- Abandoned shopping carts: introduction
- Potential Reaseond For Shopping Cart Abandonment
- Google Ads Remarketing Campaigns As A Way To Fight Shopping Cart Abandonment
- Abandoned Shopping Carts: The Takeaway
Abandoned shopping carts: introduction
Issues related to shopping cart abandonment definitely give many online store owners sleepless nights. The term refers to a situation when users start the shopping process, add new products to the shopping cart but instead of finalizing the transactions decide to leave the store. Sounds familiar? Don’t worry, most online stores face a similar problem. According to research conducted by Baymard Institute, as many as 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned. What are the reasons behind this phenomenon?Potential reasons for shopping cart abandonment
There are a number of potential reasons for shopping cart abandonment, thus, we decided to group them into three categories.Issues with your website and UX
1. Too long and complex shopping path Start with basics which involve analyzing what a potential customer faces when visiting your store. Ensure that your website navigation and subsequent stages of the purchasing process are clear, intuitive, and simplified. Nothing should unnecessarily distract users from finalizing the transaction. It’s particularly worth monitoring issues such as:- Shopping cart: is it visible throughout the shopping process? Does it show the actual number of products added? Is it possible to save the shopping cart and continue shopping later on?
- Progress bar: informs users about the current stage of the shopping process. Thanks to it, buyers see the progress and are able to estimate how long it’ll take to finalize the transaction. Additionally, users get the message that they’re almost at the end of the shopping path which can further motivate them to place the order.
Tip: If you aren’t sure whether your website navigation is user-friendly, you can take advantage of various tools that track user behavior in your online store. Thanks to it, you’ll be able to determine the exact moment when people leave your page.
2. Too long website loading time
Too long website loading time is a frequent oversight on the part of page owners. Remember that users having to wait for your website to load too long quickly become impatient and decide to leave.
Monitor and test the loading speed of your website and all its subpages on a regular basis. It translates directly into bounce rate and conversion rate. For this purpose, you can benefit from Google PageSpeed Insights that measures page loading time. It’s also worth using Google Analytics to analyze when users leave your page. Check if the factors and stages aren’t the same.
Learn how to decrease website loading time from our entry: How to reduce website loading time? 10 useful tips.
3. Page isn’t mobile-friendly
Every website should be created with the mobile-friendliness principle in mind. More and more potential customers search for and buy products via mobile devices.
[caption id="attachment_40481" align="aligncenter" width="750"]4. Too high price
Customers are constantly trying to find the finest offers. Therefore, no one should be surprised that price comparison sites are gaining popularity. Thus, the possibility to buy the same product at a more attractive price can be another reason for shopping cart abandonment. Remember to regularly analyze the product ranges of your market rivals and try to outdo them. Consider applying so-called exit-intent popups that appear whenever users want to leave your page. They inform about extra discounts or special offers given in exchange for performing a particular action such as signing up for a newsletter. Providing such a benefit may convince potential customers to stay on the website and continue shopping.Sales process
1. Shipping Delivery issues may be of utmost importance when it comes to shopping cart abandonment. Similar to product prices, potential customers juxtapose shipping offers of various online stores. Too high shipping costs can undoubtedly deter many buyers. In this situation, it’s also worth noting that if you can’t decrease the price of the product because of its nature, it’s always a good idea to slightly reduce delivery costs in order to encourage potential buyers to finalize the transaction. Consider introducing free shipping over a certain amount or discounts for regular customers. It’s a great idea to organize free delivery days. It’s also worth offering fast shipping (within 24h) to additionally attract users.Remember that information on shipping costs should always be clearly visible on the site - there’s nothing worse than hidden costs displayed suddenly when placing the order.
2. Obligation to create an account when shopping
It’s definitely not the best idea.
Users may feel discouraged when they see that setting up an account is obligatory to finalize the transaction.
First of all, many customers aren’t eager to register as they don’t want to provide their personal data and receive spam messages from the store. Second of all, such a registration significantly prolongs the purchase process which may deter users from continuing.
“Time is money” - at this point we’ll also refer to the issues mentioned above, simplify the purchasing process.
Allow users to make one-time payments that require providing only essential personal data needed for shipping. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should completely give up the account creation option. Give users the choice: shopping without registration or with registration (that indicates benefits offered to persons willing to set up an account in your store).
[caption id="attachment_40483" align="aligncenter" width="750"]Google Ads remarketing campaigns as a way to fight shopping cart abandonment
Remarketing campaigns: what are they and how do they work?
Remarketing campaigns can be created both in the search network (ad texts) and in the ad network (graphics). They aim at displaying ads to people who have already come across your website. Thanks to them, you can reach users who bought something in the past, visited a particular subpage, or added a product to the shopping cart but didn’t place the order. Their operation principle is very simple and can be described in the following way. Users enter your website and cookies are installed in their browser. Then, they leave your website and browse another one. In the meantime, your remarketing ad is displayed to them and reminds them about your brand and offer. In the end, users go back to your website, finalize transactions and convert. Remarketing campaigns are extremely effective thanks to the fact that they’re aimed at users who have already had contact with your brand. Consequently, you have the possibility to precisely personalize subsequent messages displayed to them. At this stage, there’s a real opportunity to shape the decision-making attitude of your potential customers. However, it needs to be borne in mind that starting remarketing campaigns requires combining Google Ads and Google Analytics. A special code that makes it possible to enroll potential customers into the remarketing list is placed on the website. The limit of records on the remarketing list is another necessary condition that needs to be met. For search engine campaigns, it’s 1,000 users, while for ad network campaigns, it’s 100.Remarketing campaign targeting based on the audience
As with other advertising campaigns, Google gives you a wide range of possibilities to target your ads to various recipients with the use of remarketing lists. Everything depends on the objective you want to achieve. Consequently, you can choose:- Abandoned cart remarketing
- Subpage remarketing
- Remarketing for users who bought something in the past