you are contributor (Author) for a site. Update "Contributor to" to field on your profile. 

Go to your Profile page

Select About Page

Edit Link Section

Add URL of website where you are going to contribute as Author 

Step 3: WordPress User Profile

Log in to your WordPress website. Go to 'Users'. Edit your User profile. Add Google Plus Profile URL in its respective field.

You are done!

Testing Tool

To test, go to Structured Data Testing Tool

If author image appears in preview of testing tool, it means authorship markup is added successfully. It will appear as in Google search result after the page is indexed.

A Look at the Search Landscape

After several Panda & Penguin updates, search engine marketers are required to work harder to maintain their visibility in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Now they need to leave the traditional tactics; instead they are required to be more effective in organic and as well as paid marketing by knowing the search trends in their target markets. Below is an abstract from the upcoming 2013 Digital Marketer Report:

Five Websites (Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon) taken 20 % of all the searches in 4^th Quarter of 2012.

While top 500 websites taken nearly 50 % of the all search activity. Top 1,000 websites captured nearly 75 %. This indicates a big challenge for marketers to get access to potential customers. 

Marketers involve in paid marketing are also not at ease as top 10 websites captures about 16% of paid clicks. While top 500 occupies 56% of total paid search activity.  

Knowing the targeted customers can help to concentrate on your search engine marketing strategies effectively.