The average conversion rate for e-commerce websites is 2%, which means that the vast majority of customers don’t make a purchase.As many as 10-20% of your unique visitors will place an item in their shopping cart, but leave before closing the deal.
Below are the main reasons people abandon shopping carts:
- Unexpected or high shipping costs
- Total cost of purchase more than expected
- Comparison shopping
- Product was out of stock or didn’t want to wait
- Checkout process was too complicated
You can take steps to improve your checkout process and convert many more of these visitors. By simplifying checkout and shipping options, you could see your conversion rate increase by 50% or more.
Below are a few quick tips to reduce your shopping cart abandonment rates:
- Offer free or flat-rate shipping
- Post your guarantee or return policy clearly on your website
- Post your toll-free phone number on your website and shopping cart pages
- Consolidate the checkout process to as few screens as possible
- Use real-time inventory and show quantity on hand on product information pages
It’s also a good idea to do usability testing on your website. There are a lot of inexpensive tools available that will record users’ responses and even where they looked on your pages. They can provide a lot of insight into why visitors are leaving.