Sustainability trends in retail
September 2023
You’ve got your shopper to the purchase stage. They’ve clicked the Buy Now button.
Your shoppers can go two ways from here – follow through with the purchase of their selected goods and proceed through your checkout. Alternatively, they can opt-out from the sale.
There’s lots you can do to significantly reduce cart abandonments and maximise conversions, and we’re going to show you how.
eCommerce makes it so easy for consumers to browse, conduct research, compare prices and products, and explore gift options. The SAP Consumer Propensity Study found that 46% of Australian shoppers use online carts to compare prices with other brands and websites. Cart abandonment may not necessarily be a problem with your website, products or business.
But what if it is?
This same study found that on average 57% of Australian online shoppers discarded their carts sometimes or all the time. Cart abandonment jumps to 67% for fashion and 65% for furniture. Check for the statistics for cart abandonment worldwide in your industry.Let’s have a look at the top four reasons for cart abandonment and how your business can overcome them:
Most shoppers are wary about giving their personal data online. Allow customers to checkout as guests. With increasing awareness over security and privacy, users are hesitant to provide personal information, especially if they are first time buyers.
Could this work for your business?
By giving customers the option to checkout as a guest and not have to set up an account, gives them one less reason to abandon cart. You will have collected enough information from them to finalise the sale.
If you require an account set up, capture only the necessary information about your shopper. Just ask for the absolute minimum information to progress the sale. You may be able to collect more information at a later stage.
Use trust points to ease their hesitancy of providing personal data. At this stage show a link to your privacy policy and use the trust symbol of your online security provider. This may provide them with the comfort they need to hand over their personal data.
Most shoppers are aware there are costs associated with ecommerce purchases. However, it can be the surprise element of unexpected costs that catch out shoppers.
Here’s some solutions:
If your competitors offer free delivery, it may be worthwhile looking at offering free delivery too. There are alternatives to offering free delivery to all of your customers, all the time. You can offer free shipping to customers who have abandoned their carts, have a monthly free shipping day or offer free shipping over certain order thresholds. For government taxes and fees that are unavoidable, make sure you have communicated these charges up front. This helps shoppers to mentally budget and add the extra charges when shopping.
While a lot of your delivery schedule is at the hands of your delivery supplier, there are lots of other ways to improve delivery.
Consider these:
One simple way is to offer shoppers quicker delivery at an extra cost.
Look at your internal fulfilment processes, could these be improved to get the goods out of your warehouse quicker? How about investigating other courier companies or look at external fulfilment companies to speed up the process - this is a competitive market and practices change often.
Are the delivery estimates on your website true? It might be time to check how quickly delivery is happening and adjust your estimates to reflect this. If you cannot improve your delivery schedule, advise your visitors earlier in the buyer journey.
It’s time to test and modify your checkout process. Have you ever measured how long it takes to complete your checkout process? Is it too complicated or capturing information that is not necessary for the sale?
Tips for a smooth checkout:
Strip it back to the bare minimum to keep your buyer engaged during the purchase stage. Don’t lose their attention during checkout.
Provide a mobile optimised checkout process. With over 72.9% of all ecommerce sales made on a mobile, ensure it is easy for buyers to complete your checkout process on their smart device.
Does your checkout offer the right payment options? A 2021 survey revealed around 74% of Australian consumers were likely to make a purchase from a website that accepts PayPal payments, with 44% from websites offering BNPL.
Only 8% of shoppers will return to make a purchase if you do nothing. However, it’s not all bad news – add in a powerful abandoned cart email or a retargeting digital campaign and this figure jumps to 18%.This is the time to acknowledge they have returned and welcome them back with open arms.
Flash a free delivery offer – or a discount code voucher. Add a time limit on the coupon to bring a sense of urgency and keep their focus on finalising the purchase. This could just be the nudge they need to get them to buy.
Woo them with customer service – provide clear ways for them to contact you in the case their original reason for cart abandonment is still an issue. Email contact details, FAQs or providing a live chat gives them the opportunity to ask questions to clear up any issues.
Offer a range of payment finance options for your audience. With credit card issues expected to fall 21.2% in 2020-21, what happens when your customer does not have enough money available for their shopping?
What about finance that offers customisable terms to your customers seeking BNPL convenience?
etika Interest Free Finance lets your business and your customers choose the instalment amounts and/or the duration of the finance - customisable finance offers to suit your products and to give their customers fairer and flexible finance.
Our client, mattress.com.au, uses etika Interest Free Finance to create a customised BNPL offering to help their customers buy a mattress that matches their budget.
Early in their buying journey, their customers can see the monthly repayment amounts for each mattress spread over 12 months. They can easily and quickly shop for their choice of mattress that fits within their spend.
How can your business qualify your customers up front by offering a more fitting Interest Free Finance option?
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