10 Strategies For Cart Abandonment & Customer Recovery To Improve Conversions 

When was the last time you reviewed your abandoned cart reports? If you did, have you tried to recover your lost sales? 

Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest headaches of the eCommerce site owners and individual brands. And it’s not only about losing sales, it is also about wasting a huge chunk of your marketing budget to attract and acquire new customers and keep your store working. 

However, capturing new customers is not as easy as it sounds. Brands can’t always go out and make customers instantly whenever they feel like – this is where preventing abandoned carts and recovering existing customers becomes very important. 

Let’s calculate your shopping cart abandonment rate! 

So, it is basically the percentage of customers who have added the products to their digital carts but left the site without purchasing anything. 

To determine the cart abandonment rate, divide the total number of online carts you’ve created by the number of finished purchases. Then, simply deduct the results from 1 and multiply the end results by 100! 

For example: suppose you’ve made 50 successful sales out of a total of 150 digital carts, then by using the above formula, your cart abandonment rate will be 70%.

1 – (50 ÷150) * 100 = 70%

You’ll be surprised to know that the cart abandonment rate across all eCommerce niches stands at a whopping 69%. This means 7 out of every 10 customers leave the site without making any purchase. And, these lost sales make around $4 trillion increasingly.

If this Cart abandonment scenario looks relatable to you and if you want to recover a good portion of those precious lost sales, we’ve got you covered!

Here are the 10 strategies to prevent cart abandonment and regain the lost customers to improve conversions.

1. Offer Free Shipping

Believe it or not, shipping cost is one of the biggest reasons behind cart abandonment.

Customers become furious when they visit the checkout page only to find out that the shipping cost is very high, especially if it includes several hidden charges. This makes them feel like being fooled and they lose their trust and interest in the company. Result? Abandoned shopping cart!

The best way to prevent this from happening is to offer free shipping to your customers. More importantly, disclose it at the beginning of their shopping journey. In this way, they’ll be encouraged to make a purchase.

You can even experiment with your free shipping offer to see how it works for your company. Some great ideas are :

• Free shipping on selected products
• Free shipping worldwide/nationwide
• Free shipping on orders above
• Free shipping for first time or returning customers
• Free shipping for a limited time

2. Keep Your Checkout Process Simplified

A lengthy and complicated checkout process can also be a major reason behind shopping cart abandonment.

When customers don’t understand the checkout process or they’re required to provide a lot of details, they find it daunting and hence leave the site without purchasing anything. The deal is, they don’t want to spend hours on an online purchase.

So, how can you keep the checkout process short, simple and straightforward? Here is how :

• Include crystal clear calls to action and keep guiding the shoppers on what step they need to perform next.
• Explain the importance of filling each field in the checkout form.
• Keep the checkout form short and simple (avoid asking for unnecessary details).
• Include a back button to the store.
• Include an edit button for the product in the cart.

Implementing this approach will allow you to keep the checkout flowing smoothly. Further, it will offer added convenience for the customers as they can explore the site and edit their cart throughout the process.

3. Offer Easy And Free Returns

A poor return policy can also result in shopping cart abandonment. A return policy that makes returning the unwanted items complex and expensive can prevent shoppers from purchasing your products.

On the contrary, if customers are assured that they can return the product for free and after a good period of time, they get rid of all the negative consequences associated with your product and hence, purchase it without having second thoughts. Studies suggest that 2 out of 3 customers would buy a product if the returns were easy and free.

Here is an example of a great return policy :

• 30 days to return a product
• Free returns /exchange
• A well-narrated return policy information on the site to keep everything transparent

4. Allow Guest Purchasing

A large number of shoppers abandon their carts because they are required to create an account and register with the site in order to make a purchase. Creating an account is slow and time-consuming, it hinders the checkout process to a great extent. Forcing the shoppers to create accounts and get registered in order to purchase is like asking them to leave the site voluntarily.

According to a survey, the brands that have eliminated the need for account creation were able to increase their conversion rates by a whopping 40%.

