Question

In about 200 words, explain why shopping cart abandonment could be a problem for an online retailer and describe at least two measures that can be taken to reduce its occurrence

Answer 1

Shopping cart abandonment is a problem for online retailers because it leads to customers not purchasing the items and potentially lost sales. If online retailers can capture those sales instead of losing them, it would lead to much larger profit margins. Shoppers often leave a website without paying, because of unexpected shipping costs, finding better prices elsewhere, or the buying process takes too long.

How to prevent it:

1. Establish trusted transactional forms

One thing that can discourage a customer from completing their checkout is when they see forms that are either too long or do not look professional. When customers are completing a checkout form with their personal information and financial details, they feel less hesitant when they see the logos of trust signals such as “Verified by Visa”, “Norton Secured” and other logos of safety and security standards. Data available via Shopify shows that customer abandoned their shopping carts due to unfamiliar or missing trust logos 75% of the time!

2. Show Progress Update during Checkout

Customers sometimes get irritated during the checkout process when they aren’t sure how long it is going to take. A great way of keeping customers reassured that the process is going to be quick is to have graphics like a progress indicator. This can show the different stages involved in the checkout process. This lets customers know that they are almost done which gets them motivated to complete the checkout process. Having a clear indicator of checkout status has been shown to help increase order completion.