How many of your customers are leaving your ecommerce site halfway through checking out? That’s potential income rolling out the door. What makes it worse is that many consumers who have abandoned payment on a site will not return. They’ve lost trust for some reason, and it will take enormous effort and cost to change their minds. The hard work you’ve done, nurturing them through the funnel, evaporates like mist before the sun.
Before we delve into reasons this might be happening, let’s distinguish between cart abandonment and customers leaving your ecommerce site while checking out. Cart abandonment occurs during the shopping process. Checkout abandonment happens after the customer has initiated the payment process. They might just have filled in their card details or personal information and stopped there. They fail to authenticate the transaction, or they don’t enter their CVV numbers.
The average checkout completion rate – the percentage of users who complete their purchases – is 47%. Anything above 62.6% puts you in the top twenty per cent of ecommerce stores. Anything below thirty per cent puts you in the bottom 20%. So, the top ecommerce stores have quick, smooth, and efficient payment processes. The bottom ones should look at their payment options, delivery and return policies, form fields etc.
CTA’s – Calls to Action!
The acronym speaks for itself. Good CTAs should result in shoppers doing precisely what you ask them to. Buy Now, Add to Cart, Place an Order, Claim Voucher, or Checkout are examples of CTAs. They each fulfil a different function and should not look the same. The user should also not look to find them. They must appear at the right time, place and almost seamlessly. Choose different colour schemes to distinguish them from one another. The size, colour, positioning and formatting of your CTAs affect the customer’s choice to either buy something or not. You’ll find practical tips to create revenue-generating CTAs in this blog.
Did you know that the placement of your CTA will affect conversion rates? See what a difference it can make in the chart below.
| Sidebar | 0.5 – 1.5 % |
| Generic, bottom of the post | 0.5 – 1.5 % |
| Exit-intent pop-ups | 1 – 8% |
| Sliders and bars | 1 – 5% |
| Gated resources | 10 – 25% |
| Feature sections | 3 – 9 % |
| Navigation bar | varies |
Simplify forms
Just ask for the information you absolutely need to complete the payment or purchase, and nothing else. Offer auto-completion of forms, and make sure your site is optimised for mobile. Avoid asking the same questions twice. If the user’s billing and shipping addresses are the same, let them only complete it once.
No hidden costs
Nothing breaks trust like surprises. If there are shipping costs involved, state them as early as possible. Consider listing shipping costs and taxes with individual items on your website. Also, ensure that you show the total cart value throughout the shopping process.
Multiple payment options
Losing business because you don’t offer various payment options is silly. Understandably, merchants prefer payment options that are beneficial to them. The transaction charges might be less, or you might derive other benefits from using the particular card scheme. Remember, savings on transaction charges only occur when the transaction happens. A percentage of nothing is still nothing. Consumers might support card schemes offering loyalty points for every purchase or offer air miles and cashbacks. Think of your customers first here. Visa and Mastercard are no longer the only options available in the marketplace. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and digital wallets have grown tremendously. Many shoppers prefer these payment methods on mobile because it is quick, easy, safe and seamless.
It is also something you should consider when choosing a payment provider. Truevo offers all the most popular payment options, across multiple channels, in 150 currencies. To get started with faster payments, easy set-up and complete security, speak to us today. We can’t wait to do ecommerce with you.
