If you run an online business, you know that one of the most important steps in the process of selling goods is having customers check out their shopping carts. After all, this is how you sell your goods and make money. However, many times, shoppers will just abandon their shopping carts, leaving you out of luck.
As a good businessperson, you recognize that losing profits like that is a problem and that you should change things to reduce this issue. Many times, customers have interesting, important reasons why they left their shopping carts — and there are clear ways you can change your system to have customers check out more and generate more revenue. So here are common reasons why consumers abandon their shopping carts and some ways that you can rescue them.
Why don’t customers check out?
Often, customers will leave their shopping carts because they are unhappy. However, there are many different reasons for this. For example:
- Customers are unhappy with their experience on your site. If your website takes a long time to load, is littered with confusing advertisements, or is just unappealing, customers may leave to find a different online vendor. If losing customers is a major problem for you, this is one of the first things to check.
- The checkout process is too complicated. If your online checkout process involves putting in lots of digits or answering many different questions, customers may leave to find a more streamlined system.
- The checkout process seems unsafe. Similar to issues of complication, if a customer does not feel that their personal information like their credit card number is not going to be adequately protected, then they will take their business elsewhere.
- You don’t accept enough payment options. There are very good business reasons to only take certain credit cards or other payment methods, but not all consumers have access to all of these. Therefore, some might try to find other vendors who will take the payment options they have available to them.
- Your delivery options seem weak. Shipping is a hassle for most people — it costs too much or it takes too long. Not every online business has enough cash flow to offer free two-day shipping, but with the rise of Amazon, consumers are beginning to expect it more and more. This leaves an online business owner in a predicament — how much can you offer without hurting your bottom line?
How to rescue your customers’ shopping carts
Each of the issues we just discussed, while important, has a relatively easy solution, which can help you maximize your online business’s sales.
- Keeping your website up to date. If you keep your website regularly updated with the most recent features and styles, you can keep your customers happier with their experiences. And if you struggle with a slow loading page, the easy fix is to look into your website hosting and fix the issue.
- Addressing your payment options. Often, increasing the number of payment methods you take will lead to more sales over time, putting off any increases in payment processing costs. And if your customers seem dissatisfied by your security offerings, increase them or more clearly show them how exactly your are protecting their information.
- Improving delivery options. This is the most difficult issue to solve, simply because it costs the most money. But if you can afford to speed up shipping or reduce prices, that can generate more sales. But you could also add additionally shipping options, where customers get their goods faster for a higher price, helping to alleviate and subliminal concerns.
There are many reasons why customers leave their online shopping carts, and many different ways to help improve your customer throughput. If you have any further questions, simply contact us here.
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