Tips to avoid abandoned shopping carts

Almost every online store has a shopping cart. This is the part of the online store where the charges are itemized including shipping charges and taxes. This is also the page where the user should enter their payment information (paypal, credit cards, etc) or provide a link for the payment page. This page means the seller is about to make a sale.

But shopping carts doesn’t necessarily mean a sale. In fact more than 75% of users abandon the website once they reach the shopping cart page. This phenomenon is referred to as “shopping cart abandonment” which is a lost sale for online business.

Even though you can’t completely eradicate abandonment of shopping carts, here are some things you can do to minimize the lost sale:

Minimize checkout process – instead of letting creating a separate pages for billing and shipping address, payment information and confirmation page, minimize frustration by using a two-payment stage process.
Add photos and links – sometimes a buyer is having second thoughts of the product purchased. Add photos and link to the original information (opens in new window) so that the buyer could revisit the product.
Offer availability – prevent buyer frustration by providing real time inventory on your website. This will allow buyers to know before hand if the product is available.
Provide contact information – before they reach the confirmation of payment, provide contact information including the physical address to let them know that you can answer their concerns on the phone or through email. By providing contact information, you may be able to save the sale over the phone.