It happens in supermarkets, malls, and other stalls, so it’s not surprising that shopping cart abandonment often happens in online stores as well. So how do you keep your customers from walking away without completing their purchase?
Setting up an online store isn’t always easy. Aside from ensuring that everything is functioning well to provide an excellent shopping experience for your customers, you also have to think of ways to keep your customers completely engaged.
Like any other business, of course, you don’t want your customers to doubt your products and totally desert their shopping cart, especially at the last minute. But why is shopping cart abandonment a problem? It’s because it simply indicates that your online business may not be credible or trustworthy enough. This can hinder you from achieving business growth.
So how do you make sure that your customers can place their confidence in what you offer and actually invest and make a purchase? Here are three great tips to make your online business work.
Give customers an actual shopping experience
People want a shopping experience that they can truly enjoy. They love going to the malls even when they are not actively looking to buy something. Why? Because the experience itself is fun. Online shopping should be no different.
The most successful online stores are constantly making improvements to their platforms and regularly checking and ensuring that everything is clear and easily accessible.
You might want to consider outsourcing web developers who can build, maintain, and customize your eCommerce site, as well as app developers to extend your services. Or perhaps, you need skilled marketers, content writers, video editors, and graphic designers to create, re-design or improve your store, adverts, banners and other collateral.
Avoid surprising your customers with cost upon checkout
Surveys reveal that most cart abandonments occur at checkout. Customers typically get surprised by shipping costs. Some stores avoid this by offering free shipping on their customer’s next purchase, or special discount codes or coupons to create a better deal for customers.
To protect your online brand, outsourcing some of your eCommerce support services like live chat can be a great strategy. Outsourced sales and operational team members can assist your customers in real-time, providing them with all the details and offers with no surprises. They keep your customers satisfied and help your business to remain up to date, answering questions and addressing concerns that your customers may have when visiting your online store.
Maintain a healthy and high-performance website
Many online businesses are able to grow and scale because they’ve invested heavily in their website. A website with a user-friendly interface attracts potential customers that can become your loyal customers.
However, no matter how eye-catching or well laid out your site is if it’s not thoroughly maintained or tested, bugs may arise which can affect your customers’ experience when engaging with your online business. When errors happen, your customers will most likely abandon their carts, switch to your competitor’s site, and decide to spend their money on their products instead of yours.
Again, the development of an eCommerce platform is a critical factor for the success of online businesses. It’s essential to perform regular thorough checks and reviews in order to spot defects and to ensure that issues are being fixed promptly. This helps reduce the possibility of cart abandonment from your customers.
Looking for an outsourcing partner for your eCommerce business?
Cloudstaff has more than 10 years of experience helping global businesses set up offshore support teams and understands every aspect of the eCommerce industry—from site builds, to procurement, payment processing, and logistics.
We encourage customers to let our professional recruitment team find them the right person for their specific roles. Whether you need to outsource web development, web design, or marketing roles, Cloudstaff can provide you with experts who can help you drive growth and expand your eCommerce operations.