Please don’t go – how to help reduce basket abandonment

Anyone who runs an eCommerce site will know that basket abandonment is a major concern for retailers across all different sectors and when you consider that the risk of a shopper abandoning their planned purchase at the checkout is as high as 70%, it is clear that you have to make your shopping experience as user-friendly as possible.

A key focus of your website design and development requirements has to be about ensuring your site is optimised to help minimise the prospect of an online shopper leaving your site without completing their purchase.

Why does it happen so often?

There are plenty of potential issues that can all be a deciding factor in causing basket abandonment to be higher than you want it to be. One of the most fundamental aspects of your eCommerce site is to make it as easy as possible for each customer to complete their purchase with the minimum of fuss. If you are asking each customer to jump through too many hoops before they actually make the purchase it is going to put some of them off and risks abandonment, and a lost sale.

One prime example of a function that puts buyers off is when you ask the customer to create an account. Offering a guest checkout option helps keep the process shorter if they don’t want to enter too much personal information.

No hidden surprises

It is definitely better to display the total price a customer will pay when they get to the checkout. Hidden fees and added extras that only appear when they get to the checkout are a major cause of basket abandonment.

Make sure they trust your site

Although the vast majority of consumers are now entirely comfortable with making online purchases that doesn’t mean they don’t have trust issues about how secure a site is. Ensuring that you have all the right security certifications and displaying them prominently around your site is a great way of building an element of trust. If a customer can see that all the right verification and security logos are across your eCommerce site it can help provide the sort of reassurance that reduces the risk of basket abandonment.

The reality is that you will not completely eliminate the issue of basket abandonment but there are plenty of positive steps to help improve the rate of completed purchases, and that has to be good news for your bottom line. Get in touch to find out how to enhance your website design and give customers the right buying signals and a brilliant shopping experience.