Imagine this – a customer comes to your website, adds products to their cart, chooses their preferred online payment solution, maybe even fills out their delivery and/or billing address…and then, for some reason, leaves your website without a purchase.
That’s called shopping cart abandonment – an eCommerce term that refers to customers going through the sales funnel but not making the payment in the end. This is something you will have to deal with as a merchant, even if you accept cards, offer advanced payment solutions, or have the most streamlined shopping experience.
Despite the fact that people have gotten used to online shopping – the number of digital buyers worldwide reached 2.14 billion in 2021 – online sellers still see an average of 70% cart abandonment rate.
Is it bad? Obviously.
Can you do something about it? Absolutely.
Let’s look at some common reasons why people ditch their carts and what can be done to prevent it. (Spoiler alert: you need to offer transparent and effortless online payment solutions).
Hidden or higher-than-expected costs
Unexpected or higher-than-expected extra costs revealed at the checkout are the single most common reason why people ditch their carts. 49% of shoppers would abandon their carts because of extra fees, according to a survey by Baymard Institute.
The problem is – online store owners don’t always make it obvious enough that there will be extra costs, such as shipping fees or taxes, added on top of the product price. Therefore understandably, if you’re planning to buy something for €50 and only at the checkout realize there are additional fees, say €15, coming on top of that price, you’re starting to have second thoughts. It won’t matter if the business has implemented the perfect online payment solutions.
The solution? Increased transparency.
As an eCommerce business owner, you can make sure people are warned of – and prepared to pay – these additional fees. In other words, make it obvious on your website that extra charges apply. Alternatively, you include all these extra fees in your product price, while offering your clients free shipping and all taxes paid.
Compulsory account creation for checkout
Another common reason people abandon their carts is when they’re required to create an account to make a purchase.
Look – first-time buyers don’t know whether they’ll ever come back. They don’t know whether they’ll like your product and shopping experience. Right now, all they want is to make a fast and friction-free purchase in a store that takes payments online.
Bear in mind that nowadays, as much as 65% of all eCommerce traffic comes from mobile devices while people are on the go. These buyers rarely have the time or suitable conditions to engage in such a time-consuming activity as account creation. As a result, they leave their carts and never come back.
The solution? Remove the obstacles.
That not only means forgetting mandatory account creation but also removing all the unnecessary fields in your address form at the checkout. Do you really need to know the client’s last name or phone number? Is checkout really the place to require your clients to answer the question where they heard of your business from? Probably not.
Make sure your checkout process is as short and straightforward as possible. Ask nothing more than what’s necessary.
Missing payment options
It doesn’t matter if you have the latest mobile pay card reader in-store or have the sleekest card payment solution online. The truth is: if your online store doesn’t allow customers to pay with their preferred online payment solutions, chances are they won’t make the payment at all. Nearly 10% of online shoppers would abandon their shopping carts if the retailer didn’t offer enough payment methods.
There are different preferred payment methods in different regions across the globe. For example, while PayPal and VISA are widely used across Europe and the US, shoppers in China prefer Alipay, UnionPay, and WeChat Pay. Not that the Chinese don’t use PayPal and VISA, it’s just not their first choice, which can therefore lead to higher cart abandonment rates.
The solution? Offer a variety of alternative payment options.
The easiest way to do it is to partner up with a payments provider that supports the largest number of payment methods and has integrated payment systems. This would allow you to provide your buyers with a variety of payment options without the need to connect them one by one to your store.
Paynt is a physical and digital payment solution that would enable you to do just that. By providing an ever-growing range of online payment solutions, along with intelligent software, Paynt has helped its customers get ahead of the competition, while also cutting cart abandonment.
Want the same for your business? Start by contacting the Paynt team today!
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