Improving Your Shopping Cart Conversions

For an E-Commerce business, your online shopping cart is one of the most important features of your website. Unfortunately, the average rate of cart abandonment has now grown close to 70%. There are many explanations for why shoppers abandon their shopping carts before making a purchase. A simple explanation is – E-commerce shoppers are smart. When they are looking to purchase a product or service they will browse multiple sites, compare products, pricing and shipping costs to that of your competitors. As an online business you must find ways to encourage customers to complete their online purchases on your site.

The following suggestions are a few steps to improve your shopping cart conversions and ultimately decrease cart abandonment.

1. Be Consistent in Design
Your shopping cart is one of the first places you can lose a potential customer. If your shopping cart does not match the rest of your website, it is more likely that a potential customer will become confused or feel uncomfortable making a purchase. Shoppers need to trust who they are giving their sensitive information to and consistency is key. Make sure your shopping cart matches your website for a cleaner, trustworthy transition.

2. Stress Security and Privacy
It is essential for an E-commerce business to protect their site, and more importantly, their customers sensitive information. Security and privacy are two of the most important features of a shopping cart. They are also the two areas most online shoppers are concerned with. Show the security lock in the browser and keep your SSL certificates up to date to make your customers feel comfortable and safe while making their purchase.

3. Keep it Simple
Don’t confuse your shoppers by using specific, industry-related jargon that they may not understand. Use simple, easy-to-understand words that provide a clear path for your shoppers to follow through your shopping cart to finalizing their order.

4. Be Clear About Prices, Tax and Shipping
Shoppers do not like surprises when they are finalizing a payment. Shipping can also make or break it for a conversion. No one likes the surprise of hidden charges. Make sure you are displaying any additional costs as early in the ordering process as possible.

5. Offer Multiple Payment Options
Shoppers like to have options and control over which payment they use. If you limit them to one option that they are forced to use, it can reduce your chance of selling and increase your cart abandonment rate.

6. Offer Discounts or Incentives
Discount schemes help create urgency, increase awareness and drive purchases. Things such as quantity discounts, specialty item discount, buy one get one free, etc. are considered discount schemes. By using discount schemes, you can encourage your customers to keep coming back to you, but also at the same time encourage them to spend more. Discount schemes can also increase your customer retention, customer frequency, customer spending, customer referrals and increase the success of your marketing strategies.

7. Check the number of steps that are required to actually make a purchase on your site
Shoppers like to be aware of where they are in their ordering process. Clearly listing each next step they have to take will make their checkout process simple and stress-free. Your shoppers should not be questioning where to go next when making a purchase.

8. Include a confirmation page & an email notification
Even though your customer has completed their order, shoppers can become confused about whether their order actually went through or not. Once they have completed their order, the next step should be to send your customers to a confirmation page thanking them for their order, list their order or confirmation number and list any additional steps to expect next. You should also email the customer the same information they received on the confirmation page. An email is something they can save and refer back to as needed.

Overall, offer your customers as much convenience as possible during checkout. Shopper satisfaction and engagement can lead to positive reviews, more purchases and new customers. The suggestions we have provided you with are just a few simple steps to begin with when improving your shopping cart conversions. BMT Micro handles all of the steps mentioned for our vendors through our vendors area and our robust shopping cart system. All BMT Micro servers are fully secured and host all shopping carts using the highest encryption standards available. If you have any questions or if you are interested in learning more about BMT Micro’s offerings please contact our vendor services at vendors@bmtmicro.com.