Ways to Prevent Loss of Your Profits at Shopping Cart Checkout

When you put a shopping cart on your website, your head gets filled with visions of profits flowing in with ease. What people generally do not think about is their customers getting so close to the finish line of a sale, then abandoning their items. Unfortunately, this is something business owners should be thinking about now more than ever. In fact, industry research shows that as many as 75 percent of online customers will abandon a shopping cart.

There are several reasons for consumers abandoning their shopping carts, but there is good news. A big percentage of the abandonment can be prevented by the decisions a business makes. Sometimes, you just need the help of experts who know about the complex nature of online shopping carts.

Ways to Prevent Cart Abandonment

One of the reasons for shopping cart abandonment, as stated on the blog The Daily Egg, is because too many steps have been included in the checkout process. Nobody wants to have to go through 10 different pages before finally finding out their sale has gone through, or worse, didn’t go through for some reason. It’s especially hard when people don’t know where they are in the process. That can be easily remedied by adding a progress indicator bar to your shopping cart.

There are several other reasons for shopping cart abandonment. Not listing shipping costs early in the buying process can be a reason for customers to rethink their decision later on. They want to know up front how much they will have to pay, and seeing additional charges tacked on at the end of a transaction can cause them to rethink their purchase.

Another reason is if your site does not have a link provided to the product so customers can go back and gather information that will help them make the final decision to complete a purchase. Not having an image to reference of the item they are about to purchase is also linked to abandonment. People need these features in place so they can feel confident about the purchase they are about to make. In fact, the simple inclusion of a picture inside the basket increases conversions by as much as 10 percent.

Other issues which can cause someone to leave their cart behind can come from a feeling of wariness that the company they are buying from is not reputable. Sometimes this comes from the fact that a business does not list their contact information where it can be easily seen and accessed, or maybe it’s because the exchange and return policy isn’t clear. Both of these are things that should to be provided toward the later steps of the online buying process. This is because no one wants to feel as if they are giving their information to a business that’s trying to hide something.

While you could go and try to customize your shopping cart to make sure you’re avoiding some of these costly mistakes, it would take a lot of time and effort to remedy all the potential problems. But there is good news, all of these issues can be avoided with the installment of a well-constructed shopping cart creator and a lot of companies like Shopify do offer comprehensive solutions to that.

Choosing the Right Shopping Cart Platform

Knowing many of the reasons as to why customers abandon a shopping cart is a good start toward profit generation. However, it’s important to note that creating a shopping cart based on those facts alone will not do everything to help minimize the percentage of cart abandonment you are seeking to prevent. You need to create a detailed product catalog and shopping cart tailored to the individual needs of your business. This means being able to select the shopping cart platform which will best match your products and the shopping habits of your customers. You need the help of an expert who can create a shopping cart platform which incorporates these aspects of your business and prevents many of the common reasons for abandonment.

Many of the people who have used experts to help them create their shopping carts have been known to outperform their business peers. In some cases, the use of a properly constructed shopping cart has been the difference between growing and shutting down a business. This is one of the most important reasons why business owners need to pay attention to their shopping carts and invest wisely in the company they choose to help them create one. A shopping cart is such an important part of an eCommerce business that it truly does pay off to invest in getting some help now. It is possible to find experts who provide this type of service at fair and reasonable rates. They could make sure those online customers don’t abandon their shopping carts next time they’re browsing your site.