This is what is called checkout abandonment and it is a problem that many online business owners across various industries have to deal with every day. It is frustrating to have customers so close to completing a transaction and making a sale, and while checkout abandonment is inevitable to some extent, it also doesn’t have to be as high as it can be right now.
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Here are seven proven tactics you can use to put an end to checkout abandonment, or at least keep it to an absolute minimum:
Why do customers abandon your checkout pages?
Learning how to reduce checkout abandonment as much as country email list possible first requires you to understand why your customers are likely to abandon your checkout pages in the first place.
The truth is, there is almost certainly no single reason you can pinpoint why customers specifically abandon your checkout page. There could also be abandonment reasons specific to your online business that don't apply to most other businesses.
But the most common culprits of checkout abandonment, generally speaking, are:
Preferred payment method not available
Offer as many payment options for your customers as you can. Recent statistics show that over 70% of customers rely exclusively on a credit or debit card for online purchases. That means that 30% of customers prefer another payment method, and those customers will be the ones who walk away if you only allow payments to be made via credit card. Offer as many payment options as possible, such as through PayPal, Venmo, or mobile payments.
Account creation
If customers find they have to jump through the hoops of creating an account with you to complete a purchase, they're more likely to leave. Allow customers to checkout and complete the purchase as guests (you can make account creation optional rather than mandatory).
Higher additional costs
Many customers will find a product or item on sale and add it to their cart, only to see that the cost is much higher than anticipated due to additional shipping costs, taxes, or fees. Keep additional costs to an absolute minimum.
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Slow shipping
High shipping costs are one reason why customers may abandon your checkout pages. But another reason, regardless of the costs incurred, is slow shipping times. The only way to solve this is to choose a convenient shipping service or pay the extra cost for expedited shipping yourself. Clearly state this to customers somewhere on the checkout page so they know they can expect a fast delivery time.
The payment process takes too long
To keep checkout times for customers as short as possible, ask them to fill out only the minimum information necessary before paying. If only a name, address, and financial information are required to complete a sale, then this is the only information you should ask the customer for.
Poor security
Make sure all your payment systems are PCI compliant , meaning all customer data is kept encrypted and only shared with members of your company when strictly necessary. Follow PCI compliant payment systems and make this clear to customers in small but easy-to-read print somewhere on the checkout page so they feel more secure buying from you. Cybercrime targeting online customers has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, which is why people are much more aware of who they buy from. If they don’t trust that they can buy from you safely, they’ll take their business elsewhere.
There are certainly more reasons than these why checkout abandonment occurs. But the culprits mentioned above are among the top reasons why customers choose to click on their carts at the last minute.
Proven tactics to reduce checkout abandonment
Now that we’ve covered some of the common reasons why cart abandonment occurs, let’s dive into some of the proven tactics you can use to keep cart abandonment to a minimum.
1 – Keep the checkout process as simple as possible
As a rule of thumb, a customer should follow a maximum of five steps to complete the checkout process on your site. If you have ever made online purchases on different websites, you should be very familiar with how tiring it can be to have to complete a long and arduous checkout process.
Go through your checkout process and be honest about how you feel about it. Did you feel it was easy and simple, or did you feel frustrated at all? And if there were moments during the checkout process that made you feel tired or frustrated, what were they? These are the elements of your checkout process you'll want to eliminate.
An example of a simple checkout process that truly fits the five-step rule of thumb would be:
Require customer name
Require an email address
Require a physical address (only if necessary to ship a physical item)
Require financial information (ensure PCI-DSS compliance)
2 – Do not order the creation of accounts
Don't require customers to create an account on your site in order to purchase from you. Make it an option if you want, but always have a guest checkout option available as well.
In the case of the guest checkout option, no additional information should be required for the customer as would be the case if they created an account.
