Preventing Shopping Cart Abandonment

It's no secret that online shoppers can be extremely fickle.

Internet research group Jupiter found that 54% of Internet shoppers have abandoned an online store before completing a purchase.

Customer's top reasons for leaving a store in the middle of a transaction include:

• Concerns about the product or delivery time
  
• Concerns about customer service and warranty
  
• Lack of information or confusion about the product offer
  
• Frustration over the checkout process

When setting up an online store, consider the following tips:

• Provide extensive 'pre-sales' information such as frequently asked questions (FAQs) and 'how to' information.
  
  
• Offer a toll-free sales support number.
  
  
• Avoid a long and tedious customer registration process. Forcing visitors to fill out page after page of information gives them greater motivation to leave your site.
  
  
• Avoid disputes over your purchasing policy by making all information regarding returns, refunds, warranty and shipping clear on your site.
  
  
• Emphasize the fact that you've taken the necessary steps to protect all sensitive information (e.g. credit card data) through secure encryption.
  
  
• Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or customize their order (i.e. colour, size, accessories, etc).
  
  
• Show customers where they are in the checkout progress by indicating the number of steps involved.
  
  
• Make shipping costs clear and avoid trying to make a profit on shipping. If customers feel your shipping costs are too high, a big percentage will abandon their cart.

In addition to accepting credit cards, offer other payment options like PayPal, bank transfer and cheque.