An article from last Friday’s San Fransisco Chronicle entitled More shoppers thinking twice in the checkout line raised some interesting observations and benchmarks about shopping cart abandonment – both online and in stores.
First, there are a handful of recurring (and potentially avoidable) reasons for abandonment.
- Unmet discount expectations set by unclear promotions – Avoid this by making sure the claims you make and promotions that you run in market are worded clearly. If the offer requires a lot of fine print, its setting customers up for dissappointment.
- Sticker shock during price check – Allow the user to watch their total throughout the shopping experience, and dynamically recommend lower-priced alternatives that they may have missed when they choose to remove an item from their cart.
- Discovering undisclosed charges – Just don’t do it. It’s 2009, and customers expect better.
To counter increased abandonment rates online, real companies everywhere are employing a slew of tactics.
The Container Store has seen an online abandonment rate as high as 68 percent. Their responses have included:
- Automated e-mails to remind shoppers of items in their carts
- In-store pickup toavoid shipping costs.
SkyMall.com cut its abandonment rate to 49 percent from 56 percent by
- Streamlining checkout
- Sending e-mail reminders
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/21/financial/f032521D82.DTL#ixzz0PDIE8CcW
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