Stop Shopping Cart Abandonment Now - Improving ease of shopping cart use
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Many e-commerce site shopping carts are not very easy to use. Completing a buying transaction is often a slow, complicated, and entirely illogical process. Only the most determined customers stay with the process to the very end. Unfortunately, the determined ones are in the minority. Those potential buyers who got lost, or simply gave up, represent revenue that just clicked away to someone else’s site.
Making some easy and low cost improvements to the buying experience in general, and the shopping cart in particular, will pay off handsomely with increased business income.
One of the most obvious shopping cart improvements is to let the customers know, every step of the way, how far along they are in the buying process. Include a progress indicator to prominently display how far along the customer has advanced in the checkout process.
Each step of the way to completion should be clearly numbered. For example, if a customer understands they have reached step three in a five step process, she will be less likely to click away from the purchase. The problem of time concerns and of process length uncertainty are solved, as the buyer knows that only two more steps are required. If a customer knows where they are at all times, the probability of completion improves.
It’s important for the user to know when and where to click and advance to the next step in the process. Be sure to include a “Next Step” button, or a “Continue With Checkout” button on each page, where they can easily be seen. Be very careful to widely separate the “Remove From Cart” button from the “Continue” button to prevent clicking the wrong one, causing a full or partial emptying of the cart. Such problems of use will almost certainly cause immediate cart abandonment from frustration.
Adding to, changing, or removing articles from the shopping cart should be made as easy as possible. For articles available in different colors, sizes, or with any other options, the ability to make changes is especially important.
Be sure to include a link back to the product being purchased. Many customers are uncertain if the often complicated product number is the correct one. Linking the catalogue number back to the product page reassures the buyer that the entered product code matched the desired purchase. Simply knowing that the right item was entered into the order form will reassure the customer.
Adding a thumbnail image of the product to the shopping basket will also improve the rate of completion. While in the middle of the buying process, the potential purchaser has another opportunity to see the product and visualize ownership. The availability of product photos is a powerful completion tool for all shopping carts.
Next: Making the products easy, risk free, and secure to buy >>
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