How to dramatically reduce shopping cart abandonment 

You have a great online shop, fantastic products, and a brilliant marketing strategy. Many customers find their way to your shop, browse through its various categories, add items to their cart ...and abandon their purchase. That might be a sign for at least one conversion killer lurking in your checkout procedure. It's about time you track them down and increase your sales figures!

Killer N°1: Account creation

It’s essential that customers can finalize their purchase without having to create an account. Many customers aim to keep their online accounts to a minimum and bail on their purchase when they have to open an account.

Killer N°2: Confusing checkout

Studies show that online transactions tend to be completed if checkout is limited to one page. That gives customers an indication as to how much they have left to complete. However, if you have to or would like to spread the checkout procedure over several pages, you really need to convey that information visually so customers can see how much progress they have made and what remains to be done. In both cases, add more convenience for the customer by highlighting mandatory fields, or use geo-tags to populate address fields.

Killer N°3: Dead end on mobile devices

Mobile devices are increasingly being used to access online shops, bringing their own set of challenges with them. That is because customers are more impatient on mobile devices. Thus, your site should be mobile responsive and suitable for touchscreens, and you should avoid asking for too much information. The less details a customer has to type on their mobile device, the better! For mobile devices are often used with the aim of making impulse buys quickly on the go: Who doesn't snatch a few minutes to surf when waiting at the bus stop? As soon as the bus rolls up, the customer's phone disappears into their pocket along with the intention to buy something.

Those who want to stand out from the crowd in that respect should optimize their online shop to allow for access even when there is little or no internet connection, which works with Sycor.OfflineAccelerator, for example.

Buttons should be about the size of a finger and located apart from each other so that customers don't accidentally click the wrong one. That is frustrating and can make customers abandon their cart. Services such as Amazon Payments make mobile shopping ridiculously easy as they take information already available on the customer's existing Amazon account and help boost conversion.

Killer N°4: Hidden costs

Provide customers with real prices including any additional costs. It's not advised to reduce prices artificially and wait until the checkout to display delivery costs, tax and other supplemental charges. That undermines your credibility and disappoints your customers - giving them the perfect opportunity to abandon their cart. Display all costs prior to checkout in a clear and understandable manner.

Killer N°5: Risks to creditability

During checkout, your customers need to enter sensitive information. Customers obviously want to do this in a secure environment. One of the best ways of killing a conversion is to have a checkout page with a URL different from the online shop's URL. You should avoid that at all costs! Choose well-known payment providers that show your respectability and display their logos during checkout. Another way of increasing customers’ trust in your company is to provide a brief overview of the return procedure.