Shopping Cart Conversion Killers and How to Fix Them

E-commerce sales are on the rise, yet so many shopping carts are being abandoned before customers complete their purchases. What's going on?

You're spending tons of hours working on having a great e-commerce store for your business, thinking it will be enough to ensure good conversion rates. The thing is, it's a good start, but it's not enough. 60% of buyers are abandoning their shopping carts before making a purchase and won't come back to complete it without some incentive to do so.

While most e-commerce brands focus their efforts on winning these potential customers back, you really want to focus on making it so they don't want to leave in the first place. In our article, we go over some potential conversion killers and how to fix them. By preventing these shopping cart conversion killers, not only will your conversion rates increase but so will your overall sales.

Non-Emphasized Shopping Cart

The Problem

Interested shoppers are browsing your store, picking items they like, and adding them to their cart before forgetting about them after 20 minutes. This problem usually arises when you have a shopping cart button that isn't emphasized enough and isn't bringing in much attention.

The Solution

It should always be obvious to the customer when they have put something in their cart. You can do this by creating a dynamic shopping cart that shows a pop-up whenever an item is added or creating a small animation that displays the cart's contents along with "Checkout" or "Continue Shopping" call to action buttons. If you don't want something as involved as that, you can always make simple changes to make the cart count more noticeable, such as changing the color.

Long Signup Forms

The Problem

One of the most irritating things for customers trying to make a purchase is having to fill out a bunch of fields of information before they can complete their purchase. Many customers are looking for a quick and easy process that just allows them to grab what they want and go.

The Solution

Make your signup forms short and straightforward. You'll want to make sure your forms include all the relevant dropdowns, buttons, labels, and clearly indicate which information is optional.

Not Mobile-Friendly

The Problem

Almost a quarter of all e-commerce purchases are made on mobile devices. If your website isn't optimized for mobile users, you will be losing out on a bunch of potential customers.

The Solution

You'll want to make sure that your website is responsive, and that content and images are optimized for mobile devices. You may also want to consider allowing customers to save the products they've added to their cart on their mobile device so they can complete the order on their PC if they choose to (and vice versa).

Mandatory Account Creation

The Problem

Did you know that 25% of consumers will abandon their shopping carts when forced to make an account? A lot of people like having the option to create an account to keep track of their purchases and get rewards, but some people just want a quick purchase that doesn't require much time, effort, or involvement.

The Solution

Make creating an account optional for your customers. Allow customers to purchase their items as a guest on your website. If you use Shopify, you can easily make this change by:

1. Go into Settings > Checkout > Customer Accounts.
2. Click the box that says Accounts are Optional.
3. All done! Now you've removed a potential blockade for interested customers.

If you'd like, you can always invite customers to create an account later using the email they provided during checkout. Make sure you ask for their email as soon as possible in the checkout process, so you can follow up if they abandon their cart.

Slow and Complicated Checkout Process

The Problem

Customers are easily driven away from long and complicated checkout processes. In fact, over 25% of customers will cancel their purchases when they get frustrated with the checkout process. Even a one second page delay can be detrimental to your sales, and by refreshing the shopping cart to add shipping fees, coupon codes, and item counts will make it even more likely that the customer will abandon their order.

The Solution

Have a developer build a dynamic shopping cart for you and integrate it with your store. By allowing certain elements to be calculated dynamically without having to refresh the entire page, it will dramatically cut down on the customer friction.

Shipping Costs

The Problem

While discounts can be a good incentive for people to make purchases, using them in excess can actually devalue your brand and hurt your revenue in the long run. There are great alternatives to slashing your prices though, one of them being free shipping.

Customers hate paying for shipping costs. In fact, 61% of customers will cancel their order if free shipping isn't offered.

No one likes to add items to their cart and proceed to fill out all the forms only to find a shipping fee suddenly added to the order. Even if the fee is small, it's still more than the customer thought they were committing to and can negatively affect the buying experience.

The Solution

Here are a few ways you can handle shipping costs and make the checkout process a lot more pleasant for your customers:

1. Have a fixed shipping cost every order, no matter where the item is being shipped to.
2. Make shipping free for orders over a certain amount.
3. Make shipping free for everyone (at least nationwide).

By not having Calculate Shipping buttons, you won't have disgruntled buyers. Even small additional charges can affect your chances of a successful sale, but if you do have to charge for shipping, the best way to do it is being upfront and transparent about it.

A customer who really wants an item and has their heart set on it might put up with an unexpected shipping fee once, but they're not likely to buy from you again. So, be very straightforward about your shipping fees or your customers might think they are being taken advantage of.

Unknown Delivery Expectations

The Problem

Most customers are typically prepared to wait one week to get their online order, and 24% of customers are willing to wait 8 days or more. However, 21% of consumers will abandon their shopping carts if they aren't given an estimated delivery date.

The Solution

Customers expect to have some information on how long it will take for their order to be delivered, even if it isn't a time-sensitive purchase. By including expected delivery dates and time frames, you'll end up with more happy customers and more revenue.

Takeaway

Out of everything in your e-commerce store, the checkout process is probably the hardest element to optimize for max revenue. However, if you focus on getting rid of these conversion killers, you'll see a much more significant rise in revenue than if you made small changes to product headlines and buttons.