Say goodbye to WooCommerce abandoned carts
Ok, so you can never really say goodbye to abandoned carts. It will always be an issue for e-commerce owners.
It’s a big problem that’s faced by e-commerce stores all over the world. The average cart abandonment rate sits between 68-97% dependent on the industry. The average abandonment rate? An eye-watering 88.05% (Source)
What is cart abandonment?
Cart abandonment is when a customer adds products to their basket but then leaves the website without completing their purchase. So if an item is added to the basket, but the user never makes it to completing the transaction, this is considered cart abandonment.
It is the biggest reason for loss of revenue for online retailers and when you consider the average abandonment rates for 2020, it starts to become clear that optimising this one process can make a huge impact on your profit margins.
Why do customers abandon their shopping cart?
It’s a complex answer as there can be a multitude of reasons and not the same will apply to all store owners.
However, some of the more common reasons for cart abandonment include unexpected shipping costs, being forced to create a new account during checkout, long or confusing checkout pages, lack of trust and the list goes on.
How to reduce WooCommerce cart abandonment rates?
The list below applies to all e-commerce platforms however the reason we’ve specifically mentioned WooCommerce is that it’s our platform of choice, and it’s the one that’s mostly used worldwide.
In fact, over 35% of all websites in the world are powered by WordPress. And all of those that have some form of online store, are using WooCommerce.
So, what can you do as a store owner to reduce cart abandonment rates and increase your checkout conversions? Here are our top 10 recommendations:
1. Don’t force users to create an account during checkout
If a customer wants to create an account, they will. However, it’s surprising to see so many online stores still force customers to create an account before proceeding.
This is an easy way to make users leave and it’s one of the quickest and easiest changes you can make on your website.
2. Include a progress indicator on your checkout page
We get it. Sometimes there’s more than one page. It might be because you need to collect quite a few pieces of details and that’s cool.
But let your customers see where they are in the checkout process. We’ve seen checkout pages that have 6 subpages. This is not cool.
3. Better still, offer a one-page checkout
Ideally, if you can, offer your customers a one-page checkout page so they can see everything in one go. In WooCommerce this isn’t the default, but it’s certainly something you can do. More information on that further down.
4. Offer multiple payment options
Everyone has their own preference. Some people to pay on card, others prefer PayPal and some might prefer interest free finance options such as Klarna.
So even if the transaction rates are different, you should strive to be flexible in the number of payment options you provide customers during checkout.
5. Offer express checkout options
Express checkout options are a fantastic way to increase your checkout conversion rates. Why? Because they don’t require the customer to enter all their details.
Let’s take PayPal as an example. If you have an account, then you’ve already got all your details saved. So when a customer decides to checkout using PayPal express, PayPal will fill in all the customer’s details for them
The end result is the customer didn’t have to spend any time filling in their details, and you as an e-commerce owner had all the fields filled in for you. Bonus right? If you’re wondering how to do this in WooCommerce, make sure to continue reading.
6. Provide some form of address autocomplete
Not everyone is going to make use of express checkout options and that’s understandable. However, if that’s not an option for the customer you should still make the checkout page intuitive to use.
One such way of doing this is by using some form of address autocomplete. You’ve seen it before. You start to type your address and it automatically populates the addresses. It’s simple for the customer, it’s quick, and it prevents data errors during checkout. Win-win.
7. Include additional information on the checkout page
Additional information could be bullet points for why they should choose you as a retailer, useful links or other information that may be worthwhile such as delivery times or trust seals.
8. Offer the ability for coupon codes to easily be entered
Most e-commerce owners market their products and services online and when they do, it’s not uncommon for coupon/discount codes to be shared to try and increase sales.
However, it’s a bit frustrating for the customer when they can’t work out where to enter this during checkout. It should be easily visible without the need to dig around looking for hidden tabs and options.
Make sure if you offer coupons to your customers, that they are easy to enter during checkout.
9. Make the checkout process fast, like really fast
Nobody likes a webpage that is slow to load. In fact, bounce rates are particularly high once a webpage takes more than 3 seconds to load. Couple this with the cart abandonment rates and it starts to become a losing battle.
So be sure that if there is one part of your website that doesn’t slow down due to unnecessary scripts, its your checkout page
10. Make the checkout page modern and easy on the eye
The problem with a lot of checkout pages, especially on WordPress/WooCommerce based websites, is that it’s the one page that’s overlooked.
All the focus goes into the theme design for the main pages and completely overlooks the checkout page. However, the checkout page is crucial.
Get the design wrong and you simply won’t get sales. Design it to be modern, easy on the eye, i.e. clean and you’ll find your checkout conversions increase dramatically. Keep reading to discover an easy way to achieve this in any WooCommerce setup.
Bonus Tip to Reduce Cart Abandonment in WooCommerce
Did you know everything we have mentioned above is available in WooCheckout? WooCheckout does everything mentioned above and more. Find out more about WooCheckout.
