Abandoned carts are a natural part of the online selling business – so don’t stress when you see them happening. People often get distracted or weren’t serious buyers in the first place. Much like when you go window shopping at a brick & mortar store.
But there are some easy ways to help reduce the number of abandoned carts you get!
1. Exit intent popups
These can almost be a double edged sword. Shoppers these days are used to being given discounts to get them over the line. But if it gets them over the line – great!
These pop ups shows when the shopper is about to close the tab. A useful message to show could be that they get free shipping, offer a discount, or offer a freebie to get them on to your newsletter list.
2. Eliminate surprises
A lot of online stores tend to hide the information that their shoppers want to see, like the cost of shipping, how long shipping will take and what kind of payment options are accepted.
When you don’t make this kind of information glaringly obvious – shoppers are forced to go through the checkout process to find it out for themselves. Which leaves you with abandoned carts.
Here’s a list of info you should keep visible at all times on your website:
- Where you ship to
- How long it’ll take to reach them
- How much shipping will cost
- What your free shipping threshold is (if you have one)
- What payment methods you offer
3. Keep the cart visible
It’s such a pain when you add something to your cart but can’t find where the cart is in order to check out. Keep your cart obvious. If you can choose the colour of the dot in the cart to indicate there’s something in there – make it eye-catchingly bright!
4. Allow guests to checkout
Having to create an account when you’re ready to check out adds a lot of friction. A lot of people give up at this point because they just wanted to buy, they didn’t want to register. Luckily this is a simple fix, just allow guests to checkout in your Shopify settings.
5. Make the checkout process fast (dynamic)
Shopify has recently added the dynamic buy now button. This allows your shoppers to buy straight from the product page and skip the cart all together. It also changes based on what browser and device they’re using.
For example, if they were on their iPhone, they’d be shown an Apple Pay buy button. If they were on their PC using chrome to view your site, they’d be shown a Google Pay buy button.
6. Make it easy to contact you
At the end of the day, shoppers want to be reassured that they’re making the right choice when buying something online. If they have questions or feel unsure, they won’t go through with the purchase.
Make it easy to contact you and display your number and email in obvious places on your website. You should also have these on your contact page, along with with a contact form.
7. Save the cart contents
If your shoppers cart contents are getting cleared every time they leave your site, they’re going to have to rummage around your site and add everything back to their cart when they’re ready to buy.
Make it easy for them and save their cart contents! The Shopify abandoned cart emails will link your shopper back to their cart.
8. Offer various payment methods
Make it as easy as possible for your shoppers to part with their cash by offering a variety of payment methods. Especially as different target markets will prefer different types. For example, if your target market is younger, they may not have credit or debit cards yet – so a bank transfer option may suit them better.
Or if someone doesn’t have their card on them, they can login and use their paypal account.
9. Use scarcity
You can remind people that this product won’t be here forever on both the product page and abandoned cart follow up email. Inspire them to take action.
10. Offer free shipping
Shoppers would rather pay more for a product and get free shipping, than get the product cheaper and pay a few dollars for shipping.
So set a free shipping threshold they can aim for! This is also a handy way to bump up your average order value by getting your shoppers buy more in order to get free shipping.
Need help with reducing your abandoned carts? Call in the Shopify Experts!
Zyber can help decide what kind of opt-ins will be best for your website, product page or blog. They can also help with your overall marketing strategy.
Zyber are web design specialists based in Auckland, New Zealand. Since 2009 they’ve been helping thousands of kiwis find their place online by building websites that convert. As New Zealand’s #1 Shopify Experts, there isn’t much they can’t do!
