5 Ways to Improve Your eCommerce Cart Experience

1. Allow Customers To Check Out as a Guest

Look at what top websites like Amazon and Groupon and heading toward. They are all trying to implement one-click shopping where customers can order whatever they want without having to add a ton of information to their systems. They know that if you just have to hit the buy button, you’re more likely to be impulsive and order something you don’t need. The longer your process is, the more likely your customers are going to talk themselves out of the purchase.

Allowing your customers to check out as guests is one way to reduce the friction that comes with making a purchase. Creating an account makes them complete an extra step that gives them time to reconsider.

Furthermore, your customers are likely to already have countless passwords and accounts with other websites, the last thing they want it to add your website to their long list of registered accounts. Almost 30 percent of customers said they abandoned a purchase because they didn’t want to register with a website.

We understand that you want your customers to create accounts so you can learn about them and market to them better. Instead, suggest they create an account after they check out or send an email suggesting they complete the process a day or two later. Provide an incentive with a coupon or package tracking.

2. Be Upfront About Shipping Costs

When asked why customers abandoned their carts before making a purchase, 28 percent said it was because of unexpected shipping costs. Many customers are used to Amazon Prime shipping levels where they receive their items in two days without paying any extra costs. While they understand that your company doesn’t necessarily have that infrastructure, they also don’t want to get blindsided by shipping charges at the end of the process.

First, make your shipping offers clear on your homepage. If every package ships for $5, display the offer in a banner so your customers can mentally add $5 to their total estimated orders. If you ship orders over $50 for free, advertise it as an incentive to add more to the cart.

Once your customer is on the page, include a total cost estimate that shows shipping and even tax. Your customers might be trying to stay under a certain budget with their final costs, and this lets them know what they should expect. This way they don’t check out thinking the order will cost $45 and then realize shipping and tax brings it closer to $60.

3. Test Single-Page Checkout Processes

Few companies can do one-step checkout, but more are testing the viability of a single-page checkout. Historically, customers have loaded separate pages for the cart, shipping address, billing, and payment. With each newly loaded page, customers had opportunities to bounce — or experience problems with page loading and completion. Instead, consider hosting the entire process on one page.

The customer will either fill everything out at once or select drop-down tabs to complete as they move from one section to another. By testing this option, you can also see what a factor technical difficulties play in your sales and customer conversion rates.

If you’re not in a place where you can adjust your conversion pages into one condensed page, consider adding a completion bar above the fold that shows customers how far they have to go until they’re done. Filling out the personal information is the least fun part of shopping and you don’t want to prolong it if you can.

4. Autofill

You’re already winning by giving your customers a quick form to fill out, now you can make their process even easier by utilizing autofill settings.

Autofill was created to reduce the frustrations of filling out names, addresses, and even credit card information over and over again on different websites.

From a social media standpoint, autofill forms increased conversion rates by almost 200 percent.

While the results are certainly lower for brands that require personal information like credit card numbers and addresses, autofill can quickly increase your conversions by making customers think less.

With the right autofill settings, your customers could almost completely have the checkout forms done within a few seconds. It’s the closest your website could come to a one-click checkout process. Autofill also reduces the time your customers have to reconsider their purchase and decide to bounce until another time — or not make the purchase at all.

5. Set Up Abandoned Cart Email Triggers

Abandoned cart emails that are triggered three hours after the consumer bounces have an average 40 percent open rate and 20 percent click through rate. 

Remember, 55 percent of customers said they bounced because they weren’t ready to make the purchase at the time. They might have been browsing at work or looking for items on the train during their commute. Neither of these are ideal times to convert, but they’re probably ready to buy once they get home.

These emails can highlight the items the customer abandoned, offer a coupon or shipping offer to sweeten the deal or feature other items they might want as a pairing or an alternative. These emails can address possible concerns and reasons for bouncing, from price to product. Once the customer clicks through, make sure they end up at a useful landing page — like the product page of the item they added — and that your website remembers their items in the cart. The last thing you want is for your customers to start the search process all over again.