But sometimes, creating an account can be part of your marketing requirements and hence it may be crucial. In such cases, there are a few great alternatives to consider. For example: keep the registration optional, but keep reminding the shoppers of the benefits of registration such as extra discounts, private sales etc.

This approach will keep your customers satisfied while also encouraging them to make a purchase.

5. Keep The Distractions Minimum In Your Purchase Funnel

Distractions are the elements that divert the attention of shoppers from performing the action expected from them. Some examples of distractions include unnecessary product offers, new product banners, promotional offers and even the loud and unclear interface that tends to confuse the shoppers.

The time and attention they spend while analysing these visual elements waste their energy and they divert from the path of making the final purchase. In some cases, distractions can even cause them to leave the site and never come back.

So, how to deal with it? Simple, avoid overloading your checkout pages; keep the message clear and don’t let your customers waste their energy on analysing anything other than their purchase decision. Some brands even limit the navigation features to prevent their customers from straggling on the site.

6. Add Effective Calls To Action On Checkout Pages

This is perhaps the biggest mistake made by a majority of struggling e-commerce sites. The logic behind not adding clear CTAs is a mindset stating that – “if a customer has already added a product to their cart, then they don’t need any reminder to actually buy it” – this is nothing but a huge MISTAKE!

The truth is, checkout pages require much stronger and clearer calls to action in order to bring the customers into confidence so that they complete their purchase.

While it’s crucial to add strong CTAs on the checkout pages, it is equally important to keep them friendly and also similar with the other marketing materials on your site. This is because, if you change the tone of CTA at checkout pages, it will catch the attention of your customers and act as a distraction – which obviously you don’t want!

7. Offer Multiple Payment Options

Many times the lack of enough payment options is the sole reason behind cart abandonment. This mostly happens when you’ve customers in multiple countries and only limited payment options available. So, the best idea is to analyse the origins of your prospective visitors and learn about the common payment methods of those countries.

If this seems challenging, then consider having global payment methods such as PayPal. The biggest advantage of including PayPal is that it encourages the customers who are skeptical about giving their credit card details to a less known site.

Moreover, make sure to display the list of your payment options proudly to give prospective customers the peace of mind they seek.

8. Optimise Your Site Speed And Performance

A slow and buggy eCommerce site is the biggest turn off to the customers. It causes your prospective buyers to lose patience and leave the site after getting frustrated. So, the best thing to do is to provide your visitors with a better user experience. For this, work on improving your page load speeds and other performance related matrices.

Having a speedy checkout process will keep your customers engaged and satisfied. The speedy performance of your site will also encourage your customers to buy more in future.

9. Send An Immediate Email After A Shopper Abandons Their Cart

When a customer abandons their digital cart, you have a couple of hours to recover them. By using a solid email marketing or retargeting strategy, send them a well-crafted email as soon as they leave the site without completing the purchase.

Studies have found that these few hours are the golden hours, this is the best time to reel back your lost customers.

10. Make Use Of Remarketing Strategies

Finally, our most effective advice is to use remarketing strategies to regain the lost sales.

Remarketing campaigns are very effective in dealing with shopping cart abandonment. At first, they might look annoying from a customer’s point of view, but they help the brands to bring back their lost customers.

Know that, if you’re not remarketing to the shoppers who have already added your product to their carts, you’re restricting yourself from making a conversion by not giving it a shot. Hence, take full advantage of the multiple-screen environment and deploy effective remarketing strategies.

Remarketing with Facebook and Google Ads is by far the most lucrative idea you can consider.

While the other tips will help in preventing and reducing the cart abandonment phenomenon, remarketing will allow you to actually win back the potential customers that you may lose otherwise.

Conclusion

Recovering and retaining a large chunk of lost sales in the abandoned shopping carts can give a much-needed boost to your revenue generation. While it may sound like a lot of hard work, it is extremely important to stay ahead in the eCommerce game.

At RVS Media, we develop and deploy the best cart abandonment strategies that will help you keep your customers engaged and result in higher conversions as well as profits. So, if you need any kind of assistance, drop a line or connect us on call today!