Are
you satisfied with the number of sales your website is generating? If
you are
like many online business people, the answer is probably no. You
probably think
that you need to generate more traffic, and convert more of your
website
visitors into customers.
No
doubt that is true, but the story does not stop there. After you have
converted
a visitor into a customer, you need to encourage the customer to stay
the
course until the sale has been closed. Unfortunately, many an online
business
is suffering from shopping cart abandonment. It has been estimated that
as many
as 50% of customers who click a "Buy Now" abandon the sales process
halfway through.
So,
if you could find a way to stop those customers bailing out, you would
be able
to increase sales even if your traffic and conversion rates remained
constant.
Here
are a few pointers to help you reduce cases of shopping cart
abandonment on
your website.
1.
Flag shipping costs. When shopping for goods on the Internet, many
people
abandon the transaction when they discover how much it will cost to
have the
goods shipped to them. If you can be upfront about your shipping and
handling
costs before people start to buy, you will lessen the shock people feel
at this
stage of the transaction.
2.
Keep the payment process as short as possible. The more time customers
have to
spend on the transaction, the more likely it is that they will abandon
it at
some stage.
3.
Keep to the same format. Make your sales pages and shopping cart pages
look
similar. Use the same background color, and same font. Your aim is to
keep the
customer feeling at ease.
4.
Explain everything. Tell your customers exactly what is going to happen
when
they click through from one page to another. Some Internet marketers
use live
chat software or audio files to do this. The shopper can either open a
chat
dialogue or click on a sound file and receive reassurance and
instructions on
how to proceed. If customers know what to expect, they are
less likely to
abandon the transaction.
5.
Use clear and simple language. Any time you give your customer
instructions,
make sure the language is clear, personal, plain and simple.
6.
Many online businesses use PayPal as their shopping cart. You can make
a virtue
of this by drawing on PayPal's brand recognition. Explain to your
customers
that they can purchase with PayPal. Some people believe that they
cannot
purchase goods if they are not already members of PayPal so you will
need to
explain that PayPal accepts credit card payments from anybody, even
people who
do not have PayPal accounts.
7.
Win back customers who cancel. No matter what you do, a certain
percentage of
customers will always cancel the transaction. However, you can respond
to this
by directing the customers to a cancellation page. Now you have a
second chance
to pitch to your customer. Make your customer a special offer and you
may win
him or her back.
