Abandonment Issues

It certainly feels like a huge mistake has been made when you know that a shopping cart was created by your (potential) customer, and then abandoned.  So, where did the site or product go wrong?

Shopping cart abandonment is a large concern for tiny and massive online retailers alike.  Research has shown

• 60-70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and
• 99% of people will not finish a purchase on the first visit (SeeWhy reports), but
• 60-75% of those people do intend to complete the purchase
• most within the following 24 hours.

So, it seems that shopping cart abandonment is a normal part of the online shopping process.  Why?

Once a shopping cart has been abandoned, you have two main strategies at your disposal.


Re-targeting

The concept is fairly simple, when a visitor leaves your site to continue browsing, your ads will display on the other sites that they ultimately visit.  You would need to go with a service provider, and is priced similarly to other pay-per-click endeavors.  Your ads can be very dynamic, and include logos, top selling products, or the exact products the customer was browsing within your site. 

The payout?
According to comScore research (2010) retargeting brought an increase in visitor traffic of over 1,000% to a site above advertising without retargeting. 

The drawback?
This method is not suitable for sites visited fewer than 1,000 times per month.


Email Remarketing
This strategy delivers specific and relevant emails to engage customers and address customer needs, specifically their reasons for abandonment.  Many retailers employ this strategy, and it works for businesses large and small.

How do you make email remarketing work?
Fist, make it timely, 12-24 hours for initial contact is recommended.  In the email, include:

• appreciation and personalization ~thank the customer (by name) for visiting the site and for looking at your products.  Ask if there was a problem that you can help with.
• images ~not only of the abandoned items, but also recommended and/or additional products. 
• contact information ~logo, phone number, web links to the main site and their cart, FAQ page link.  Use unique contact sources (phone number and email address) to track email related inbound communications.  This will not only help measure conversions, but also identify those most likely to complete the transaction.
• customer loyalty ~information on guarantees and/or warranties, shipping policies, return information, and other perks available.
• call to action ~make it easy for them to complete the transaction

Some retailers offer discounts in these remarketing emails, but there is a drawback to doing so.  It can condition the customer to purposely abandon the cart, in order to receive a discount.  If you decide to offer a discount, do it sparingly, with a specific reason, and most experts agree that waiting is best.  Offering a discount in the second or third email, rather than the initial one, can have the most conversion impact.  The holiday season does give you a good excuse to try a discount for a limited time, without some of the conditioning risks.  Running and A/B test would be a good idea, to ensure that you are not giving revenue away unnecessarily.

Other email remarketing ideas that avoid discounting include:

• free shipping (with order thresholds that slightly exceed your average order total)
• live support, phone or chat (people still crave human interaction)
• free return shipping (combat the purchase-fear inaction)
• loyalty programs

The payout?
Your products are brought back into the minds of the consumer, when they are actually at the point of completing the purchase (which is at a far different time from their initial visit.)  Actual conversion rates vary, but research indicates up to 80% conversion for well timed and executed remarketing emails.

The drawback?
There are costs involved, varying quite a bit in the details.  Research different providers to ensure you get the right service, at the right price.


Mitigation
It would be a far simpler thing to just eliminate shopping cart abandonment in the first place.  The graph above shows that is unlikely, but there are a few things that you can optimize that may mitigate your efforts.

1. Simplify checkout ~Prevent abandonment by streamlining the process for user-friendliness.  Eliminate unnecessary or complex steps (like account creation.)  Ensure 100% error free shopping cart service, as one glitch can drive your customers straight onto the site of your competitors.
2. Embrace the cart game ~Add a "save for later" or "add to wishlist" type function.  This gives the researching customer time to complete the sale at their pace, without skewing your metrics.  Also, give your cart sufficient time before clearing to allow the customer to return and complete the sale without having to go through the shopping process again.
3. Shipping rate competition ~Adding shipping calculations before the cart can also avoid skewing metrics, and avoid spending on retargeting those customers who will probably not complete the sale, due to shipping prices.  That said, this is the time to negotiate for lower shipping costs, and to seriously consider your handling costs as well.  Noone likes hidden expenses, and the holiday season is over-run with shipping and handling discounts.  Don't lose sales by ignoring these most basic of customer concerns.
4. Security and trust ~People are more worried than ever about payment and information security.  Prominently display your security provisions at every point in the shopping cart experience.  Include confidentiality information, guarantees / warranties, return policies, reputation enhancers like reviews, professional affiliations and testimonials also help.

Have a happy, safe and profitable holiday season, one and all, finally free of abandonment issues.
Thank you,
Laura